Staff Software Engineer

Position Summary...

What you'll do...

About the team

Our team builds Walmart's next-generation Agentic AI platform: backend services, APIs, agent tooling, and user experiences that bring Generative AI to associates at enterprise scale. We run a production platform, so engineering discipline (pipelines, observability, on-call) matters as much as AI know-how. We value ownership, strong code review, and continuous learning.

What you'll do

• Take problems with unclear requirements, investigate and prototype, and drive them to a clear scope and design. Present your recommendations to senior and fellow Staff-level engineers.
• Lead design reviews for scalability, latency, reliability, and security; write and review ADRs/RFCs.
• Build AI-driven capabilities: agent skills, tool/plugin integrations, and MCP servers, with evaluation and tracing (e.g., Langfuse).
• Define and maintain the team's standards for using AI in engineering work.
• Partner with Data Science to understand agent and model quality metrics and turn them into engineering improvements.
• Own your services end to end: design, code, test, deploy (CI/CD and infrastructure as code), and take part in the on-call rotation, including incident response and postmortems.
• Improve observability: end-to-end distributed tracing and latency SLAs across services.
• Mentor engineers and raise the bar through reviews and documentation.
• Work with Frontend and Data Science to define clean contracts between systems.

What you'll bring

• Production experience in Python (FastAPI or similar); TypeScript/Node.js is expected for parts of the platform (Go helpful).
• Streaming/event-driven systems (e.g., Kafka) and data modeling for streaming rather than batch.
• Proven experience in cloud-native architecture: microservices, containers, Kubernetes, and observability.
• Owned a real CI/CD pipeline and infrastructure as code (e.g., Terraform) for a service you ran in production.
• Hands-on with relational/NoSQL databases in production (PostgreSQL preferred), including schema design and migrations.
• Distributed tracing (e.g., OpenTelemetry) and experience meeting latency/SLA targets (p99), including the tradeoffs you made.
• On-call and incident ownership: be ready to share a concrete incident you diagnosed, mitigated, and wrote up.
• Strong software design and API design skills.
• Experience building and shipping AI/LLM-based systems beyond basic assistant use (agent/tool design, prompt and context engineering, evaluation, guardrails).
• Experience setting team standards for AI-assisted development.
• A track record of driving ambiguous requirements to clear decisions and presenting them to senior engineers.
• Comfort working with Data Science partners on metrics and evaluation.
• Strong debugging, problem-solving, and communication skills.

Good to have

• Familiarity with the A2A and MCP protocols (you'll build with both here, so prior exposure helps).
• Experience with agent frameworks.
• Frontend exposure (React).

Working in the AI world

• Editor and risk manager of AI-generated work. Be able to verify, refine, and ensure the accuracy of AI outputs. You are accountable for what ships, whether you or an AI wrote it.
• Orchestrate and audit AI workflows. Design workflows with clear review checkpoints and traceability.
• Strong power skills. Interpersonal coordination and clear communication across engineering, product, and data science.
• Use AI responsibly. Use approved tools and follow Walmart data-handling policies.
  
  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 $110,000.00 - $220,000.00
  
  Additional compensation includes annual or quarterly performance bonuses.
  
  Additional compensation for certain positions may also include :
  
  - Stock

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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 4 years’ experience in software engineering or related area.
Option 2: 6 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 2 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...

805 Se Moberly Ln., Bentonville, AR 72712, United States of AmericaWalmart 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.