Principal Engineer - Store Selling & Customer Experience (Hybrid - Seattle)

Nordstrom•Seattle, WA

2d•Hybrid

About The Position

Join us in revolutionizing Nordstrom's in-store customer experience through cutting-edge technology. We're modernizing our store selling technology stack and building next-generation capabilities that seamlessly connect digital and physical retail. As Principal Engineer, you'll lead the technical strategy for point-of-sale systems, clienteling tools, and omnichannel platforms that define how customers and store teams interact during the shopping experience. What You'll Do Technical Leadership & Architecture Architect scalable, reliable store selling and transaction solutions serving hundreds of stores and processing millions of customer transactions Lead the technical vision for our point-of-sale ecosystem, driving next-generation capabilities while ensuring performance, security, and exceptional user experiences Design systems enabling seamless omnichannel customer journeys that integrate selling empowerment tools with in-store experiences Make key architectural decisions spanning selling, clienteling, and transaction domains that shape the future of store technology Operational Excellence & Innovation Champion operational excellence through improvements in observability, telemetry, monitoring, and automation Drive technical excellence across engineering teams, establishing best practices for distributed systems, real-time transaction processing, payment security, and system resilience Leverage AI and machine learning to optimize transaction processing, personalize customer experiences, and enable predictive capabilities across store operations Utilize AI-powered development tools (e.g. Claude) to accelerate code development, improve code quality, and enhance team productivity. Stay current with advances in retail technology, payment systems, customer experience platforms, and AI-driven retail innovation Collaboration & Mentorship Partner with product, store operations, customer experience, merchandising, and business stakeholders to deliver impactful solutions Provide technical leadership as an individual contributor, mentoring senior engineers through code reviews, design discussions, and architectural guidance Guide teams in adopting AI-assisted development practices and establishing best practices for AI tool integration in the development lifecycle Collaborate with platform and enterprise services teams to ensure cohesive integration across the technology ecosystem

Requirements

8+ years in software engineering with significant focus on retail systems, distributed architectures, or customer-facing applications
3+ years of technical leadership as an individual contributor, influencing engineering teams in high-scale retail or e-commerce environments
Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or related field (Master's preferred, or equivalent experience)
Deep expertise in transaction processing systems, point-of-sale architecture, payment processing, and real-time financial systems
Strong background in distributed systems design, microservices architectures, event-driven systems, and high-volume transaction workloads
Experience with cloud platforms and modern technology stacks for building resilient, scalable applications
Proficiency in leveraging AI coding assistants to accelerate development workflows, from code generation to testing and documentation.
Strong programming skills with ability to make trade-off decisions at multiple system levels
Network resilience patterns, offline mode capabilities, and data synchronization strategies
Regulatory compliance expertise: PCI-DSS, payment security, and data privacy
Proven track record building production-grade systems with 99.95%+ uptime
Deep commitment to operational excellence: observability tools, automated testing, deployment automation, and proactive monitoring
Customer-focused mindset with ability to translate business requirements into technical solutions
Strong mentoring capabilities with track record of developing engineers' technical skills
Ability to communicate complex technical concepts to non-technical stakeholders
Demonstrated ability to drive innovation while balancing business needs, operational constraints, and system stability

Nice To Haves

Experience modernizing legacy retail point-of-sale systems
Background in omnichannel retail technology and unified commerce platforms
Previous experience leading large-scale technology migrations or platform consolidations
Experience implementing AI-powered features such as intelligent recommendations, dynamic pricing, fraud detection, or conversational AI for customer service
Track record of establishing AI-assisted development practices and tooling standards across engineering organizations
Experience implementing observability and automation improvements that significantly reduced operational overhead

Responsibilities

Architect scalable, reliable store selling and transaction solutions serving hundreds of stores and processing millions of customer transactions
Lead the technical vision for our point-of-sale ecosystem, driving next-generation capabilities while ensuring performance, security, and exceptional user experiences
Design systems enabling seamless omnichannel customer journeys that integrate selling empowerment tools with in-store experiences
Make key architectural decisions spanning selling, clienteling, and transaction domains that shape the future of store technology
Champion operational excellence through improvements in observability, telemetry, monitoring, and automation
Drive technical excellence across engineering teams, establishing best practices for distributed systems, real-time transaction processing, payment security, and system resilience
Leverage AI and machine learning to optimize transaction processing, personalize customer experiences, and enable predictive capabilities across store operations
Utilize AI-powered development tools (e.g. Claude) to accelerate code development, improve code quality, and enhance team productivity.
Stay current with advances in retail technology, payment systems, customer experience platforms, and AI-driven retail innovation
Partner with product, store operations, customer experience, merchandising, and business stakeholders to deliver impactful solutions
Provide technical leadership as an individual contributor, mentoring senior engineers through code reviews, design discussions, and architectural guidance
Guide teams in adopting AI-assisted development practices and establishing best practices for AI tool integration in the development lifecycle
Collaborate with platform and enterprise services teams to ensure cohesive integration across the technology ecosystem