(USA) Principal, Software Engineer
About The Position
Walmart is seeking a Principal Data Engineer to lead the design and evolution of large-scale data pipeline infrastructure that powers search and personalization across its e-commerce platform. The role owns the data engineering lifecycle, from ingestion and transformation through feature and dataset delivery, with a focus on scalable cloud-native solutions, high availability, data quality, and fault tolerance. It provides strategic technical leadership, mentorship, and cross-functional collaboration to align data engineering with business and machine-learning objectives, while advancing data architecture standards and continuous improvement. The team owns the data pipeline framework supporting Walmart Search and Personalization. It builds and maintains systems that ingest user interaction signals, catalog data, and other sources, then transforms them into high-quality features and datasets for machine-learning models used in search relevance and personalized shopping experiences. The team applies modern data engineering and cloud-native architecture to deliver robust, scalable systems. The role uses a hybrid working model, combining primary in-office presence with virtual work. The primary location listed is 815 Eleventh Ave, Sunnyvale, California. Immigration sponsorship is not available for this position.
Requirements
- Bachelor’s degree in computer science, computer engineering, computer information systems, software engineering, or a related area and 5 years of experience in software engineering or a related area; alternatively, 7 years of experience in software engineering or a related area.
- Extensive experience leading large-scale data engineering initiatives, including distributed data processing, data modeling, and cloud-native data platforms.
- Expertise with big data technologies such as Spark, Kafka, or Hadoop, and data pipeline orchestration tools such as Airflow.
- Strong programming skills in Python, Java, or Scala, with experience building production-grade ETL/ELT and streaming pipelines.
- Deep understanding of data warehousing, feature engineering, and data infrastructure supporting ML/AI systems.
- Experience with cloud platforms such as Azure, GCP, or AWS, and CI/CD practices for data systems.
- Demonstrated ability to mentor engineers and influence data architecture decisions across teams.
- Excellent collaboration and communication skills with cross-functional and machine-learning stakeholders.
- Commitment to data quality, continuous improvement, and engineering excellence.
Nice To Haves
- Master’s degree in computer science, computer engineering, computer information systems, software engineering, or a related area and 3 years of experience in software engineering or a related area.
- Knowledge of implementing Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.2 AA standards and assistive technologies.
- Knowledge of accessibility best practices and experience creating inclusive digital experiences in accordance with accessibility standards and guidelines.
Responsibilities
- Lead the architecture and delivery of scalable, cloud-native data pipelines and reusable data infrastructure aligned with strategic roadmaps.
- Own ingestion, transformation, orchestration, testing, deployment, and monitoring for large-scale distributed data systems.
- Design and build high-throughput, low-latency batch and streaming pipelines that produce ML-ready features and datasets for search and personalization models.
- Provide technical leadership and mentorship across data engineering teams, promoting best practices in data modeling, pipeline design, and architectural consistency.
- Partner with machine-learning, search, and product stakeholders to translate business and model requirements into scalable data solutions and measurable success metrics.
- Ensure data quality, lineage, and reliability through observability, validation frameworks, and ownership of pipeline SLAs.
- Drive continuous improvement through innovation, knowledge sharing, and adoption of emerging data engineering technologies.
Benefits
- Performance-based incentive awards and bonuses.
- Maternity and parental leave.
- Paid time off, including sick leave, and PTO/PPTO that may be used for vacation, sick leave, holidays, or other purposes.
- Medical, vision, and dental coverage.
- 401(k).
- Stock purchase plan.
- Company-paid life insurance.
- Family care leave and bereavement leave.
- Short-term and long-term disability coverage.
- Company discounts.
- Military Leave Pay.
- Adoption and surrogacy expense reimbursement.
- Live Better U paid education benefit, including tuition, books, and fees for eligible programs.
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What This Job Offers
Job Type
Full-time
Career Level
Senior
