Principal, Software Engineer

Walmart • Bentonville, AR

19d • $110,000 - $286,000

About The Position

Principal Software Engineer – Code Puppy AI & Data | Walmart Global Tech Join Walmart as a Principal Software Engineer within our AI & Data organization and help make it trivially easy for associates—engineers, data scientists, and citizen developers—to go from idea to AI-based solutions quickly, safely, and cost‑effectively. At Walmart, we operate at Fortune #1 scale. Our challenges are complex, global, and deeply meaningful. Here, you’ll do the best work of your life—work that helps people save money and live better. About AI & Data The AI & Data organization within Walmart Global Tech is building a platform‑first ecosystem that centralizes enterprise data, provides standardized AI foundations, and delivers intuitive AI solutions for all personas. We are enabling AI at enterprise scale—responsibly, securely, and reliably. Position Summary As a Principal Software Engineer, you will serve as a senior technical authority and hands-on architect across critical AI & Data platforms. You will shape system architecture, influence engineering standards, and drive platform strategy that supports AI-powered experiences across Walmart globally. This role requires deep expertise in distributed systems, platform engineering, and AI‑enabled architectures, combined with the ability to influence across teams and elevate technical rigor enterprise‑wide. You will: Own high-impact architectural decisions Drive scalable, resilient system design Prototype and productionize advanced AI‑enabled capabilities Mentor senior engineers and act as a technical force multiplier Balance long‑term platform sustainability with near‑term business outcomes What You’ll Do Architecture & Technical Strategy Define and evolve reference architectures for distributed systems, AI pipelines, and platform services. Lead system design reviews to ensure scalability, reliability, observability, and cost efficiency. Design systems that integrate seamlessly with enterprise data and AI foundations. Make thoughtful architectural trade-offs balancing long-term platform integrity with short-term delivery needs. Improve end-to-end system reliability and quality across local clients, gateways, and external APIs (debugging, telemetry, and performance tuning). Implement security and compliance guardrails for local execution, including least-privilege access, secrets management, auditing, and allowlists/denylists where appropriate. Build comprehensive testing strategies, including unit, integration, contract tests for tool schemas, and end-to-end tests for common workflows. Drive engineering excellence through code reviews, design documentation, mentoring, incident postmortems, and elevated operational standards. AI‑Enabled Platform Engineering Lead the development of AI-powered services, agent workflows, and internal builder platforms. Prototype and productionize GenAI-enabled capabilities within secure, governed environments. Partner with data scientists and ML engineers to harden models into scalable, production-grade systems. Champion responsible AI patterns, including guardrails and human‑in‑the-loop design. Hands‑On Technical Leadership Contribute code and prototypes for complex, high-risk, or ambiguous initiatives. Raise engineering standards through rigorous code reviews, operational reviews, and architectural discussions. Improve CI/CD pipelines, reliability engineering, and platform observability practices. Establish and track performance, reliability, and cost benchmarks. Cross‑Functional Influence Partner closely with product, governance, enterprise data, and infrastructure teams. Translate complex technical concepts into clear, business-impact narratives. Drive consensus across senior engineers and engineering leaders. Influence multi‑team roadmaps and reduce architectural fragmentation. Mentorship & Technical Multiplication Mentor senior engineers and emerging technical leaders. Elevate architectural maturity across teams. Create reusable frameworks, patterns, and internal documentation that extend impact beyond your immediate team.

Requirements

• 12+ years of experience building highly available, distributed systems.
• Proven track record of delivering complex, enterprise‑scale software systems from inception to production.
• Experience with LLM tool‑calling and agentic systems, including structured tool invocation, schema validation, prompt/tool definition design, and guardrails.
• Familiarity with schema and contract frameworks such as JSON Schema, OpenAPI, Pydantic, and protobuf, including strategies for backward‑compatible evolution.
• Experience integrating data and query execution systems (e.g., BigQuery‑like workflows) with governance and cost controls.
• Strong observability experience, including structured logging, metrics, tracing, and debugging distributed flows across client and gateway layers.
• Experience working with AI/ML ecosystems in production environments.
• Sound architectural judgment with the ability to evaluate complex trade-offs.
• Exceptional communication, influence, and consensus‑building skills.
• Demonstrated ability to mentor and grow technical talent.
• Intellectual curiosity and the ability to rapidly learn new domains and technologies.
• Option 1: Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, Computer Information Systems, Software Engineering, or a related field, plus 5 years of experience in software engineering or a related area.
• Option 2: 7 years’ experience in software engineering or related area.

Nice To Haves

• Master’s degree in Computer Science or a related field.
• Experience building AI‑first platforms or internal developer ecosystems.
• Experience embedding responsible AI and governance practices into engineering workflows.
• Knowledge of accessibility best practices, including WCAG 2.2 AA standards.

Responsibilities

• Own high-impact architectural decisions
• Drive scalable, resilient system design
• Prototype and productionize advanced AI‑enabled capabilities
• Mentor senior engineers and act as a technical force multiplier
• Balance long‑term platform sustainability with near‑term business outcomes
• Define and evolve reference architectures for distributed systems, AI pipelines, and platform services.
• Lead system design reviews to ensure scalability, reliability, observability, and cost efficiency.
• Design systems that integrate seamlessly with enterprise data and AI foundations.
• Make thoughtful architectural trade-offs balancing long-term platform integrity with short-term delivery needs.
• Improve end-to-end system reliability and quality across local clients, gateways, and external APIs (debugging, telemetry, and performance tuning).
• Implement security and compliance guardrails for local execution, including least-privilege access, secrets management, auditing, and allowlists/denylists where appropriate.
• Build comprehensive testing strategies, including unit, integration, contract tests for tool schemas, and end-to-end tests for common workflows.
• Drive engineering excellence through code reviews, design documentation, mentoring, incident postmortems, and elevated operational standards.
• Lead the development of AI-powered services, agent workflows, and internal builder platforms.
• Prototype and productionize GenAI-enabled capabilities within secure, governed environments.
• Partner with data scientists and ML engineers to harden models into scalable, production-grade systems.
• Champion responsible AI patterns, including guardrails and human‑in‑the-loop design.
• Contribute code and prototypes for complex, high-risk, or ambiguous initiatives.
• Raise engineering standards through rigorous code reviews, operational reviews, and architectural discussions.
• Improve CI/CD pipelines, reliability engineering, and platform observability practices.
• Establish and track performance, reliability, and cost benchmarks.
• Partner closely with product, governance, enterprise data, and infrastructure teams.
• Translate complex technical concepts into clear, business-impact narratives.
• Drive consensus across senior engineers and engineering leaders.
• Influence multi‑team roadmaps and reduce architectural fragmentation.
• Mentor senior engineers and emerging technical leaders.
• Elevate architectural maturity across teams.
• Create reusable frameworks, patterns, and internal documentation that extend impact beyond your immediate team.

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.
• 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.

What This Job Offers

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