Distinguished, Software Engineer

Walmart • Sunnyvale, CA

1d • $169,000 - $338,000

About The Position

We are seeking a Distinguished Engineer to lead the architectural evolution of the W+ ecosystem. In this role, you will be the connective tissue between core infrastructure, data science, and product execution. You are responsible for ensuring our technical foundation supports rapid experimentation and personalization ($p13n$) at a global scale. You will evaluate infrastructure spend through the lens of ROI, ensuring that every dollar invested in our stack accelerates our ability to deliver tailored member experiences and data-driven business outcomes. About the team: The W+ team leads the design and development of scalable, cloud-native AI-powered systems that enhance operational reliability and performance. This team drives technical strategy and execution across platforms, ensuring architectural integrity and alignment with enterprise standards. Members focus on continuous improvement by automating processes, optimizing system scalability, and fostering operational excellence. Collaboration and mentorship are key, as the team supports knowledge sharing and high-quality delivery. With expertise in AI agents, reliability engineering, and payments industry solutions, the W+ team plays a critical role in advancing innovative technologies that meet business objectives and customer needs. What you'll do: Infrastructure Governance & ROI: Define the architectural standards for the W+ ecosystem, ensuring that compute and storage costs are mapped directly to product performance and revenue-generating insights. Scalable Data Orchestration: Design and oversee the implementation of next-generation data pipelines capable of handling multi-petabyte scales while maintaining sub-second latency for critical BI dashboards. Strategic Vendor & Tooling Management: Evaluate and select our core tech stack (Cloud providers, Data Lakehouse architectures, AI/MLOps tooling) with a focus on long-term sustainability and avoiding vendor lock-in. Cross-Functional Leadership: Partner with the Executive Leadership Team to translate complex technical bottlenecks into business risks and opportunities. Mentorship & Culture: Set the "gold standard" for engineering excellence, fostering a culture of FinOps (Financial Operations) where engineers take pride in the efficiency of their code as much as its functionality. Experimentation mindset: Unlock accelerated running of A/B experiments that takes W+ to the next level on acquisition, onboarding and retention.

Requirements

• Deep Technical Mastery: 15+ years of experience in distributed systems, high-performance computing, or large-scale data infrastructure. You likely have "Architect" or "Distinguished" titles in your recent history.
• FinOps Mindset: Proven track record of optimizing cloud spend ($50M+ annual budgets) without sacrificing system integrity or development velocity.
• Architectural Breadth: Expertise in modern data stacks (e.g., Spark, Kubernetes, Snowflake/Databricks, Kafka) and the ability to predict where the industry is moving over the next 3–5 years.
• The "Executive Translator" Skill: The ability to explain to a CFO why a $2M investment in a specific infrastructure tier will result in a 10x ROI through reduced churn or faster market penetration.
• Education: A Master’s or PhD in Computer Science, Engineering, or a related field—or a portfolio of industry-changing contributions that make the degree a formality.
• Bachelor's degree in computer science, computer engineering, computer information systems, software engineering, or related area and 6 years’ experience in software engineering or related area.
• 8 years’ experience in software engineering or related area.

Nice To Haves

• Master’s degree in computer science, computer engineering, computer information systems, software engineering, or related area and 4 years' experience in software engineering or related area
• We value candidates with a background in creating inclusive digital experiences, demonstrating knowledge in implementing Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.2 AA standards, assistive technologies, and integrating digital accessibility seamlessly.
• The ideal candidate would have knowledge of accessibility best practices and join us as we continue to create accessible products and services following Walmart’s accessibility standards and guidelines for supporting an inclusive culture.

Responsibilities

• Infrastructure Governance & ROI: Define the architectural standards for the W+ ecosystem, ensuring that compute and storage costs are mapped directly to product performance and revenue-generating insights.
• Scalable Data Orchestration: Design and oversee the implementation of next-generation data pipelines capable of handling multi-petabyte scales while maintaining sub-second latency for critical BI dashboards.
• Strategic Vendor & Tooling Management: Evaluate and select our core tech stack (Cloud providers, Data Lakehouse architectures, AI/MLOps tooling) with a focus on long-term sustainability and avoiding vendor lock-in.
• Cross-Functional Leadership: Partner with the Executive Leadership Team to translate complex technical bottlenecks into business risks and opportunities.
• Mentorship & Culture: Set the "gold standard" for engineering excellence, fostering a culture of FinOps (Financial Operations) where engineers take pride in the efficiency of their code as much as its functionality.
• Experimentation mindset: Unlock accelerated running of A/B experiments that takes W+ to the next level on acquisition, onboarding and retention.

Benefits

• At Walmart, we offer competitive pay as well as performance-based bonus awards and other great benefits for a happier mind, body, and wallet.
• Health benefits include medical, vision and dental coverage.
• Financial benefits include 401(k), stock purchase and company-paid life insurance.
• Paid time off benefits include PTO (including sick leave), parental leave, family care leave, bereavement, jury duty, and voting.
• Other benefits include short-term and long-term disability, company discounts, Military Leave Pay, adoption and surrogacy expense reimbursement, and more.
• You will also receive PTO and/or PPTO that can be used for vacation, sick leave, holidays, or other purposes. The amount you receive depends on your job classification and length of employment. It will meet or exceed the requirements of paid sick leave laws, where applicable.
• Live Better U is a Walmart-paid education benefit program for full-time and part-time associates in Walmart and Sam's Club facilities. Programs range from high school completion to bachelor's degrees, including English Language Learning and short-form certificates. Tuition, books, and fees are completely paid for by Walmart.
• Eligibility requirements apply to some benefits and may depend on your job classification and length of employment. Benefits are subject to change and may be subject to a specific plan or program terms.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Mid Level
• Number of Employees: 1-10 employees