Principal, Technical Program Manager

Walmart•Sunnyvale, CA

2d•$143,000 - $286,000•Onsite

About The Position

The Principal, Technical Program Manager owns and drives complex, large-scale programs across multiple teams and areas of work. The role defines program goals, stage gates, delivery paths, key deliverables, scope, timelines, and resource needs, while managing cross-functional dependencies and resolving ambiguity. It also improves program practices, workflows, and ways of working, and mentors team members. The position contributes to end-to-end system solution discussions and technical planning, translating product requirements and program outcomes into technical designs and coordinated delivery plans. It identifies dependencies and opportunities to reuse existing capabilities, supports scalable and reliable releases, and ensures monitoring, alerting, operational excellence, and effective rollout and rollback plans. The role also researches domain practices and emerging technologies, conducts impact analysis, and supports build-versus-buy decisions. The Principal Technical Program Manager monitors program performance, manages risks and issues, aligns budgets and resources with priority work, refines roadmaps, and establishes measurable, repeatable workflows. The role communicates program status, risks, plans, and changes to teams and stakeholders, and uses data analysis to define success measures and solve complex, ambiguous problems. The position also engages stakeholders and drives business plans and projects by identifying customer and operational needs, removing barriers, measuring progress, and adjusting plans. It provides supervision and development opportunities for associates, supports company policies and values, and promotes an inclusive, ethical, collaborative, and customer-focused workplace. Walmart lists an annual salary range of $143,000 to $286,000, with additional annual or quarterly performance bonuses. Certain positions may also include stock. The primary location is 1375 Crossman Ave, Sunnyvale, California.

Requirements

Option 1: Bachelor's degree in computer science, information technology, engineering, or a related area, plus 6 years of experience in engineering, engineering program management, technical program management, product management, or a related area.
Option 2: 8 years of experience in engineering, engineering program management, technical program management, product management, or a related area.
Knowledge of program management techniques, tools, and frameworks, including benefits analysis and program planning.
Knowledge of technical design, software requirements translation, system and platform architecture, cloud infrastructure, pipeline orchestration, databases, networks, information security, infrastructure components, and hardware and software lifecycles.
Knowledge of site reliability engineering, observability, monitoring, incident management, cloud computing, service management concepts, and the ITIL framework.
Knowledge of risk management, project tracking, budgeting, financial and change management, critical paths, and negotiation methodologies.
Knowledge of stakeholder engagement, relationship management, communication, data analysis, research, problem-solving, and impact analysis.
Ability to manage complex, large-scale, cross-functional programs, dependencies, risks, budgets, roadmaps, and stakeholder alignment.
Ability to communicate complex information clearly in meetings and written materials.
Ability to mentor team members and provide supervision and development opportunities for associates.

Nice To Haves

Certification in Project Management.
Master's degree in Business Administration with a specialization in strategy, supply chain, finance, information systems, or a related area, and 4 years of experience in product design.
Background creating inclusive digital experiences, including knowledge of WCAG 2.2 AA standards, assistive technologies, digital accessibility best practices, and accessibility standards and guidelines.

Responsibilities

Define program goals, stage gates, critical delivery paths, and key deliverables for large-scale programs with dependencies, timelines, and resource constraints.
Secure commitments for program scope, delivery dates, and resources, and manage cross-functional dependencies.
Resolve ambiguous situations involving conflicting business and product strategies and clarify strategy and end-to-end technology solutions for program teams and leadership.
Identify synergies, overlaps, and waste across program tracks; improve ways of working and mentor team members.
Participate in high-level system solution design discussions and assess design choices for scalability, high availability, and performance.
Clarify requirements with engineering teams and translate product feature requirements and program outcomes into technical designs or system-level elements.
Identify dependencies between systems, services, and capabilities, and opportunities for software reuse across products.
Direct the investigation, reporting, and follow-up needed to resolve defects and bugs found during testing or after production release.
Establish end-to-end delivery plans that account for application, infrastructure, and security impacts and interdependencies.
Ensure release rollforward and rollback plans, monitoring, alerting, and operational excellence frameworks are in place.
Support launch and post-launch readiness by assessing engineering practices for testing, triage, and maintenance.
Research domain practices and automation techniques, identify process improvements, and conduct impact analysis to guide build-versus-buy decisions and product roadmaps.
Monitor multiple programs and decompose program performance metrics into project-level measures.
Identify and assess risks, create mitigation plans, manage issues, escalate blockers, and dynamically refine roadmaps for at-risk programs.
Ensure budgets, teams, resources, and priorities are aligned with high-value efforts; track dependencies and release underutilized systems or environments when appropriate.
Own and drive complex, large-scale program lifecycles and mentor team members on program management best practices.
Implement processes to accelerate timelines and define, improve, and standardize scalable, measurable, repeatable workflows for cross-functional teams.
Break down ambiguous programs into parallelizable subprojects and subprocesses; manage concurrent engineering deliverables, queues, development cycles, and testing progress.
Define prioritization frameworks for dynamically resequencing a portfolio of initiatives.
Communicate program progress, risks, scope, timelines, dependencies, and changes to core teams and broader stakeholders using appropriate channels and communication styles.
Prepare clear, structured reports and materials using relevant qualitative and quantitative data; seek and provide constructive, actionable feedback.
Define program success metrics, extract insights from multiple data sources, and lead problem-solving for complex and ambiguous issues.
Engage program stakeholders on established cadences, align them on roles, responsibilities, goals, timelines, deliverables, and ways of working, and maintain alignment through setbacks and blockers.
Drive business plans and projects by identifying customer and operational needs, communicating priorities, removing barriers, providing resources, measuring progress, and adjusting plans.
Select, train, mentor, and supervise associates; assign duties, establish expectations, conduct performance evaluations, recognize contributions, and provide coaching and development opportunities.
Promote company policies, procedures, mission, values, and standards of ethics and integrity, and support compliance and the Open Door Policy.
Evaluate the effectiveness of plans and initiatives, consult stakeholders, apply improvement suggestions, and participate in and support community outreach events.
Promote respect, belonging, collaboration, talent development, ethical conduct, customer focus, continuous improvement, and effective use of digital tools.

Benefits

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.
Live Better U education benefit, including tuition, books, and fees for eligible programs.
Annual or quarterly performance bonuses.
Stock may be included as additional compensation for certain positions.