Principal, Software Engineer

Walmart • Sunnyvale, CA

12d • $143,000 - $286,000

About The Position

The Principal, Software Engineer leads the design and delivery of scalable platform capabilities and technical execution across multiple teams. The role applies cloud-native architecture principles to build resilient distributed systems and integrate AI/ML solutions serving millions of users. It provides strategic technical leadership, mentorship, and cross-functional collaboration to turn business needs into engineering outcomes while advancing engineering quality, innovation, knowledge sharing, and continuous improvement.

The AdTech Measurement and Reporting team builds cloud-native platforms for real-time data processing and AI integration, delivering performance insights for business decision-making. The team develops tools to improve reporting accuracy and efficiency and applies engineering principles, software design patterns, data-driven methods, and disciplined development, testing, and delivery practices.

The Principal Engineer leads technical work across 30+ engineers and develops measurement platforms spanning incrementality, attribution, data cleanroom measurement, partner integrations, and GenAI-powered reporting. These solutions support real-time optimization and offline reporting for Walmart’s digital advertising business. The role sets technical direction, conducts design reviews, aligns technical strategy with business goals, and leads troubleshooting and resolution of business and production issues.

Requirements

• 8+ years of experience in machine learning and data-intensive platform development.
• 4+ years of experience as a staff-level or higher technical lead.
• Familiarity with distributed data processing tools and databases, such as Spark Streaming, Flink, Kafka, Ray, BigQuery, Druid, and Cassandra.
• Skill in leveraging AI to enhance productivity and drive innovation.
• Familiarity with GenAI skills and techniques, such as MCP, RAG, re-ranking, agent skills, progressive disclosure, context engineering, agent-to-agent protocols, and fine-tuning.
• Familiarity with machine-learning libraries and tools such as PySpark, PyTorch, CUDA, and Triton.
• Experience implementing statistical and machine-learning methods for classification, regression, ranking, and/or recommendation.
• Experience implementing transformer-based model training and real-time inference on GPU-backed infrastructure.
• Experience working cross-functionally with data scientists, machine-learning engineers, and product managers.
• Experience in AdTech measurement and demonstrated knowledge of the AdTech business.
• One of the following minimum qualification paths: a bachelor’s degree in computer science, computer engineering, computer information systems, software engineering, or a related area plus 5 years of experience in software engineering or a related area; or 7 years of experience in software engineering or a related area.

Nice To Haves

• PhD in data mining, data management, machine learning, operations research, GenAI, or statistics.
• Publications in top-tier academic conferences or journals.
• Experience in AdTech targeting, measurement, identity mapping, bidding, and optimization domains.
• Extensive experience in real-time data streaming applications.
• Extensive experience in ads auction retrieval and ranking.
• Extensive experience in bid optimization applications.
• Patents in data mining or machine-learning-related domains.
• Good understanding of query optimization and distributed systems.
• Good understanding of industry trends in AdTech, machine learning, and GenAI.
• 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 creating inclusive digital experiences and implementing WCAG 2.2 AA standards, assistive technologies, and digital accessibility best practices.

Responsibilities

• Serve as the technical leader for 30+ engineers.
• Solve large-scale AdTech problems using machine learning and statistical methods with a team of engineers.
• Lead development of a suite of measurement solutions from 0 to 1, including incrementality, attribution, data cleanroom measurement, partner integrations, and GenAI-powered reporting.
• Support real-time optimization and offline reporting with a focus on stability and correctness.
• Define technical direction and conduct design reviews for engineering teams.
• Partner with engineering leadership and cross-functional stakeholders to align technical strategy with business goals.
• Troubleshoot business and production issues by gathering information about the issue, impact, criticality, and possible root cause; engaging support teams; formulating and executing an action plan; interpreting results; and completing online documentation.

Benefits

• Competitive pay and performance-based bonus awards.
• Medical, vision, and dental coverage.
• 401(k).
• Stock purchase plan.
• Company-paid life insurance.
• Paid time off, including sick leave, parental leave, family care leave, bereavement leave, jury duty, and voting leave.
• Short-term and long-term disability.
• Company discounts.
• Military Leave Pay.
• Adoption and surrogacy expense reimbursement.
• PTO and/or PPTO for vacation, sick leave, holidays, or other purposes.
• Walmart-paid Live Better U education benefit for eligible full-time and part-time associates, covering tuition, books, and fees for programs ranging from high school completion to bachelor’s degrees, English Language Learning, and short-form certificates.
• Stock may be included as additional compensation for certain positions.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Principal