Principal, Software Engineer

What you'll do

As a Principal Full-Stack Enginee r on the mGPS/Compass team, you will lead the design and delivery of the Java services and web experiences that power Walmart's in-store positioning, mapping, and routing platform. You will set technical direction across backend and front end, with a strong focus on TypeScript and React, and own the quality, reliability, and performance of what we ship. You will mentor engineers and partner with product, vendors, and partner-app teams to turn complex needs into effective technical solutions that serve millions of customers and associates.

What you'll do

• Own the front-end architecture for our web tools and map experiences, including the admin application and the in-store map interface, with a focus on performance, accessibility, and maintainability.
• Build and review code across Java backend services, React/TypeScript front ends, and the SDK integration layer, and set coding and testing standards.
• Own architecture for the Compass platform API design, service boundaries, caching, data stores, and resilience (multi-region active/active + DR).
• Lead platform engineering efforts by delivering scalable infrastructure, reusable tooling, and cloud-native architectures aligned with strategic roadmaps.
• Design and evolve multi-tenant capabilities (tenant-aware config, maps and APIs) for new chains and formats.
• Build and review backend (Java), web (React/TypeScript/Node), and mobile SDK (Kotlin, Swift) code, set standards, mentor engineers, raise testing maturity.
• Drive scale and performance work like Kafka partitioning/throughput, API latency, cache strategy, data-pipeline cost (GCP BQ optimizations)
• Partner with product, vendors (positioning technology), and partner-app teams (mobile apps, supplier and associate tools) on SDK contracts, SLAs, rollout plans and incident response.
• Improve operational excellence by enhancing observability, alerting, canary deployments, runbooks, change-management discipline, on-call health.

What you'll bring

• Front-end engineering: deep experience with TypeScript and React (state management, performance, accessibility, testing), including Node.js and trade-offs between server-side rendering and single-page apps.
• Backend engineering: strong Java (Spring Boot 3.x, Java 17/21), REST API design, and relational data (PostgreSQL, JPA).
• Technical leadership: a record of leading architecture across teams, writing design docs and ADRs, and mentoring engineers at principal level.
• Event streaming with Kafka (producers/consumers, partitioning, DLQ/retry, idempotency).
• Exposure with Data engineering fundamentals: Big Query/SQL, Airflow, Spark/Datapost-style batch pipelines.
• Experience with cloud-native delivery: Kubernetes, CI/CD, canary/progressive delivery, secrets management, observability (metrics, tracing, alerting).
• Demonstrated ability to apply model-driven design and leverage AI agents to enhance software solutions.
• Excellent problem-solving skills with a focus on aligning technical solutions to business and customer needs.
• Set technical direction for the Compass platform and its web experiences: own API and service boundaries, and lead the move to well-bounded domain services.
• Write and review production code across Java services and React/TypeScript front ends, and raise the bar on testing and quality.
• Work with product, positioning vendors, and partner-app teams on SDK contracts, rollouts, and incident response.
• Lead design reviews and ADRs, mentor engineers, and drive reliability, performance, and operational health.

Pay and benefits

At Sam's Club, 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, parental leave, family care leave, bereavement, jury duty, and voting. 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.
• Other benefits include short-term and long-term disability, company discounts, Military Leave Pay, adoption and surrogacy expense reimbursement, and more.

Live Better U is a company 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 Regional Pay Zone (RPZ) (based on location).

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

1345 Crossman Ave, Sunnyvale, CA 94089-1114, United States of America