Principal, Software Engineer

Walmart•Sunnyvale, CA

1d•Onsite

About The Position

The Principal Engineer for Conversational AI Platform will be a technical leader responsible for designing, building, and deploying scalable and robust GenAI platforms and solutions. This role emphasizes both technical depth and leadership, driving the operational and engineering excellence, mentoring engineers, and ensuring the platform delivers significant business impact. What you'll do... About Team The Walmart Emerging-Tech group is a group charted to drive the creation of the next generation retail and shopping experiences for both online and in-store. The group leads Walmart’s efforts in the areas of Conversational AI, Voice Assistants, Extended Reality and more. As the Walmart Conversational AI team we are building completely new capabilities to allow our customers to shop by seamlessly interacting with their connected devices using spoken language. This team as part of the Emerging Technologies group builds new multimodal experiences both in-house and in collaboration with strategic partners. We have launched experiences like AskSam for associates and Walmart Voice Order for customers -( https://medium.com/walmartglobaltech/building-a-conversational-assistant-platform-for-voice-enabled-shopping-6d174cdc4131 ). In addition to the end-user experiences the group also builds platform APIs and tools to enable other teams within Walmart to build and scale experiences using these next-generation technologies. As part of this Conversational AI platform team, we are looking for a full stack Principal Software engineer for building the web tool to configure different applications and their interactions with the platform. What you will do: Stay abreast with technical advancements and drive system architecture and software development processes. Lead and mentor teams in the implementation of complex systems, fostering a culture of technical excellence and innovation. Be hands-on in prototyping, researching, and coding scalable, consumer-facing systems. Collaborate with business and product teams to achieve our long-term business goals. Champion operational and engineering excellence. Participate in code reviews, operational reviews, architectural discussions, and troubleshooting sessions to ensure the highest standards of development. Provide mentorship to engineers, managers, and others to help develop great talent. What you'll bring: At least 15+ years of software engineering experience in building highly available systems. Proven track record of building successful software systems from inception to deployment. Proven track record of building solutions that solve highly complex business problems. Outstanding problem-solving skills, with the ability to make design trade-offs, balancing long-term "big picture" considerations with short-term implications of design decisions. Expertise in distributed systems, service-oriented architecture, CI/CD, and operational excellence best practices. Effective communication and collaboration skills, including consensus building, conflict resolution, influence, and persuasion skills. Proven track record of mentoring and coaching engineers in technical problem-solving and career development. Curiosity and strong ability to learn new domains and technologies. BS or MS in CS 15+ years of experience GenAI technologies such as LLMs and RAG. Cloud-based AI platforms like GCP Vertex AI or Azure. Programming languages, particularly Java. Data engineering and handling large datasets. Databases, including vector and big data technologies. Distributed computing, containerization (Docker/K8s), and multi-cloud. Typical qualifications include a degree in a related field or equivalent experience, significant software engineering experience with a focus on AI/ML and GenAI, expertise in scalable systems and cloud deployments, proficiency in Java, experience with GenAI models and related concepts, a history of leading complex projects, experience with Distributed Systems, Databases, BigQuery, a solid understanding of software engineering principles, and strong communication and leadership skills

Requirements

At least 15+ years of software engineering experience in building highly available systems.
Proven track record of building successful software systems from inception to deployment.
Proven track record of building solutions that solve highly complex business problems.
Outstanding problem-solving skills, with the ability to make design trade-offs, balancing long-term "big picture" considerations with short-term implications of design decisions.
Expertise in distributed systems, service-oriented architecture, CI/CD, and operational excellence best practices.
Effective communication and collaboration skills, including consensus building, conflict resolution, influence, and persuasion skills.
Proven track record of mentoring and coaching engineers in technical problem-solving and career development.
Curiosity and strong ability to learn new domains and technologies.
BS or MS in CS 15+ years of experience
GenAI technologies such as LLMs and RAG.
Cloud-based AI platforms like GCP Vertex AI or Azure.
Programming languages, particularly Java.
Data engineering and handling large datasets.
Databases, including vector and big data technologies.
Distributed computing, containerization (Docker/K8s), and multi-cloud.
Typical qualifications include a degree in a related field or equivalent experience, significant software engineering experience with a focus on AI/ML and GenAI, expertise in scalable systems and cloud deployments, proficiency in Java, experience with GenAI models and related concepts, a history of leading complex projects, experience with Distributed Systems, Databases, BigQuery, a solid understanding of software engineering principles, and strong communication and leadership skills

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

Stay abreast with technical advancements and drive system architecture and software development processes.
Lead and mentor teams in the implementation of complex systems, fostering a culture of technical excellence and innovation.
Be hands-on in prototyping, researching, and coding scalable, consumer-facing systems.
Collaborate with business and product teams to achieve our long-term business goals.
Champion operational and engineering excellence.
Participate in code reviews, operational reviews, architectural discussions, and troubleshooting sessions to ensure the highest standards of development.
Provide mentorship to engineers, managers, and others to help develop great talent.

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.