Sr. Manager Business Systems - Applications Administration

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 passionate people who can move our company forward. As one of the 100 Best Companies to Work For, 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. 

Position Details

The Sr. Manager, Business Systems - Application Administration 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, and Digital channels. This role provides strategic leadership and guidance to operations managers, engineers, and administrators, and provides key input to product and portfolio management processes for all domains.   This role will be responsible for fostering a culture of continuous improvement and innovation, bridging traditional operational practices with more modern approaches to shore up operational processes and provide world class user support.

This role leads a team of 100+ employees and contractors to support 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 Sr. Manager, Business Systems - Application Administration will drive the roadmap to modernize, streamline, enhance and strengthen the performance, reliability, security, and scalability of our operations and administrative practices.

You Will 

• Provide strategic direction to Engineers, Analysts, and Operations 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, Analyst, and Operations leaders and work creatively to open and fill opportunities in the organization.
• Participate, contribute, and collaborate with Engineering leadership team in building roadmaps and operationalizing new technology coming down the pipeline.
• 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 across all domains and seek growth opportunities for knowledge.

You Have 

• 7+ years experience managing application engineering, operations, or similar development teams.
• B.S. in Computer Science / MIS or related field a plus.
• Strong service-based experience and delivery.  Experience with delivery methodologies such as Agile, Scrum & other iterative delivery approaches (Dev/Ops), Strong understanding of ITIL practices such as Incident, Change, and Problem Management.
• Strong experience with SAP.
• Strong experience managing competing priorities across multiple stakeholder groups.
• Experience in partnering with engineering organizations to effectively address technical debt to drive better user experience and decrease ticket volume.
• 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 work 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.

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.