Manager Business Systems - SAP WMS

About Grainger: 

Grainger is a leading broad line distributor with operations primarily in North America, Japan and the United Kingdom. We achieve our purpose, We Keep the World Working®, by serving more than 4.5 million customers with a wide range of products that keep their operations running and their people safe. Grainger also delivers services and solutions, such as technical support and inventory management, to save customers time and money. 

We're looking for self-motivated people who can move our company forward. We have a welcoming workplace where you can build a career for yourself while fulfilling our purpose to keep the world working. We embrace new ways of thinking and recognize everyone is an individual. Find your way with Grainger today. 

At Grainger, we are building systems to extend our market leadership for another 90 years. While lots of companies talk about "digital revolutions" or "delightful experiences", we're focusing on building the stuff that matters. Our expertise is borne of a profound understanding of our customer and their needs and how our products and services do and should create value for them. Dealing with complexity and scale problems that few companies are privileged enough to enjoy. We are looking for product managers to help guide and chart a course for Grainger's enterprise systems and application development so that Grainger continues to be the destination for "the ones that get it done". 

Position Details

The Manager, Business Systems Engineering – Warehouse Management Systems is accountable for a world class enterprise technology experience in North America.  With a sound understanding of and experience working with complex business applications including both off-the-shelf and custom-developed software like SAP and industry-leading Cloud services and SaaS products, this leader ensures Grainger team members are equipped with the most relevant and effective technology capabilities to help them serve Grainger’s customers with ease and confidence.

The role supports all areas of Grainger’s business including Sales, Contact Centers, Branches, Distribution Centers & Digital channels with a primary focus on our Distribution Network (DCs and Branches).  This role provides strategic leadership and guidance to engineering managers, engineers, administrators, and architects, and provides key input to product and portfolio management processes for the Supply Chain domain.   This role will be responsible for fostering a culture of continuous improvement and innovation, bridging traditional software development practices with more modern approaches to shore up core business capabilities and enable delivery of key competitive advantage in this technology space including collaboration on emerging Product investments.

This role leads a team of 10+ employees and contractors to engineer Grainger’s technology platforms and services in collaboration with our customers, suppliers, and team members to be optimized and relevant. They will champion and influence the design and transformation of foundational business to a more effective Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) and sustainable resiliency.

The Manager, Business Systems Engineering – Warehouse Management Systems will drive the roadmap to modernize, streamline, enhance and strengthen the performance, reliability, security, and scalability of our core business applications.

You Will

• Provide strategic direction to Engineers and Engineering leaders in support of Grainger’s business objectives using measurable key results to hold team members accountable.
• Create an environment where innovation and creativity are celebrated with a strong consistent foundation in efficient and effective resilient systems.

• Coach and develop technical talent, helping to make Grainger and GTG a top-talent magnet. Achieve this through a comprehensive staffing plan, aligned with our technology roadmap to understand where we should be investing and know how to grow that talent internally. Use data to proactively forecast capacity changes in line with Portfolio/Product demand plans and ongoing support needs. Consistently raise the talent bar with Engineers and Engineering leaders and work creatively to open and fill opportunities in the organization.
• Participate, contribute, and collaborate with solution architecture leadership team in building roadmaps, building instance strategy options for future DC deployment network, and help assisting business leaders for network strategies.
• Use industry best practice metrics to monitor the health and productivity of the teams, implement improvements when necessary.
• Partner with key stakeholders to better understand how to meet customer and team member needs ensuring alignment with our core principles and strategic vision.
• Ensure teams are making design decisions that enable independent releases, support resiliency of systems, and that tradeoffs are understood and align to high-level goals.
• Ensure effective monitoring, timely and high-quality communication and alerting when service disruptions occur. Lead and coordinate large cross-functional recovery efforts for incidents (Code Red/Escalated Condition) to minimize downtime and lost revenue, when appropriate.
• Recognize achievements and inspire team members to exceed expectations with positive reinforcements.
• Demonstrate endless curiosity about the Supply Chain domain and seek growth opportunities for knowledge outside the local domain.

You Have

• 5+ years of experience managing application engineering or similar development teams.
• B.S. in Computer Science / MIS or related field
• Strong service-based experience and delivery. Experience with delivery methodologies such as Agile, Scrum & other iterative delivery approaches (Dev/Ops)
• Strong firsthand technical experience in Supply Chain IT as well as managerial experience with SAP modules EWM, Warehouse Management, Transportation and Manhattan WM as well as the corresponding deployment mechanisms and support processes. Experience deploying cloud technologies for both hosted off-the-shelf software and in-house developed applications is desired.
• Strong Experience working with warehouse industrial and operational technology, conveyance systems and other equipment management systems including automated mobile robots and their respective integration patterns with traditional WMS platforms.
• Experience working with cloud technology applications with a deeper understanding of cloud deployment methods and technical deployment options for AWS and other cloud providers.
• Possess an end-to-end understanding of core Supply Chain and Order-to-Cash (OTC) business processes and how they interact and depend on key Business Systems to perform effectively.
• Must be able to express complex technical concepts effectively, both verbally and in writing
• Demonstrated ability to motivate, mentor, coach and lead large technical teams; must be able to collaborate directly with individuals at all levels of the Company.
• Strong continuous improvement problem-solving and mentoring skills
• Ability to manage complex vendor/supplier relationships, including contract negotiation, ongoing maintenance & support, navigating contractual audits and problem-resolution.

Rewards and Benefits: 

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

• Medical, dental, vision, and life insurance plans 
• Generous paid time off (PTO) and 6 company holidays per year 
• Automatic 6% 401(k) company contribution each pay period 
• Employee discounts, parental leave, 3:1 match on donations and tuition reimbursement 
• A comprehensive set of emotional, financial, physical and social wellbeing programs 

DEI Statement 

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.