Company Summary

Zoro.com is a leading eCommerce platform offering nearly 12 million tools, parts and supplies for our business customers. Launched in 2011, we brought a B2C-like experience to the B2B industry, and continue to be at the forefront of digital innovation at the intersection of technology and distribution. We have rapidly grown to over $1 billion in annual revenue and we’re just getting started!

Job Summary

As a Senior Engineering Manager on Zoro’s Foundational Engineering team, you'll provide strategic and tactical leadership to foundational platform services, ensuring technical excellence, reliability, and scalability. You’ll maintain Senior Software Engineer-level technical proficiency and occasionally contribute directly to high-impact engineering tasks, particularly around software quality and testing.

Duties and Responsibilities: 

  • Strategic Vision and Technical Leadership:
    • Set and execute strategic technical direction, emphasizing robust, scalable, and thoroughly tested foundational services compliant with industry standards (PCI/SOX/NIST).
    • Maintain hands-on technical expertise, contributing strategically to critical engineering tasks and projects.
    • Mentor team members in helping to resolve technical challenges and promoting best practices in software quality and testing.
    • Ensure predictable, timely, and high-quality delivery of large-scale engineering initiatives through strategic planning, prioritization, and alignment with organizational goals and capacities.
  • People Leadership and Team Development:
    • Lead and mentor one or more engineering teams, nurturing a culture of technical excellence, inclusivity, and continuous improvement.
    • Provide clear, actionable feedback and growth opportunities, promoting engineering best practices and rigorous testing standards.
  • Operational Excellence:
    • Champion process and tooling improvements, driving efficiency and minimizing technical debt through enhanced testing and operational practices.
    • Ensure alignment of team capacity management and team initiatives with organizational priorities.
    • Own and manage platform-related infrastructure costs and third-party tool contracts, ensuring leadership understands the cost/value proposition of various aspects of team spending.
  • Cross-functional Collaboration:
    • Collaborate closely with Architecture, Product Engineering, and Data Engineering teams to align on technical strategy, execution, and outcomes.
    • Facilitate effective communication and decision-making across diverse stakeholders.
    • Drive sound technical leadership decisions by communicating technical strategies and project statuses to technology leadership and stakeholders; adapting to the technical-level of a given audience and raising that level where possible through education and explanation.
  • Incident Management and Reliability:
    • Oversee proactive monitoring, incident response, and systemic improvements, emphasizing comprehensive testing and reliability engineering.
    • Participate in enterprise-wide on-call rotation, leading engineers in addressing critical issues that occur in real-time.
    • Drive the root cause analysis process to identify and address problems that cause unexpected incidents. Mentor and assist more junior managers in their RCA’s where necessary.

Minimum Qualifications

  • Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science or equivalent practical experience.
  • 8+ years of software engineering experience, including at least 4 years in engineering leadership roles.
  • Proven ability to drive large-scale foundational engineering initiatives, aligning closely with business objectives and compliance requirements.
  • Deep technical expertise with cloud-native infrastructure, distributed systems architecture, Infrastructure as Code, and container orchestration.
  • Demonstrated proficiency at a senior software engineering level, directly contributing to complex, strategically critical technical initiatives.
  • Experience implementing rigorous testing frameworks and reliability practices across large-scale platform services.
  • Exceptional leadership and mentorship skills, with a proven record of developing engineering leaders and fostering high-performing, inclusive teams.
  • Strong strategic communication and stakeholder management skills, able to articulate technical vision and translate complex strategies to various audiences, including senior business stakeholders.

Preferred Qualifications

  • Advanced degree (Master’s or equivalent) in a technical field.
  • Experience leading internal platform engineering teams responsible for improving company-wide developer productivity and operational reliability.
  • Significant involvement in strategic organizational technology planning, budgeting, and resource allocation decisions.
  • Active participation in senior technical leadership communities, demonstrating ongoing contributions and recognized expertise in industry forums.

Total Rewards

Zoro’s total compensation plan includes our Zoro Incentive Plan (ZIP) that is designed to foster and reward our team members for strong performance. Total compensation will be highly competitive.

In addition to competitive compensation, Zoro offers comprehensive benefits and perks including:

  • Medical, dental, vision, and life insurance plans with coverage starting on day one of employment
  • 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. We also support growing your family through access to adoption assistance program
  • 6 free sessions each year with a licensed therapist and Wellhub portal membership to support your mental and emotional wellbeing
  • At least 18 paid time off days annually for full-time employees and 6 company holidays per year
  • 6% company contribution to a 401K Retirement Savings Plan each pay period, no employee contribution required
  • Tuition reimbursement, student loan refinancing and access to financial counseling, education, and tools
  • Charitable Gift Program - match gift to an eligible educational, cultural, community health, and human service organizations
  • Employee discounts and admission to various civic and cultural institutions around Chicago
  • Zoro office perks including coffee bar, beer on tap, unlimited snacks, access to the onsite gym, and incredible city skyline views

For additional information and details regarding our benefits and our parent company, W. W. Grainger, please click on the link here.

Illinois
$136,800—$228,000 USD

Our Culture

Zoro was founded in 2011 with a simple idea: make it easy for businesses to get the tools, parts, and supplies they need to keep things running. We've grown by staying curious, moving quickly, and solving everyday challenges in smart, practical ways. Backed by W.W. Grainger and inspired by our endless assortment business model, we’re on a clear path toward our next big milestone: $2 billion in revenue—and beyond.

At Zoro, we don’t just follow a playbook—we help build it. You’ll get to work on real problems with a supportive team that shares ideas freely, learns from each other, and celebrates wins together. Our culture is grounded in values that guide how we show up every day: Winning & Learning Together, Being Customer Obsessed, Being Transparent, and Taking Ownership. We don’t have all the answers, but we’re always asking good questions.

Zoro’s culture has been recognized by Fortune, Best Places to Work, and Built In Chicago—but the recognition we care about most comes from our team members, who make this place what it is.

We also know that flexibility matters. Our hybrid work model gives you space to focus and the flexibility to live your life — asking team members to be onsite at least two days a week. Our Chicago HQ (right above Ogilvie Transportation Center in the Accenture Tower) is always open and ready for connection, collaboration, or just a good cup of coffee.

At Zoro, we’re growing fast toward big aspirations — and we’re continuously excited about the new challenges we get to solve together.

 

We are committed to equal employment opportunity regardless of race, color, ancestry, religion, sex (including pregnancy), national origin, sexual orientation, age, citizenship, marital status, disability, gender identity or expression, protected veteran status, or any other protected characteristic under federal, state, or local law. We are proud to be an equal opportunity workplace. We are also committed to fostering an inclusive, accessible work 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. Should you need a reasonable accommodation during the application and selection process, including, but not limited to use of our website, any part of the application, interview, or hiring process, please advise us so that we can provide appropriate assistance.

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