Data Engineer II
Zoro US
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!
Primary Function
As a Data Engineer II at Zoro, you will help shape how data flows across the company, developing and optimizing modern pipelines, curated data products, and data services that power everything from analytics to applications to downstream integrations. You’ll bring a spirit of software craftsmanship to data engineering: writing clean, maintainable code, designing strong data models, and delivering data in multiple usable forms — whether that’s analytical tables, APIs, or outbound streams.
This is a role for someone with a strong foundation in data engineering who’s excited to grow into data-intensive application engineering — building services, APIs, and domain-based data products that make Zoro’s data not just available, but easy and impactful to use. You will play a critical role in expanding and refining our domain-oriented data products and services, fueling analytics, machine learning, and operational decision-making.
This role will be based out of our Chicago HQ and will have an onsite requirement of 2 days a week.
Duties and Responsibilities
- Data Pipeline Development: Build and optimize modern pipelines that serve as a single source of truth, powering analytical datasets, outbound streams, and service endpoints that downstream teams can rely on with confidence.
- Data Integration: Collaborate with engineers and cross-functional partners to integrate internal systems, third-party APIs, and external datasets, ensuring consistency, reliability, and business value.
- Data Modeling: Design and implement domain-based data models (e.g., product, sales, supplier, customer, fulfillment, web events) that are scalable, intuitive, and enable rich insights across the business.
- APIs & Data Services: Contribute to building data APIs and microservices that make curated data easily accessible to internal teams and external partners, supporting both analytical and application use cases.
- Software Craftsmanship: Apply engineering best practices — writing clean, testable, maintainable code with CI/CD, version control, and observability to deliver resilient, production-ready systems.
- Performance Tuning: Continuously improve query efficiency, data models, and services to ensure reliability and performance at scale.
- Data Governance: Champion best practices in data security, privacy, and compliance, embedding governance into every solution.
- Documentation: Create and maintain clear, practical documentation for pipelines, APIs, and data models, ensuring solutions are easy to use and extend.
- Learning & Development: Stay current with modern data engineering and software development practices, bringing new tools, patterns, and ideas that raise the bar for engineering excellence at Zoro.
Qualifications
- Education: Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Applied Mathematics, Engineering, or related field, or equivalent practical experience.
- Experience: 3–5 years of experience in data engineering, software development, or a related field, with exposure to data-intensive applications.
Technical Skills
- Programming Proficiency: Strong foundation in writing clean, maintainable code. Proficient in SQL and at least one general-purpose programming language (Python preferred; functional programming concepts).
- Data Modeling: Knowledge of designing and implementing data models and architectures; interest in developing domain-based modeling practices.
- Cloud Platforms: Hands-on experience with at least one cloud platform (GCP preferred; AWS/Azure acceptable).
- Data Pipelines: Experience building and maintaining batch pipelines, with exposure to streaming frameworks (Pub/Sub, Kafka, Spark Streaming, etc.).
- Data Quality & Testing: Familiar with data validation, automated testing, and monitoring; applying best practices for ensuring data reliability.
- APIs & Microservices: Some experience (or strong interest) in designing or supporting data APIs and microservices beyond traditional pipelines.
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.
The pay range provided is not a guarantee of compensation. The range listed reflects the expected base pay for this position at the time of posting, based on the role's job grade. Actual compensation may vary depending on factors such as location, relevant experience and individual qualifications.
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.