Lead Software Engineer

We are seeking a talented Lead Software Engineer (Software Engineer IV) to join our Customer Information Management (CIM) team. The team’s mission is to improve the quality, accuracy, and reliability of customer address data by providing trusted address services to other internal teams. By reducing service errors and ensuring consistent address information across the application, the team helps deliver a seamless user experience wherever customers interact with address-related functionality.

You will collaborate closely with engineers, product managers, architects, stakeholders, and business partners to translate business needs into scalable technical solutions. You will lead the architecture, design, implementation, and evolution of backend services that support high volume API’s that support critical customer address capabilities across the enterprise. You will work across teams to establish integration standards, engineering best practices, and reusable platform components that improve consistency and accelerate delivery.

You will drive observability, reliability, and operational excellence initiatives by establishing monitoring, alerting, incident response, and performance optimization practices. You will identify and mitigate technical risks, influence technical strategy, evaluate emerging technologies, and contribute to the long-term roadmap of the address services platform.

As a Lead Software Engineer, you will provide technical leadership across multiple initiatives, guide architectural decisions, lead design and code reviews, mentor engineers, and foster a culture of engineering excellence, continuous improvement, and shared ownership.

This position reports to the Manager, CIM Product Engineering, and is based in Chicago.

You Will

• Lead the architecture, design, and evolution of scalable backend services and APIs.

• Drive technical strategy and influence engineering direction across multiple teams.

• Define standards for API design, distributed systems, observability, security, and reliability.

• Partner with product, architecture, platform, and leadership teams to solve complex business problems.

• Establish reusable frameworks, shared services, and engineering patterns that improve organizational productivity.

• Lead incident reviews, reliability initiatives, and technical debt reduction efforts.

• Mentor engineers and cultivate technical leadership across the organization.

• Evaluate emerging technologies and guide strategic adoption decisions.

• Champion engineering excellence through design reviews, architecture governance, and continuous improvement.

• Contribute hands-on to complex technical solutions while balancing strategic responsibilities.

• Bachelor’s Degree or equivalent experience in computer science or similar; or equivalent experience required

• 5+ years designing, building, and operating scalable software systems in production environments.

• Expert-level proficiency in Java, Spring Boot, and backend API development.

• Deep expertise in distributed systems, microservices, API-first architectures, and event-driven systems.

• Significant experience with Kafka, asynchronous messaging, and distributed data processing.

• Experience with PostgreSQL, Snowflake, Redis, and data-intensive applications.

• Strong understanding of cloud-native architectures, Kubernetes, containers, and infrastructure automation.

• Proven experience leading architecture and design for complex enterprise systems.

• Experience defining technical roadmaps and influencing architectural decisions across teams.

• Demonstrated ability to evaluate emerging technologies and drive adoption where appropriate.

• Experience with observability platforms such as Datadog.

• Deep understanding of reliability engineering, SLOs, incident management, and production support.

• Experience improving performance, scalability, availability, and resiliency of critical systems.

• Exceptional communication skills with the ability to influence engineering, product, and business stakeholders.

• Experience leading cross-functional initiatives across multiple teams.

• Proven ability to mentor engineers and develop technical leadership across the organization.

• Experience with analyzing, interpreting and communicating complex problems and practices

The anticipated base pay compensation range for this position is $134,100.00 - $223,500.00. This role is eligible for an incentive target of up to 15 %, based on the achievement of individual and company performance objectives in accordance with the current terms of the incentive program which are subject to change., With benefits starting on day one, our programs provide choice and flexibility to meet team members’ individual needs, including:

• Medical, dental, vision, and life insurance plans with coverage starting on day one of employment and 6 free sessions each year with a licensed therapist to support your emotional wellbeing.
• 18 paid time off (PTO) days annually for full-time employees (accrual prorated based on employment start date) and 6 company holidays per year.
• 6% company contribution to a 401(k) Retirement Savings Plan each pay period, no employee contribution required.
• Employee discounts, tuition reimbursement, student loan refinancing and free access to financial counseling, education, and tools.
• Maternity support programs, nursing benefits, and up to 14 weeks paid leave for birth parents and up to 4 weeks paid leave for non-birth parents.

For additional information and details regarding Grainger’s benefits, please click on the link below:

https://experience100.ehr.com/grainger/Home/Tools-Resources/Key-Resources/New-Hire

Grainger Benefits

The pay range provided above is not a guarantee of compensation. The range reflects the potential base pay for this role at the time of this posting based on the job grade for this position. Individual base pay compensation will depend, in part, on factors such as geographic work location and relevant experience and skills.

The anticipated compensation range described above is subject to change and the compensation ultimately paid may be higher or lower than the range described above.

Grainger reserves the right to amend, modify, or terminate its compensation and benefit programs in its sole discretion at any time, consistent with applicable law.

W.W. Grainger, Inc., is a leading broad line distributor with operations primarily in North America, and Japan. At Grainger, We Keep the World Working by serving more than 4.5 million customers worldwide with products and solutions delivered through innovative technology and deep customer relationships. Known for its commitment to service and award-winning culture, the Company had 2024 revenue of $17.2 billion across its two business models. In the High-Touch Solutions segment, Grainger offers approximately 2 million maintenance, repair and operating (MRO) products and services, including technical support and inventory management. In the Endless Assortment segment,Zoro.comoffers customers access to more than 14 million products, andMonotaRO.comoffers more than 24 million products. For more information, visitwww.grainger.com.