Principal, Data Engineer

Walmart•Sunnyvale, CA

13d•$143,000 - $286,000

About The Position

As a Principal Data Engineer, you are a hands-on, senior technical engineer within Walmart Global Tech, AI and Data team, responsible for developing and contributing towards high impact Global Marketplace’s enterprise data platform deliverables at a global scale. Your work directly enables sellers at Walmart, serves hundreds of millions of customers and associates, across digital and physical channels, every day. You operate at the intersection of retail scale, near real‑time intelligence, and Agentic AI, translating our long‑term platform strategy into durable business impact. About the Team Global Marketplace is Walmart’s third‑party commerce platform, connecting sellers to millions of customers across categories while leveraging Walmart’s scale, trust, and omni‑channel reach. Marketplace platforms enable third-party sellers, and internal teams to deliver seamless digital and physical commerce experiences, supported by Walmart Global Tech’s data, platform, and AI capabilities. The Data Engineering organization within Walmart Global Tech AI and Data team builds and operates the platforms that make this possible—enabling real‑time decision‑making, personalizing seller focused applications, and the next generation of AI‑driven and agent‑enabled systems. We build with a people‑led, tech‑empowered mindset, focused on reliability, trust, and long‑term sustainability.

Requirements

10–15+ years building and evolving large‑scale distributed data platforms.
Proven experience designing systems that operate at global retail or consumer‑scale.
Track record of collaborating and influencing across multiple teams or organizations.
Strong experience with cloud‑native ecosystems (GCP or Azure preferred), including BigQuery, Serverless, Pub/Sub, or equivalent.
Expertise in batch and streaming technologies (Kafka, Spark Structured Streaming, Flink, Druid, etc.).
Experience working with hybrid architectures that support both real‑time operations and analytical workloads.
Strong understanding of semantic modeling, embeddings, knowledge graphs, and vector indexing.
Experience supporting RAG, context-aware AI, and agent orchestration through data platform design.
Ability to reason about schema design, latency, storage formats, and their impact on AI behavior and outcomes.
Fluency in Python, Java, or Scala.
Deep experience with Spark/PySpark and large‑scale SQL optimization.
Strong systems thinking, performance tuning, and operational excellence mindset.
Demonstrated ability to lead through influence in complex, matrixed organizations.
Executive‑level communication skills, with the ability to connect technical strategy to business and customer impact.
Option 1: Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science and 5 years' experience in software engineering or related field.
Option 2: 7 years’ experience in software engineering or related field.
Option 3: Master's degree in Computer Science and 3 years' experience in software engineering or related field.
4 years' experience in data engineering, database engineering, business intelligence, or business analytics.

Nice To Haves

Data engineering, database engineering, business intelligence, or business analytics, ETL tools and working with large data sets in the cloud
Master’s degree in Computer Science or related field and 5 years' experience in software engineering or related field
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

Transform and evolve Walmart’s core data platform using Agentic AI across batch, streaming, and hybrid systems to support data powered Global Marketplace applications, analytics, operational intelligence, and AI‑native workloads.
Develop data platforms that scale to billions of events per day, supporting both near real‑time retail decisions and deep analytical insights.
Develop agent‑ready data, ensuring data products are discoverable, semantically rich, and optimized for LLMs, copilots, and multi‑agent workflows.
Influence multiple teams and organizations through technical leadership and clear architectural direction—without direct authority.
Develop fault‑tolerant, resilient systems that support mission‑critical retail and marketplace operations.
Lead modernization of legacy data lakes and pipelines into composable, event‑driven, and agent‑aware platforms.
Enable incremental modernization that delivers immediate value while reducing long‑term complexity and operational risk.
Mentor Staff and Senior Engineers across Walmart Global Tech AI and Data team.

Benefits

Beyond our great compensation package, you can receive incentive awards for your performance.
Other great perks include 401(k) match, stock purchase plan, paid maternity and parental leave, PTO, multiple health plans, and much more.
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.
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.