Distinguished, Software Engineer

Walmart•Sunnyvale, CA

4d•Hybrid

About The Position

We are seeking a Distinguished Software Engineer to define and drive the technical architecture for Walmart’s next-generation omni-channel Ad Experiences platform. This is one of the highest-impact individual contributor roles within Walmart Connect Engineering, focused on shaping the future of retail media experiences across Search, Display, Video, CTV, DOOH, and emerging physical retail surfaces. This role sits at the intersection of distributed systems, client rendering, ad serving, experimentation, measurement, video monetization, SDK architecture, and in-store commerce technology. You will partner across Product, Data Science, Infrastructure, Store Technology, Creative Platforms, and Ads Platform teams to build the unified experiences architecture powering Walmart’s future retail media ecosystem. You will solve problems that do not yet have industry playbooks — including unifying monetization surfaces across digital and physical environments, architecting low-latency rendering systems where every millisecond matters, scaling experimentation safely across billions of shopper interactions, and defining the technical foundation for the next decade of retail media innovation. About the team Walmart Connect is one of the fastest-growing retail media platforms in the world, powering advertising experiences across Search, Display, Video, Mobile, Web, CTV, and Digital Out-of-Home (DOOH) surfaces. Over the last several years, Walmart’s advertising business has scaled from approximately double-digit year-over-year growth and has become one of the fastest scaling retail media businesses in the industry, supported by a massive first-party commerce ecosystem reaching millions of shoppers daily across digital and physical retail environments. The Ad Experiences organization owns every shopper-facing monetization surface across Walmart’s ecosystem — including mobile applications, web platforms, in-store screens, self-checkout systems, fuel stations, video playback surfaces, and emerging omni-channel retail experiences. Our team builds the rendering engines, client SDKs, experimentation platforms, video monetization infrastructure, measurement systems, and unified cross-platform runtime powering more than 170,000+ in-store screens and massive year-over-year growth in ad rendering traffic annually. We are building the industry’s first truly unified retail media client platform — enabling advertisers to reach customers seamlessly across digital and physical shopping journeys with privacy-safe measurement, real-time optimization, dynamic rendering, and frame-accurate video monetization.

Requirements

12+ years of software engineering experience building large-scale distributed systems or client platforms.
Recognized technical leadership driving architecture across multiple organizations or product domains.
Deep expertise in one or more of the following areas: AdTech, video platforms, distributed systems, SDK architecture, rendering engines, experimentation systems, or large-scale client applications.
Strong hands-on engineering background with the ability to operate at both strategic and implementation levels.
Experience architecting highly performant systems operating under strict latency, scale, and reliability constraints.
Experience driving cross-functional technical strategy across Product, Infrastructure, Data Science, and Platform Engineering teams.
Excellent communication skills with ability to influence senior technical and executive stakeholders.
Option 1: Bachelor's degree in computer science, computer engineering, computer information systems, software engineering, or related area and 6 years’ experience in software engineering or related area.
Option 2: 8 years’ experience in software engineering or related area.

Nice To Haves

Experience in Retail Media, AdTech, Search monetization, Video monetization, CTV, or DOOH platforms.
Experience building first-party ad serving or measurement systems.
Strong understanding of experimentation systems, ranking systems, auction mechanics, or personalization.
Experience with video playback technologies including HLS/DASH, SSAI, and streaming monetization.
Experience with cross-platform SDKs spanning iOS, Android, Web, Linux, embedded systems, or connected devices.
Familiarity with privacy-safe measurement and MRC-compliant instrumentation.
Experience operating platforms at Walmart-scale or comparable internet-scale environments.
Master’s degree in computer science, computer engineering, computer information systems, software engineering, or related area and 4 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

Define the long-term architecture for Walmart’s unified omni-channel Ad Experiences platform spanning Mobile, Web, CTV, Video, and DOOH environments.
Lead the design of highly performant client-side rendering systems and SDKs powering billions of ad requests and rendering events annually.
Architect cross-platform monetization frameworks enabling reusable rendering, experimentation, and measurement capabilities across all shopper surfaces.
Drive the evolution of Walmart’s first-party client rendering and measurement ecosystem, reducing dependency on third-party ad infrastructure.
Define rendering performance standards and latency SLAs including time-to-first-frame, render completion, video startup latency, and measurement timing integrity.
Shape Walmart’s unified video monetization architecture including SSAI, HLS ad stitching, quartile tracking, frame-accurate transitions, and playback resiliency.
Lead technical strategy for experimentation systems supporting statistically powered optimization across ad load, ranking, shopper engagement, and revenue yield.
Building a unified rendering architecture that seamlessly spans native apps, browsers, connected devices, in-store screens, and emerging retail surfaces.
Operating low-latency monetization systems where every additional millisecond directly impacts shopper engagement and revenue yield.
Scaling experimentation and ranking systems safely across billions of shopper interactions while preserving platform stability.
Delivering consistent measurement integrity across heterogeneous client environments, operating systems, and hardware generations.
Creating highly resilient distributed systems capable of operating reliably across large fleets of retail devices with remote observability and recovery

Benefits

incentive awards for your performance
maternity and parental leave
PTO
health benefits
medical, vision and 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 and long-term disability
company discounts
Military Leave Pay
adoption and surrogacy expense reimbursement
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.