Principal, UX Designer / Engineer - AI Systems

Walmart • San Bruno, CA

109d • $110,000 - $286,000

About The Position

As a Principal UX Designer / Engineer, AI Systems in the Design Organization, you will: Implement and Productionize AI Systems: Partner with design, product, and engineering leaders to translate the AI roadmap into scalable, secure, and resilient solutions that meet the needs of the Design Organization. Drive AI Innovation: Identify and deliver high-impact opportunities where generative AI, LLMs, and intelligent automation can enhance creative workflows, product discovery, design quality, and speed. Build and Scale Production Services: Develop reliable backend services in Python and Node.js, focusing on performance, resilience, and observability. Harden prototypes into production-ready, secure, and scalable services within Walmart-approved infrastructure and guardrails. Integrate with Walmart Ecosystem: Ensure seamless integration with Walmart identity, networking, data platforms, observability, and compliance controls (e.g., SSO, secrets management, service mesh). Define Production-Readiness: Establish gates for POCs, including SLA/SLO targets, error budgets, performance baselines, cost limits, capacity planning, disaster recovery, and runbooks. Operational Excellence: Drive CI/CD pipelines, infrastructure as code, and migration of prototypes to dev, stage, and prod environments. Ensure operational ownership with alerting, on-call strategies, incident response, and continuous improvement. Architect AI-Powered Design Tools: Lead the technical design and architecture of internal tools and subsystems that empower designers, researchers, and content strategists. Build scalable, reusable infrastructure for organization-wide AI applications. Mentor and Uplift Technical Craft: Guide engineers and architects through complex architecture decisions, rapid prototyping, and AI tool selection. Foster a culture of experimentation, technical excellence, and responsible innovation. Promote AI Thought Leadership: Represent the Design Organization in internal AI communities, share learnings, and influence AI adoption across Walmart.

Requirements

• 12+ years in software or platform engineering, delivering production systems at scale
• 7+ years combined professional experience in Python and Node.js (minimum 4+ years in each)
• 4+ years operating workloads in Kubernetes in production
• 5+ years designing and operating both SQL and NoSQL data models
• 2+ years building or operating ML/LLM-powered applications in production
• 5+ years leading cross-functional architecture and mentoring senior engineers
• Bachelor's or Master's in Computer Science or related field, or equivalent practical experience
• Strong communication skills and a portfolio of shipped systems with measurable impact

Nice To Haves

• Design certification (for example, IDEOU - Foundations in Design Thinking Certificate)
• Driving product development in a user experience area
• Master's degree in UI/UX Design, Interactive and Visual Design, Product Design, or related area
• Related industry experience (for example, retail, supply chain, eCommerce, healthcare)
• Knowledge of accessibility best practices and implementing Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.2 AA standards

Responsibilities

• Implement and Productionize AI Systems
• Drive AI Innovation
• Build and Scale Production Services
• Integrate with Walmart Ecosystem
• Define Production-Readiness
• Operational Excellence
• Architect AI-Powered Design Tools
• Mentor and Uplift Technical Craft
• Promote AI Thought Leadership

Benefits

• Health benefits including medical, vision and dental coverage
• Financial benefits including 401(k), stock purchase and company-paid life insurance
• Paid time off benefits including PTO (including sick leave), parental leave, family care leave, bereavement, jury duty, and voting
• Short-term and long-term disability
• Company discounts
• Military Leave Pay
• Adoption and surrogacy expense reimbursement
• Live Better U education benefit program for full-time and part-time associates

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Senior
• Industry: General Merchandise Retailers
• Education Level: Bachelor's degree