Principal, Software Engineer
Principal engineer leading 30+ engineers on Walmart's AdTech measurement and reporting team, designing cloud-native, real-time data/ML platforms for attribution, incrementality, cleanroom measurement, and GenAI-powered reporting. Core stack includes Spark, Flink, Kafka, BigQuery, PyTorch, CUDA, and GPU-backed transformer inference.
- Compensation
- $143K–$286K / yr
- Location
- Sunnyvale, Santa Clara County
- Work setup
- Not specified
- Seniority
- Principal
- Employment
- Part time
- Experience
- 4+ years
- Category
- Software engineering
- Posted
Skills
Must have
- 8+ years of experience in ML and data-intensive platform development
- 4+ years of experience as staff+ level technical lead
- Bachelor's degree in CS/CE/CIS/SE or related field and 5 years' software engineering experience, OR 7 years' experience without a degree
- Familiar with distributed data processing tools and databases (Spark streaming, Flink, Kafka, RAY, BigQuery, Druid, Cassandra)
- Skilled at leveraging AI to enhance productivity and drive innovation
- Familiar with GenAI techniques (MCP, RAG, re-ranking, agent skills, context engineering, fine-tuning)
- Familiar with ML libraries (pyspark, pytorch, CUDA, Triton)
- Experience implementing statistical and ML methods for classification, regression, ranking, and/or recommendation
- Experience with transformer-based model training and real-time inference on GPU-backed infrastructure
- Experience working cross-functionally with data scientists, ML engineers, and product managers
- Experience in AdTech measurement with demonstrated knowledge of the AdTech business
- Ability to troubleshoot production issues, engage support teams, and drive resolution plans
Nice to have
- PhD in data mining, data management, machine learning, operations research, GenAI, or statistics
- Master's degree in CS/CE/CIS/SE or related field and 3 years' software engineering experience
- Publications in top-tier academic conferences or journals
- Patents in data mining or machine learning related domains
- Experience with ad-tech targeting, measurement, identity mapping, bidding, and optimization
- Extensive experience in real-time data streaming applications
- Extensive experience in ads auction retrieval and ranking
- Extensive experience in bid optimization applications
- Good understanding of query optimization and distributed systems
- Good understanding of industry trends in AdTech, ML, and GenAI
- Knowledge of WCAG 2.2 AA accessibility standards and assistive technologies
Full description
Position Summary...
The Principal, Software Engineer leads the design and delivery of scalable platform capabilities, driving technical execution across multiple teams. This role applies cloud-native architecture principles to develop resilient distributed systems and integrates AI/ML solutions that serve millions of users. The position requires strategic technical leadership, mentorship, and collaboration with cross-functional stakeholders to translate business needs into actionable engineering outcomes. The Principal Engineer ensures high-quality deliverables, fosters innovation, and advances Walmart’s engineering vision through knowledge sharing and continuous improvement initiatives.
The AdTech Measurement and Reporting team builds scalable, cloud-native platforms for real-time data processing and AI integration. This team delivers detailed performance insights that support informed decision-making and business objectives. Collaborating across functions, members design robust tools to enhance reporting accuracy and efficiency. Applying advanced engineering principles, software design patterns, and data-driven methods, the team ensures reliable, high-quality outputs. Focused on continuous innovation and alignment with strategic goals, this group advances Walmart’s technology solutions through disciplined development, testing, and delivery practices.
What you'll do...
What you'll do:
- Be the technical leader of 30+ engineers.
- Solve world class scale AdTech problems using ML (e.g., transformer model) and statistical methods together with a group talented engineers with doctoral degrees and industry experiences in top-tier tech companies.
- Lead platform development for a suite of measurement solutions from 0 to 1— including incrementality, attribution, data cleanroom measurement, partner integrations, and GenAI-powered reporting — supporting both real-time optimization and offline reporting with the absolute stability and correctness demanded by Walmart's multi-billion-dollar digital advertising business.
- Define technical direction and conduct design reviews for engineering teams while partnering with engineering leadership and cross-functional stakeholders to align technical strategy with business goals.
- Troubleshoot business and production issues by gathering information (issue, impact, criticality, possible root cause), engage support teams to assist in resolution of issues, formulate an action plan, performing actions as designated in plan, interpret the results to determine further action, and complete online documentation.
What you'll bring:
- 8+ years of experience in ML and data intensive platform development.
- 4+ years of experience as staff+ level technical lead.