Content sponsored by The Home Depot
You have been with The Home Depot for over 19 years. What brought you to start a career there?
I was a Six Sigma Black Belt at General Electric and The Home Depot was looking to start a Six Sigma program. GE had successfully used Six Sigma to improve its manufacturing processes and at the time was the leader in Six Sigma. I feel my training at GE got me in the door at The Home Depot.
Tell us about roles you’ve held at The Home Depot and what led you to your current role.
I started at The Home Depot working with Call Centers in our Home Service business. My role was to improve the operational processes in both call centers and Home Services. This ended up having a heavy slant toward technology and from there I moved to be a Service Manager in IT. After several years as a Service Manager and downsizing that happened in 2008, I transitioned to the IT manager over Pro Systems. In this role, I found my love for leading technology teams. I enjoy the combination of leading a team, managing large initiatives, managing a budget and solving problems with technology.
You were recently promoted to Senior Technology Director over Delivery, Sourcing and Transportation. What excites you most about this role?
In this new role, I’m most excited about the ability to help The Home Depot by solving problems on a larger scale and the ability to lead more technology associates and help with their career paths.
A lot of people believe that developing your career means changing companies. What has enabled you to develop/advance your career in tech by staying at The Home Depot?
At The Home Depot, I’ve had the ability to use my Industrial Engineering skills on the business side to optimize processes and in a wide variety of technology roles across various teams, including Pro Systems, Store Systems, Customer Systems, Supply Chain and with Merchants on both paint and appliances initiatives.
How would you describe what working in retail technology is like for engineers outside of The Home Depot?
Retail technology is very fast paced and diverse field that gives you an array of experiences. It is also very rewarding to see the technology you built used in stores, distribution centers, by customers or even highlighted in commercials!
What skills or background would you describe as beneficial to technologists looking to join THD?
Critical thinking, the ability to work with others, to understand the bigger picture and a drive to be best-in-class at one of the world’s largest home improvement retailer.
As a leader, how do you ensure that your team has the tools and resources needed to be successful?
I try to stay well connected to the managers and engineers on the team and ask often what they need. I also try and emphasize the open door policy and welcome real time feedback. I try to be vulnerable with the team that I do not know everything and need their input for the team to be successful.
Is The Home Depot hiring right now?
Yes! Not only is my team seeking a variety of software engineers, we’re also seeking talented software and cybersecurity engineers, product managers, user experience experts and more on teams across The Home Depot. I encourage you to visit careers.homedepot.com/technology to explore open roles and let us know you met us through SWE if you choose to apply.
