Platform Product Lead, Managed Inventory Platforms

Platform Product Lead Managed Inventory Platforms

Serving customers and our community starts with the best people doing their best work. That is precisely what we have created at MSC Industrial Supply Co. We are a leading North American distributor of metalworking and maintenance, repair, and operations (MRO), products and services. We offer more than 2 million products and have over 80 years of experience across dozens of industries. We aim to execute our Built to Make You Better brand promise for all our stakeholders, including our associates.

The Platform Product Lead - Managed Inventory Platforms is a senior individual contributor responsible for enabling scalable, platform level execution across MSCs Managed Inventory ecosystem.

This role ensures that products across inventory management solutions operate as a connected system, driving consistency, faster implementation, and improved customer outcomes. It translates strategy into clear platform and data requirements, enabling analytics and AI-driven capabilities to scale reliably across the business. This role is critical as MSC evolves from solution-based offerings to a platform-driven model, requiring stronger alignment across systems, data, and execution.

Platform Product Ownership

• Serve as the lead for cross solution, platform level requirements spanning core inventory systems, shared data models, and downstream applications
• Translate Managed Inventory strategy into clear platform requirements with defined business and data acceptance criteria
• Ensure platform capabilities support consistent execution across vending, vendor-managed inventory, and on-site inventory solutions without fragmentation
• Define and align on platform level "definition of done," including business outcomes, data integrity, and operational readiness
• Lead the definition and alignment of cross solution data definitions across systems, reporting, and analytics

Execution Readiness

• Author clear, complete, and unambiguous product and data requirements that engineering and partners can implement without misinterpretation
• Partner with Product Owners, Engineering, and Data teams to align on scope, dependencies, and acceptance criteria prior to development
• Support governance and readiness checkpoints by identifying gaps, risks, and dependencies, and recommending actions prior to deployment
• Identify platform dependencies and ensure cross-functional alignment before pilot, launch, or scale decisions
• Drive clarity in ambiguous areas by identifying missing requirements, undefined processes, or gaps in execution plans

Platform & Issue Management

• Act as first-line escalation point for platform-related execution issues, helping coordinate resolution and reduce dependency on leadership
• Identify recurring themes and systemic issues across pilots, integrations, vendors, and legacy/cloud environments
• Proactively identify platform limitations, data gaps, and risks before they impact delivery or customer experience
• Drive structured resolution of platform issues with a focus on root cause, scalability, and downstream impact
• Partner across teams to ensure platform stability, consistency, and maintainability as solutions scale

Data & AI Enablement

• Partner with analytics, data science, and AI teams to ensure platforms enable reliable KPI generation, optimization, and insight delivery
• Translate analytics- and AI-driven use cases (e.g., recommendations, forecasting, optimization) into clear product and data requirements
• Own business definitions and data requirements required to support scorecards, optimization tools, and performance feedback loops
• Ensure platform capabilities support scalable analytics, reporting, optimization, and AI-enabled decision-making across customer solutions

Success in this role will be measured by:

• Platform readiness and quality (reduction in defects, rework, and escalations)
• Reduction in cross solution inconsistencies and configuration variability
• Adoption and usability of analytics and AI-enabled capabilities
• Speed from pilot to scalable deployment
• Improvement in data quality, consistency, and availability for reporting and optimization

Qualifications

What You Need:

• Bachelors degree in business, engineering, computer science, or related field required.
• Minimum seven years of experience in product management, business analysis, or equivalent roles required.
• Experience working with data platforms, APIs, integrations, and complex system environments (e.g., cloud data platforms, analytics tools, or enterprise systems)
• Strongly Preferred: Experience partnering with data science or analytics teams to bring AI-enabled capabilities into production
• Strong systems thinking across product, data, and operational workflows
• Proven ability to define requirements, identify gaps, and create clarity in ambiguous environments
• Strong stakeholder and communication skills with ability to influence without authority

Bonus Points If You Have:

• Experience supporting analytics, optimization, or AI-enabled products.
• Background in supply chain, industrial, manufacturing, or B2B solutions environments.
• Experience working closely with platform architecture or data engineering teams.

Other Requirements:

• A valid drivers license may be required.
• Position requires up to 25% of travel
• This position may require access to International Traffic in Arms Regulations Information ("ITAR") and/or Controlled Unclassified Information ("CUI")
• Compensation starting at $ 97,000 - $ 150,143 depending on candidate location and experience. The salary range represented is based on similar roles in comparable industries, and the cost of labor in respective cities. Actual compensation is based on the candidates relevant experience, education requirements and peer pay equity. The Company reserves the right to modify the range as market conditions change.
• Applicants must be currently authorized to work in the United States. We are unable to sponsor or take over sponsorship of an employment Visa for this position at this time.
• This job posting will remain open for a minimum of 3 business days from the original posting date or longer as needed to fill the position.