Principal Data Engineer

Walmart; Sunnyvale (CA); On-site; USD 143,000 - 286,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Health benefits

401(k)

Stock purchase plan

Paid time off

Life insurance

Employee discounts

Job summary

Walmart in Sunnyvale, CA is seeking a Principal Engineer to architect scalable data systems processing billions of ad and customer signals across real-time, near-real-time, micro-batch, and batch workloads. You will unify advertising data across campaigns, identity, audiences, measurement, optimization, CRM, and advertiser lifecycle.

Lead architecture of high-throughput, low-latency platforms with governance, observability, and cost efficiency, while modernizing legacy pipelines and enabling

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science and 5 years’ experience in software engineering or related field.
• Option 2: 7 years’ experience in software engineering or related field.
• Option 3: Master’s degree in Computer Science and 3 years’ experience in software engineering or related field.
• 4 years’ experience in data engineering, database engineering, business intelligence, or business analytics.

Responsibilities

• Lead architecture of real-time, large-scale advertising and customer data platforms.
• Define workload patterns across streaming, near-real-time, micro-batch, and batch.
• Provide technical leadership across the full advertising lifecycle, including events, identity, audiences, campaigns, measurement, optimization, CRM, and marketing data.
• Build reusable, multi-tenant, configuration-driven platforms with standardized schemas, contracts, observability, privacy, and deployment patterns.
• Establish governed agentic data capabilities for discovery, pipeline creation, monitoring, diagnosis, optimization, onboarding, and AI-ready products.

Skills

Real-time data processing

Technical leadership

Distributed systems

Education

Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science

Master’s degree in Computer Science

Tools

Spark

Flink

Kafka

GCP

BigQuery

Dataproc

Dataflow

Airflow

Job description

Position Summary…

What you’ll do…

PrincipalEngineer responsibleforarchitectingscalabledatasystemsprocessingbillionsofadvertisingandcustomersignalsacrossreal-time,near-real-time,micro-batch,andbatchworkloads.
Ensurelowlatency,highthroughput,resilience,replayability,idempotency,andcost-efficientscaling.
Unifyadvertisingdataacrosscampaigns,identity,audiences,measurement,optimization,CRM,andadvertiserlifecycle.
Buildreusable,configuration-driven,multi-tenantplatformswithstandardizedschemas,contracts,governance,observability,privacy,anddeploymentpatterns.
Modernizelegacypipelinesforreal-timeoptimization,reporting,activation,andML.
Leadagenticdataenablementspanningdiscovery,pipelineautomation,monitoring,diagnostics,costoptimization,onboarding,recommendations,andsecure,explainableproductionguardrails.
About the team:

GlobalAdTechandMarTech buildsthedataanddecisioningplatformspoweringadvertisingacrossWalmartU.S.,Sam’sClub,andinternationalmarkets.
Connectsidentity,intent,audiences,campaigns,inventory,bidding,relevance,creative,transactions,attribution,andmeasurementatmassivescaleinrealtime.
EnablesSponsoredProducts,Display,CTV,offsite,social,andin-storeadvertising,plusreporting,targeting,activation,optimization,forecasting,recommendations,andadvertiseranalytics.
Operatesplatformsprocessingbillionsofevents,adrequests,andtensofbillionsofbidsdaily.
Designsforthroughput,latency,correctness,resilience,privacy,scalability,andcostefficiency.
AdvancesAIandagenticadvertisingthroughtrusted,governed,reusabledatafoundationsanddecisioningcapabilities.

What you’ll do:

Leadthearchitectureofreal-time,large-scaleadvertisingandcustomerdataplatformsprocessingbillionsofsignalswithpredictablelatency,resilience,replayability,andcostefficiency.Definewhenworkloadsusestreaming,near-real-time,micro-batch,orbatchpatternswhilemodernizinglegacypipelines.Providetechnicalleadershipacrossthefulladvertisinglifecycle,includingevents,identity,audiences,campaigns,measurement,optimization,CRM,andmarketingdata.Buildreusable,multi-tenant,configuration-drivenplatformswithstandardizedschemas,contracts,observability,privacy,anddeployment.Establishgovernedagenticdatacapabilitiesfordiscovery,pipelinecreation,monitoring,diagnosis,optimization,onboarding,andAI-readyproducts,withproductionguardrailsforsecurity,reliability,explainability,safety,andmeasurableoutcomesacrossglobaladvertisingbusinesses.
What you’ll bring:

Deepexpertisedesigning billion-scale,real-timeandnear-real-timedistributeddatasystems usingSpark,Flink,Kafka,streaming,orchestration,andcompute/storageoptimization.
Strongexperiencewith GCPorequivalentcloudplatforms ,includingBigQuery,Dataproc,Dataflow,Pub-Sub,Airflow,andmoderndatainfrastructure.
Deepunderstandingof low-latencyarchitecturesatScale ,partitioning,backpressure,replay,consistency,faulttolerance,resilience,recovery,andcostefficiency.
Strong AdTech/MarTechexpertise acrossretailmedia,bidding,targeting,identity,attribution,measurement,reporting,CTV,andprivacy-safecollaborationisdesirable.
Abilitytoconnect real-timearchitecturedecisions tocampaigndelivery,ROAS,reach,frequency,inventoryutilization,andadvertiseroutcomes.
Proven Principal-levelleadership shapingarchitecture,standards,strategictrade-offs,designreviews,andseniortechnicaltalent.

At Walmart, we offer competitive pay as well as performance-based bonus 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, company discounts, Military Leave Pay, adoption and surrogacy expense reimbursement, and more. You will also receive PTO and/or PPTO that can be used for vacation, sick leave, holidays, or other purposes. The amount you receive depends on your job classification and length of employment. It will meet or exceed the requirements of paid sick leave laws, where applicable. For information about PTO, see https://one.walmart.com/notices. 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.
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.
The annual salary range for this position is $143,000.00 - $286,000.00 Additional compensation includes annual or quarterly performance bonuses. Additional compensation for certain positions may also include :

• Stock

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 and 5 years’ experience in software engineering or related field. Option 2: 7 years’ experience in software engineering or related field. Option 3: Master’s degree in Computer Science and 3 years’ experience in software engineering or related field.
4 years’ experience in data engineering, database engineering, business intelligence, or business analytics.

Preferred Qualifications…

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

Data engineering, database engineering, business intelligence, or business analytics, ETL tools and working with large data sets in the cloud, Master’s degree in Computer Science or related field and 5 years’ experience in software engineering or related field, 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…

1275 Crossman Ave, Sunnyvale, CA 94089-1103, United States of America

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.