Mahesh Gunna
Chicago
Summary
Engineering leader with 19+ years of experience modernizing large-scale, cloud-native, customer-order platforms. Proven ability to lead multiple teams while driving transformational change across distributed systems, order orchestration, and API platforms. Deep background in domain-driven design, event-driven architecture, and operational excellence. Known for building strong engineering cultures, removing ambiguity, and accelerating delivery in mission-critical, high-availability domains.
Overview
18
18
years of professional experience
Work History
Senior Engineering Manager (Director Track)
W.W. Grainger
04.2019 - Current
- Lead engineering for Customer Order domain capabilities including Order Submission and Customer Expected Delivery Date (CEDD) — core, channel-agnostic APIs powering checkout, delivery promise, and order orchestration.
- Manage multiple teams, shaping team boundaries, structure, and staffing to maximize throughput, availability, and delivery predictability.
- Partner closely with product, business, and architecture leadership to shape domain strategy, define vision, and prioritize technical and roadmap investments.
- Champion modern engineering practices including automated testing, CI/CD, containerization, cloud-native patterns, and improved observability using Datadog, API Gateway analytics, and event telemetry.
- Forecast delivery timelines, proactively remove risks, and advocate for technical modernization including decomposing legacy systems, improving event-driven flows, and reducing coupling.
- Set culture of continuous learning and engineering craftsmanship—mentoring managers, raising expectations around built-in quality, and expanding design/architectural maturity across teams.
- Served as SME and core engineer on multiple enterprise initiatives, contributing deep technical expertise in distributed systems, APIs and multiple capabilities.
- Successfully promoted twice (Staff Engineer → Manager → Senior Manager) based on leadership impact and delivery outcomes.
- Improved reliability and latency across core ordering APIs used across all Grainger customer channels.
- Aligned domain strategy across identity, checkout, order submission, and delivery-promise ecosystems.
- Led the successful completion of multiple high-profile projects, ensuring timely delivery within budget constraints.
Staff Engineer / Technical Architect
Samepage Information Solutions Inc.
01.2008 - 01.2019
- Consulted for large enterprises (Grainger, BCBS, U.S. Steel, FedEx). Delivered distributed systems, APIs, and commerce capabilities using Java, Golang, Spring, Hybris, and event-driven patterns.
Education
M.S. - Computer Science
Northwest Missouri State University
B.Tech. - Computer Science & Engineering
Sree Nidhi Institute of Science and Technology
Skills
- Engineering Leadership
- Domain Ownership
- API Platforms
- Event-Driven Architecture
- Cloud & Containers
- Operational Excellence
- CI/CD
- Technical Strategy
- Roadmap Alignment
- People Management
- Observability
- Quality Engineering
Timeline
Senior Engineering Manager (Director Track)
W.W. Grainger
04.2019 - Current
Staff Engineer / Technical Architect
Samepage Information Solutions Inc.
01.2008 - 01.2019
B.Tech. - Computer Science & Engineering
Sree Nidhi Institute of Science and Technology
M.S. - Computer Science
Northwest Missouri State University