Principal Data Engineer

StartupNWA; Bentonville (AR); On-site; USD 129,000 - 220,000; Full time

Job summary

StartupNWA in Bentonville, AR seeks a Principal Data Engineer to translate business problems into data-driven solutions and lead data architecture at scale.

You will own data strategy, build ETL pipelines with Hadoop/Spark/Hive/BigQuery on cloud platforms, and mentor engineers while partnering with product and analytics teams to drive outcomes.

The role requires advanced degree or equivalent and hands-on experience with cloud platforms, BI tools, and ML modeling to deliver actionable insights.

Qualifications

• Master's degree in CS/IT/Engineering or related field with 3+ years software eng exp.
• Or Bachelor's degree with 5+ years of relevant exp.
• Hands-on in Python, SQL, PySpark, HTML, Scala.
• Experience building ETL pipelines with Hadoop/Spark/Hive/BigQuery on cloud.
• Data warehousing with Redshift/Teradata/S3/BigQuery for analytics.
• SQL/Spark SQL/NoSQL data manipulation and retrieval.
• Automation and scalable pipeline architecture; KPI-focused.
• Experience with JIRA, GitHub, PM tools; dashboards with Power BI/Tableau.
• ML models (forecasting/regression) using Python libs; support EDA.
• Collaboration with cross-functional teams; mentoring juniors.

Responsibilities

• Translate business problems into data-related or mathematical solutions.
• Identify methods/tools to provide solutions and share use cases.
• Offer expert guidance to others in applying information and best practices.
• Develop business cases with ROI or cost-savings projections.
• Translate requirements into projects, tasks, and aligned strategy.
• Connect business needs with tangible data solutions and results.
• Identify insightful business data and monitor progress with stakeholders.
• Mentor junior engineers on storytelling, data narratives, and methods.
• Profile, analyze, and ensure data quality; enforce data governance.
• Design, implement, and validate exploratory data analyses (EDA).

Skills

Python

SQL

PySpark

HTML

Scala

ETL pipelines

Data visualization

ML models

JIRA

GitHub

Power BI

Tableau

Education

Master's degree in CS/IT/Engineering or related field

3+ years software engineering or related exp

Bachelor's degree in CS/IT/Engineering

Tools

Hadoop

Apache Spark

Hive

BigQuery

AWS

GCP

Azure

Amazon Redshift

Teradata

S3

NoSQL

Parquet/JSON/CSV

EC2

Job description

What you'll do...

Position: Principal Data Engineer

Job Location: 811 Excellence Dr, Bentonville, AR 72716

Duties: Tech. Problem Formulation: Translate/co-own business problems within one's discipline to data related or mathematical solutions. Identify appropriate methods/tools to be leveraged to provide a solution for the problem. Share use cases and gives examples to demonstrate how the method would solve the business problem. Demonstrates up-to-date expertise and applies this to the development, execution, and improvement of action plans by providing expert advice and guidance to others in the application of information and best practices; supporting and aligning efforts to meet customer and business needs; and building commitment for perspectives and rationales. Understanding Business Context: Provide recommendations to business stakeholders to solve complex business issues. Develop business cases for projects with a projected return on investment or cost savings. Translate business requirements into projects, activities, and tasks and aligns to overall business strategy and develops domain specific artifact. Serve as an interpreter and conduit to connect business needs with tangible solutions and results. Identify and recommend relevant business insights pertaining to their area of work. Provides and supports the implementation of business solutions by building relationships and partnerships with key stakeholders; identifying business needs; determining and carrying out necessary processes and practices; monitoring progress and results; recognizing and capitalizing on improvement opportunities; and adapting to competing demands, organizational changes, and new responsibilities. Data Source Identification: Support the understanding of the priority order of requirements and service level agreements. Help identify the most suitable source for data that is fit for purpose. Perform initial data quality checks on extracted data. Data Visualization: Generate appropriate graphical representations of data and model outcomes. Understand customer requirements to design appropriate data representation for multiple data sets. Work with User Experience designers and User Interface engineers as required to build front end applications. Present to and influences the team and business audience using the appropriate data visualization frameworks and conveys clear messages through business and stakeholder understanding. Customize communication style based on stakeholder under guidance and leverages rational arguments. Guide and mentor junior associates on story types, structures, and techniques based on context. Data Quality Management: Promote and educate others on data quality awareness. Profile, analyze, and assess data quality. Test and validate data quality requirements. Continuously measure and monitor data quality. Deliver against data quality service level agreements. Manage operational Data Quality Management procedures. Manage data quality issues and leads data cleansing activities to remove data quality defects, improve data quality, and eliminate unused data. Determine user accessibility and removes or restricts user access as needed. Interpret company and regulatory policies on data. Educate others on data governance processes, practices, policies, and guidelines. Exploratory Data Analysis: Collect and tabulate data and evaluate results to determine accuracy, validity, and applicability. Support the identification and application of statistical techniques based on requirements. Apply suitable technique under direction from leadership. Assist in the planning, design and implementation of an exploratory data analysis research projects. Understand existing statistical models and identify and recommend statistical models based on hypothesis.

Minimum education and experience required: Master's degree or equivalent in Computer Science, Information Technology, Engineering or related field plus 3 years of experience in software engineering or related experience; 7 years of software engineering experience or related experience; OR Bachelor's degree or equivalent in Computer Science, Information Technology, Engineering or related field plus 5 years of experience in software engineering or related experience.

Skills Required: Must have experience with: Coding in object-oriented languages: Python, SQL, PySpark, HTML, Scala; Designing, building, and maintaining ETL pipelines using Hadoop, Apache Spark, Hive, BigQuery on cloud platforms (GCP, AWS, Azure) for scalable, secure, reliable solutions; Data warehousing: Amazon Redshift, Teradata, S3, BigQuery for large-scale storage and analytics; Using query languages: SQL, Spark SQL, NoSQL for data manipulation and retrieval; Script automation: Identifying bottlenecks; architecting solutions like automated pipelines and query optimization; Retail & digital advertising: KPIs (CTR, impressions), interpreting HTML and cookies from backend; Using JIRA, GitHub, and PM tools for sprint planning, backlog management, and progress tracking with dashboards; Developing dashboards: Power BI, Tableau, Medallia; designing surveys, defining KPIs, improving email response rates; Hypothesis testing, A/B testing, ML models (forecasting, regression) using Python libraries (Scikit-learn, Pandas, Matplotlib, Seaborn) for EDA and insights; Collaborating with cross-functional teams, contributing to technical community, mentoring junior engineers; Parsing, cleansing, querying unstructured data across formats (Parquet, JSON, TXT, CSV); Managing Amazon EC2 instances for scalable cloud computing resources. Employer will accept any amount of experience with the required skills.

Rate of pay: $129,314.00 - 220,000.00/year. Additional compensation includes annual or quarterly performance incentives.

Benefits: At Walmart, we offer competitive pay as well as performance-based incentive awards and other great benefits for a happier mind, body, and wallet. Health benefits include medical, vision and dental coverage. Financial benefits include 401(k), stock purchase and company-paid life insurance. Paid time off benefits include PTO (including sick leave), parental leave, family care leave, bereavement, jury duty and voting. Other benefits include short-term and long-term disability, education assistance with 100% company paid college degrees, company discounts, military service pay, adoption expense reimbursement, and more.

Eligibility requirements apply to some benefits and may depend on your job classification and length of employment. Benefits are subject to change and may be subject to a specific plan or program terms. For information about benefits and eligibility, see One.Walmart.com.

Wal-Mart is an Equal Opportunity Employer.

Walmart and its subsidiaries are committed to maintaining a drug-free workplace and has a no tolerance policy regarding the use of illegal drugs and alcohol on the job. This policy applies to all employees and aims to create a safe and productive work environment.