PRINCIPAL SOFTWARE ENGINEER

Walmart Global Tech India; Chennai District; On-site; INR 3,500,000 - 6,000,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Incentive awards

Health benefits

Maternity and parental leave

PTO

Job summary

Walmart Global Tech India seeks a Principal/Lead Engineer to design, build, and operate distributed platform services in Chennai. You will lead with strong Java and Python skills, work on cloud-native infrastructure, and shape data pipelines and AI-powered capabilities for internal customers across Walmart banners.

You’ll own reliability and architecture while mentoring teams and driving platform excellence in a fast-paced, data-centric environment.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's or Master’s degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or related technical field, or equivalent practical experience.
• 12+ years of professional software engineering experience building and operating large-scale distributed platforms.
• Strong proficiency in Java and Python; Go, C++, or Scala is a plus.
• Deep experience with microservices, distributed systems, event-driven patterns, API design, and enterprise integration.
• Cloud-native engineering practices: CI/CD, containerization, Kubernetes, infrastructure automation, and production operations.
• Strong knowledge of Big Data/data engineering: Spark, Hadoop/HDFS, Hive, Kafka; able to flex into data engineering work.
• Experience with AI/Agentic technologies: GenAI/LLM tooling, model APIs, embeddings/vector search, MLOps practices.
• Security, privacy, and enterprise engineering practices including authentication/authorization and secure API design.
• Proven ability to translate ambiguous problems into clear execution plans with high autonomy.
• Ownership mindset and technical judgment; capable of operating in a 0-to-1 environment.

Responsibilities

• Design, build, and operate distributed platform services and APIs using Java and Python on cloud-native infra.
• Apply system design rigor to complex platform problems, evaluating dependencies and trade-offs for scalability and cost.
• Contribute to Spark-based data pipelines and data engineering work when needed.
• Build AI/GenAI-enabled platform capabilities and developer tooling for reliability and observability.
• Own platform reliability, SLOs, tracing, monitoring, and incident response with engineering excellence.
• Guide architecture and system decisions across microservices and enterprise integrations for downstream teams.
• Collaborate with data engineers, data scientists, and ML engineers to expose data primitives and model-serving paths.
• Establish engineering standards via reviews and production readiness assessments.
• Mentor engineers and influence Walmart Global Tech India platform engineering standards.

Skills

Java

Python

Go

C++

Scala

System design

DDD/LLD

OE mindset

Kubernetes

Cloud-native

Spark

Education

Bachelor's or Master’s in Computer Science/Engineering

Tools

Spark

Hadoop/HDFS

Hive

Kafka

Kubernetes

CI/CD

Containerization

Job description

Job Description:

About Team

GDF (Global Data Foundation) is part of Walmart's AI & Data organization - the team building the

foundational data platforms that power AI, analytics, and decision-making across every Walmart banner

and geography, from supply chain and merchandising to customer experience and enterprise AI agents.

Our newly created platform team is chartered with building next-generation data infrastructure at Walmart

scale: reliable, high-throughput data pipelines, distributed processing systems, and platform capabilities

that downstream teams across Walmart depend on every day.

What You\'ll Do

• Design, build, and operate distributed platform services and APIs using Java and Python, applied
• against Kubernetes or equivalent cloud-native infrastructure.

• Apply domain-oriented design, system design, and low-level design (LLD) rigor to ambiguous platform
• problems - evaluating dependencies, trade-offs, failure modes, scalability, cost, and long-term
• durability before writing a line of code.

• Flex into data engineering work when needed: contribute directly to Spark-based data pipelines and
• processing jobs, working comfortably in GDF\'s data engineering codebase alongside platform work.

• Build AI, GenAI, and agentic-powered platform capabilities: intelligent developer tooling, workflow
• automation, agentic services, and AI-assisted operational tooling (monitoring, incident triage, capacity
• planning).

• Own platform reliability, scalability, and observability - service-level objectives, distributed tracing,
• alerting, and incident response for services you build, with a strong Operational Excellence /
• Engineering Excellence discipline.

• Guide architecture and system design decisions across microservices, event-driven systems, and
• enterprise integrations, with an explicit eye toward how platform choices affect downstream data
• engineering workloads.

• Partner with data engineers, data scientists, and ML engineers to ensure platform services expose the
• right primitives for data pipelines, feature stores, and model-serving paths.

• Establish engineering standards through architecture reviews, design reviews, code reviews, and
• production readiness reviews for a team building process from scratch.

• As a Principal engineer, set technical direction and best practices across multiple teams and the
• broader GDF platform without needing a management title - mentor other engineers and influence
• GDF\'s broader platform engineering standards.

• Continuously evaluate emerging platform, cloud, and AI/agentic technologies, adopting them
• pragmatically where they improve reliability, productivity, or business value.

What You\'ll Bring

• Genuinely hands-on coding: 12+ years of professional software engineering experience building and
• operating large-scale distributed platforms; strong proficiency in Java and Python is required -
• comfortable writing, reviewing, and debugging production code, not just directing others. Additional
• experience with Go, C++, or Scala is a plus.

• Operational Excellence (OE) and Engineering Excellence (EE) mindset is a required skill, not a
• nice-to-have: SLO/SLA ownership, incident management and blameless post-incident reviews,
• proactive reliability and quality metrics, and continuous improvement built into how you ship, not
• bolted on afterward.

• Bachelor\'s or Master\'s degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or a related technical field, or
• equivalent practical experience.

• Deep experience with microservices architectures, distributed systems, event-driven patterns, API
• design, service contracts, and enterprise system integration - backed by strong system design,
• domain-oriented design (DDD), and low-level design (LLD) skills, with demonstrated ownership of
• production code and the judgment to evaluate trade-offs, failure modes, scalability, and cost.

• Deep understanding of cloud-native engineering practices - CI/CD, containerization, Kubernetes or
• equivalent orchestration, infrastructure automation, and production operations.

• Strong exposure to Big Data / data engineering technologies - Spark required at a working level, with
• familiarity in Hadoop/HDFS, Hive, or Kafka - enough to flex into data engineering work confidently, not
• just integrate with it from a distance.

• Full exposure to AI and Agentic technologies: hands-on experience integrating model APIs and
• GenAI/LLM tooling, building or operating agentic workflows (tool-calling agents, multi-step
• autonomous systems), working with embeddings/vector search, and applying MLOps practices
• (feature stores, model lifecycle, retraining pipelines) - not just conceptual awareness.

• Strong knowledge of reliability engineering - observability, distributed tracing, logging, metrics,
• alerting, incident response, capacity planning, and fault tolerance for large-scale systems.

• Strong grounding in security, privacy, and enterprise engineering practices, including authentication,
• authorization, data protection, and secure API design.

• Proven ability to translate ambiguous technical/business problems into clear execution plans,
• particularly across a newly formed platform organization without fully established process.

• Strong ownership mindset and technical judgment; comfortable operating with high autonomy in a
• 0-to-1 environment.

About Walmart Global Tech

Imagine working in an environment where one line of code can make life easier for hundreds of millions of people. That\'s what we do at Walmart Global Tech. We\'re a team of software engineers, data scientists, cybersecurity expert\'s and service professionals within the world\'s leading retailer who make an epic impact and are at the forefront of the next retail disruption. People are why we innovate, and people power our innovations. We are people-led and tech-empowered.

We train our team in the skillsets of the future and bring in experts like you to help us grow. We have roles for those chasing their first opportunity as well as those looking for the opportunity that will define their career. Here, you can kickstart a great career in tech, gain new skills and experience for virtually every industry, or leverage your expertise to innovate at scale, impact millions and reimagine the future of retail.

Walmart’s culture sets us apart, and we know being together helps us innovate, learn and grow great careers. This role is based in our Chennai office for daily work, with the flexibility for associates to manage their personal lives.

Benefits

Beyond our great compensation package, you can receive incentive awards for your performance. Other great perks include a host of best-in-class benefits maternity and parental leave, PTO, health benefits, and much more.

Belonging

We aim to create a culture where every associate feels valued for who they are, rooted in respect for the individual. Our goal is to foster a sense of belonging, to create opportunities for all our associates, customers and suppliers, and to be a Walmart for everyone.

At Walmart, our vision is "everyone included." By fostering a workplace culture where everyone is—and feels—included, everyone wins. Our associates and customers reflect the makeup of all 19 countries where we operate. By making Walmart a welcoming place where all people feel like they belong, we\u2019re able to engage associates, strengthen our business, improve our ability to serve customers, and support the communities where we operate.

Equal Opportunity Employer

Walmart, Inc., is an Equal Opportunities Employer – By Choice. We believe we are best equipped to help our associates, customers and the communities we serve live better when we really know them. That means understanding, respecting and valuing unique styles, experiences, identities, ideas and opinions – while being inclusive of all people.

Minimum Qualifications...Outlined below are the required minimum qualifications for this position. If none are listed, there are no minimum qualifications.

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.

Preferred Qualifications...Outlined below are the optional preferred qualifications for this position. If none are listed, there are no preferred qualifications.

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., 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.

Primary Location...Tower 1, Part Of 1st, 2nd To 4th Flrs, Intl Tech Park Radial Road (radial It Park Pvt Ltd), , India