Director, Product Management - Search

Work Location Type: Hybrid 

As a leading industrial distributor with operations primarily in North America, Japan and the United Kingdom, We Keep The World Working® by serving more than 4.5 million customers worldwide with products delivered through innovative technology and deep customer relationships. With 2023 sales of $16.5 billion, we’re dedicated to providing value for customers, fostering an engaging culture for team members and driving strong financial results.

Our welcoming workplace enables you to learn, grow and make a difference by keeping businesses running and their people safe. As a 2024 Glassdoor Best Place to Work and a Great Place to Work-Certified™ company, we’re looking for passionate people to join our team as we continue leading the industry over our next 100 years.

Position Details: 

As the Search Director, you lead the creation of multiple product strategies, visions, and roadmaps for Grainger’s Search experience and powering search experiences across our ecosystem. We use the latest AI/ML innovations in ranking and recommendations, natural language understanding, and computer vision to develop best-in-class search.  

You will work with engineering, AI/ML, design, analytics, operations, finance, and the executive teams to develop Search products. You are both creative and able to work effectively in a matrix organization, can combine a variety of technologies and capabilities into products and applications, and can evangelize our vision up, down, and across the company. You are customer-focused and with experience creating successful products and services.  

You will report to the Senior Director, Group Product Manager. This is a hybrid role based out of our Chicago office. This can also be a remote role with travel to Chicago as necessary. 

This position is salaried and will pay $145,700 to $242,800.  Total compensation will include annual bonus and long-term incentive. Target total compensation will be in the range of $200,000 - $330,000.

The range provided is a guideline and not a guarantee of compensation. Other factors that are involved in offer decisions include, and are not limited to: a candidate's experience, qualifications, geographical area, and internal equity of the team.

You Will: 

• Lead a team of 3 to 5 Sr. Product Managers to build impactful products. Be passionate about developing the team, mentoring others, and elevating the product organization. 

• Define product strategy, OKRs, roadmaps, and detailed product requirements through effective stakeholder alignment, customer obsession, and strong cross-functional collaboration.  

• Be comfortable defining both long-term strategy and short-term plans to achieve the product vision, anticipating future trends and challenges.  

• Ensure flawless execution across the product life cycle from concept to launch, driving the team to evolve and scale best practices so we continue to improve.  

• Deliver well-orchestrated and timely releases, while managing risk, appropriately escalating issues, balancing tradeoffs, and clearly communicating up, down, and across. 

• Own leadership product reviews and have strong, clear strategic communication, with compelling visuals and powerful data-driven storytelling.  

• Build an end-to-end understanding of the industrial distribution business. Be a passionate advocate for the customer. Be a subject matter expert on competitors, market and industry trends, and products. 

You Have: 

• BS/BA degree in computer science, engineering, science, math, or related field. MS or MBA. 

• 10+ years of progressive leadership in product management with a track record of driving high-performing teams and building impactful products 

• Expertise in search and recommendations required, and experience with different algorithms such as semantic search, vector search, and LLMs preferred.

• Experience managing a product management team, building B2B products, managing a product or product line P&L.

• Experience in industrial distribution, preferred. 

Rewards and Benefits: 

With benefits starting day one, Grainger is committed to your safety, health and wellbeing. Our programs provide choice to meet our team members' individual needs. Check out some of the rewards available to you at Grainger. 

• Medical, dental, vision, and life insurance coverage starts day one 

• Paid time off (PTO) days and 6 company holidays per year 

• 6% 401(k) company contribution each pay period 

• Education assistance, including financial counseling, tuition reimbursement and low-cost degree options 

• Employee discounts, parental leave, and more 

We are committed to equal employment opportunity regardless of race, color, ancestry, religion, sex, national origin, sexual orientation, age, citizenship, marital status, disability, gender, gender identity or expression, or veteran status. We are proud to be an equal opportunity workplace.

We are committed to fostering an inclusive, accessible environment that includes both providing reasonable accommodations to individuals with disabilities during the application and hiring process as well as throughout the course of one’s employment.  With this in mind, should you need a reasonable accommodation during the application and selection process, please advise us so that we can provide appropriate assistance.

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