(USA) Principal, Software Engineer

Walmart•Sunnyvale, CA

7d•$143,000 - $286,000•Onsite

About The Position

Walmart Global Tech is seeking a Principal Engineer – Automation & Orchestration to lead the design, development, and operation of cloud-based, programmable infrastructure across one of the world's most complex technology footprints. This role sits at the intersection of software engineering, network engineering, and platform infrastructure — owning the systems, workflows, and toolchains that automate Walmart's global network fabric across Azure and GCP. You will refine and enhance the architecture for automation platforms, workflow orchestration pipelines, and self-healing infrastructure systems powering Walmart's stores, eCommerce, and supply chain. As a technical authority, you'll shape a multi-year roadmap that shifts Walmart's infrastructure from manual operations to automation-driven outcomes — directly reducing manual processes, accelerating change velocity, and improving reliability at global scale. The Walmart Global Tech - Critical Infrastructure Automation Observability team is focused on enabling highly reliable and efficient infrastructure through an intent-based platform, offering advanced abstraction, seamless automation, real-time observability, proactive assurance, and actionable insights. The team is developing a next-generation Zero-Touch Networking platform for designing intelligent, scalable systems that transform how infrastructure is managed across one of the world’s largest technology environments.

Requirements

10+ years of software or network engineering experience, with 5+ years focused on automation, infrastructure programmability, or platform engineering at large scale.
Expertise in automation tooling and frameworks — such as Ansible or equivalent — with production deployments across multi-vendor environments.
Demonstrated experience building workflow orchestration systems using one or more of: Apache Airflow, Temporal, Argo Workflows, Prefect, or equivalent DAG/workflow platforms.
Strong programming proficiency in Python (automation scripting, Django REST APIs, framework development) and/or Go (Golang) (tooling, microservices, CLI utilities).
Production experience with Kubernetes (AKS/GKE) — deploying and operating automation platform workloads, custom controllers, and event-driven workers.
Experience architecting and automating cloud network infrastructure on Azure and/or GCP — VPC/VNet design, ExpressRoute/Cloud Interconnect, routing automation, and cloud security group management.
Working knowledge of messaging and eventing systems — RabbitMQ, Kafka, or equivalent — for distributed automation task orchestration.
Hands-on experience with Elasticsearch/OpenSearch for telemetry ingestion, log search, and operational analytics.
Proficiency with PostgreSQL — schema design for network state/audit data, query optimization, and HA configurations.
Experience with secrets management (Akeyless, HashiCorp Vault, or equivalent) and automation credential lifecycle.
Knowledge of SSO/identity protocols (OAuth 2.0, OIDC, SAML) and enterprise identity providers such as PingFederate.
Knowledge and exposure to model-driven networking — YANG, NETCONF, RESTCONF, and/or gNMI/gRPC streaming telemetry, with understanding of network protocols and architectures — BGP, OSPF, IS-IS, MPLS, VXLAN, STP/RSTP, QoS.
Proven ability to lead cross-functional technical initiatives and influence engineering direction across multiple teams.
Strong written and verbal communication skills — able to translate complex network and automation concepts to engineering teams, SREs, and senior leadership.
Option 1: Bachelor's degree in computer science, computer engineering, computer information systems, software engineering, or related area and 5 years’ experience in software engineering or related area.
Option 2: 7 years’ experience in software engineering or related area.

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.
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.
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

Define and own the technical vision for Walmart's infrastructure automation platform, spanning device configuration, topology-driven provisioning, change workflows, policy enforcement, and closed-loop remediation.
Lead event-driven automation pipelines — from signal ingestion through automated remediation and ticket closure — to reduce MTTR and eliminate repeat manual interventions.
Champion everything-as-workflow principles including version-controlled configuration, CI/CD-driven delivery, and source-of-truth state reconciliation.
Design and operate scalable workflow orchestration systems with DAG principles, retry/failure handling, idempotency guarantees, and observability patterns.
Build reusable automation abstractions — provisioning, validation, rollback, and notification — enabling engineers to compose workflows with AI tooling and minimal coding expertise.
Drive event-driven orchestration via RabbitMQ and Kafka to trigger and track distributed automation tasks across large device fleets.
Architect programmable infrastructure using platforms and tools such as Kubernetes, WCNP, YANG, NETCONF, RESTCONF, and gNMI/gRPC for model-driven configuration and integrating observability, complemented by custom Python/Django and Go tooling.
Automate device provisioning and lifecycle management — including ZTP, site onboarding, firewall policy enforcement, and GitOps-based continuous deployment.
Establish Kubernetes-native networking patterns, Create/Read/Update/Delete-based operator models, and simulation-backed testing frameworks for production validation.
Design and integrate source-of-truth systems for device inventory, configuration snapshots, topology graphs, and compliance audit trails using PostgreSQL, Graph databases, and document stores.
Architect telemetry and observability infrastructure using Elasticsearch/OpenSearch, Redis, Prometheus, and Grafana — including IPAM/CMDB bidirectional sync with ServiceNow and Infoblox.
Establish zero-trust access and secrets management via Akeyless and PingFederate, and define SLO/SLA reliability frameworks for the automation platform.
Mentor Staff and Senior Engineers through architectural pairing, design reviews, and technical hiring across automation and platform teams.
Represent the platform in Walmart's engineering governance bodies and engage with key vendors (Cisco, Juniper, Arista, Versa) and industry communities (NANOG, OpenConfig, CNCF) to shape long-term technology strategy.

Benefits

Competitive pay
Performance-based bonus awards
Medical coverage
Vision coverage
Dental coverage
401(k)
Stock purchase
Company-paid life insurance
PTO (including sick leave)
Parental leave
Family care leave
Bereavement
Jury duty
Voting
Short-term disability
Long-term disability
Company discounts
Military Leave Pay
Adoption and surrogacy expense reimbursement
Live Better U (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.)