(USA) Principal, Software Engineer

Walmart•Sunnyvale, CA

About The Position

As a Principal Software Engineer in the Marketplace Platform Engineering group, you will provide deep technical leadership across high‑impact platform initiatives that power multiple Marketplace verticals. You will architect and develop foundational capabilities, guide engineering excellence, and ensure our platform is scalable, secure, and built for broad adoption across Walmart Marketplace. About Walmart Marketplace The Local Marketplace Initiative is a strategic priority for Walmart, aiming to expand our platform to connect local sellers and customers, enhance assortment, and drive community engagement. To ensure the success of this initiative, it is critical to have a dedicated End-to-End Architect who can provide holistic technical leadership across all phases of the program We bring a passion that is unmatched, and our efforts have an epic impact on the world around us, both inside and outside of work. With colleagues across the nation, we strive to create a sense of belonging, with no shortage of guidance and support for you as you grow and develop your career here. Immigration sponsorship support will NOT be available for this position

Requirements

At least 7 years of experience designing and architecting large‑scale distributed systems with sub‑second latency, high availability (99.99%+), and the ability to handle millions of requests per day.
Deep technical expertise in building scalable microservices and backend platforms, with strong proficiency in JVM languages (Kotlin, Java) and experience with modern backend stacks such as Node.js, Python, Go, and Rust.
Hands‑on experience building GenAI and agentic platform capabilities, including RAG pipelines, autonomous task agents, vector search integrations, and secure, scalable model‑serving patterns.
Strong understanding of Model Context Protocol (MCP) and experience designing unified APIs, SDKs, adapters, or frameworks that standardize AI interactions and accelerate enterprise adoption.
Expertise in designing event‑driven architectures and communication platforms, including pub/sub patterns, notification services, and cross‑channel messaging workflows.
Proven ability to define technical vision and platform strategy, influencing engineering standards, architectural decisions, and cross‑org adoption of best‑in‑class engineering practices.
Advanced background in algorithms, data structures, distributed systems concepts, and performance optimization across storage, compute, and networking layers.
Experience with cloud platforms (AWS/GCP/Azure) including cost‑optimized architectures, autoscaling patterns, serverless components, and cloud‑native observability.
Strong knowledge of API gateways, request‑routing frameworks, and context‑building patterns, ensuring consistent observability, secure request handling, and reliable system behavior.
Hands‑on experience with CI/CD pipelines, automated testing frameworks, and continuous deployment, enabling rapid, high‑quality delivery and improved engineering velocity.
Expertise with relational and non‑relational databases (e.g., MySQL, PostgreSQL, Cassandra, DynamoDB) and distributed caching/storage technologies.
Experience troubleshooting complex production systems, performing deep root‑cause analysis, coordinating multi‑team responses, and driving long‑term reliability improvements.
Proven ability to lead cross‑functional engineering teams, mentor developers, and guide them in solving hard platform problems while driving adoption of platform capabilities.
Strong product and platform mindset, with experience collaborating closely with product, program, and UX teams to shape intuitive, extensible, enterprise‑ready platform solutions.
Passion for learning and adopting emerging technologies, particularly in AI, LLMs, agent frameworks, observability, and high‑scale distributed systems.

Nice To Haves

Master’s degree in computer science, computer engineering, computer information systems, software engineering, or related area and 3 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

Drive technical vision and platform strategy by setting architectural standards, influencing cross‑org engineering decisions, and accelerating adoption of best‑in‑class engineering practices across Marketplace.
Lead and contribute hands‑on to large-scale, cross‑functional platform projects, reviewing requirements, designing end‑to‑end technical solutions, developing high‑quality code, and ensuring completeness through robust unit and integration testing.
Lead the design of GenAI and agentic platform capabilities, building reusable RAG pipelines, autonomous task agents, and secure model‑serving patterns that power intelligent workflows across Marketplace.
Standardize and expand Model Context Protocol (MCP) integration, creating unified APIs, SDKs, and adapters that enable consistent, context‑rich AI interactions and accelerate adoption across teams.
Drive Marketplace’s AI‑first platform strategy by evaluating emerging LLM, vector search, and agent frameworks, building POCs, and maturing them into enterprise‑ready platform components.
Design and evolve common messaging and seller communication services, creating reusable, event-driven communication capabilities that power notifications, alerts, and cross-channel interactions across Marketplace teams.
Design and enhance the Marketplace API Gateway and context-building framework, ensuring performant request routing, consistent observability, standardized context propagation, and high reliability across internal and external API consumers.
Develop highly scalable microservices and distributed systems capable of processing millions of requests per day with sub‑second latencies, leveraging JVM (Kotlin, Java) and other backend technologies (Node.js, Python, Rust, Go).
Troubleshoot and resolve production issues across complex systems, performing root‑cause analyses, coordinating with partner teams, and driving permanent fixes to improve reliability and reduce operational burden.
Provide technical guidance and mentorship across teams, helping engineers adopt platform capabilities, solve complex systems problems, and deliver high‑quality Marketplace experiences.
Collaborate closely with product, program, UX, and cross‑functional engineering groups during discovery and design phases to create platform solutions that are intuitive, extensible, and aligned with long-term Marketplace goals.
Influence cloud architecture and cost-optimized design patterns, working across AWS/GCP/Azure environments to ensure services are scalable, resilient, and aligned with enterprise cloud governance.
Champion CI/CD best practices, automated testing, observability, and continuous deployment to improve engineering velocity and operational excellence.
Drive initiatives that improve performance, scalability, and system architecture, with a proactive focus on reducing technical debt and enabling future innovation.

Benefits

Beyond competitive pay, you can receive incentive awards for your performance.
Other great benefits include a 401(k) match, stock purchase plan, paid maternity and parental leave, PTO, multiple health plans, flexible working hours, and 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.