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,