Sr. Software Engineer: Inventory Positioning; Hybrid - Seattle, WA

Position: Sr. Software Engineer: Inventory Positioning (Hybrid - Seattle, WA)
Job Description

About the team and the role

The Inventory Positioning team owns the platform that decides where inventory should go and when - across Nordstrom's entire fulfillment network of DCs, FCs, and stores. Today, programs like Pack & Hold, Reserve Stock, Returns, and NYC Restocking each run on separate logic with no shared foundation. Our team is building the common platform that unifies them.

At the core is the Inventory Positioning Engine (IPE) - the intelligence layer of the Dynamic Inventory Positioning initiative. IPE owns the Sense and Decide functions of the platform: ingesting signals from across the Nordstrom network and making unit-level placement decisions that optimize for demand, cost-to-serve, and sell-through probability. IPE capabilities span delayed allocation, holdback quantity determination, node selection logic, multi-grain forecasting, inventory awareness, and capacity-aware routing.

As an Engineer Senior 1 on this team, you will design and build core IPE capabilities from the ground up, own solution-level designs spanning multiple engineers' work, and champion engineering quality across the team. You will make technical tradeoffs with a 120-day design horizon, mentor more junior engineers, and be directly engaged in incident resolution of complex problems.

A day in the life….

* Design and build real-time positioning decision pipelines that consume demand signals, unit economics, sellability scores, and positioning time to determine optimal inventory placement across the fulfillment network

* Own end-to-end implementation of Pack & Hold Reimagined, Returns Positioning, and Racking capabilities requiring solution-level design with full upstream/downstream integration consideration

* Analyze and deconstruct complex inventory state problems across inventory systems

* Identify and implement automation to streamline delivery of positioning services and drive measurable outcomes

* Work with business, infrastructure and security teams on delivering any enhancements and bug fixes for production systems

* Make technical tradeoffs between short-term delivery needs and long-term business needs in design, component choice, and database selection - and articulate those tradeoffs clearly to the team

* Describe detailed system interactions with direct dependencies; design deployment processes that minimize downtime and include alerting that detects failures before they impact customers

* Surface potential design or delivery conflicts in the current product cycle and make recommendations on the best path forward

* Improve quality of output throughout the team: provide actionable feedback during code and system design reviews, document team processes and designs, and ensure solutions are extensible

* Design key metrics and events for components worked on; demonstrate accountability for performance and security of feature work

* Ensure own work and team members' work follows Nordstrom's engineering and security standards; contribute to those standards when applicable

* Work to simplify, secure, optimize, and remove bottlenecks; exhibit a curious mindset of questioning and defending standards when applicable

* Participate in design and code review to ensure quality and testability of feature code

* Participate in 24X7 on-call responsibilities

* Mentor and support them across a wide spectrum of technical activities

* Participate in interviews for individual contributor roles, providing clear and specific feedback that contributes to a hiring decision

You own this if you have…

* 6+ years of professional experience in practice area

* Bachelor's or Master's degree in CS, Engineering or equivalent practical experience

* Experience analyzing, designing, coding, testing, installing and maintaining complex software programs

* Knowledge of Java and Java Springboot framework. Knowledge of other programming languages (like Python, React , JavaScript, C#) is a plus

* Our systems are built with a variety of technologies; therefore, applicants should have a strong grasp of multiple tech stacks

* Experience with Backend Database (preferably Spanner) or No

SQL or Postgres databases

* Experience with RESTful services and event driven applications

* Experience with AWS/GCP services is required

* Familiarity with containerization technologies (Kubernetes, Docker) and modern development practices and development lifecycle using Scrum, Kanban, Lean or other agile methodologies

* Familiarity with CI/CD and testing tools

* Emphasis on building metrics into the system and providing visibility on uptime and performance via real time alerting, reporting, and dashboards

* Sound object-oriented design skills and knowledge of application design patterns

* Experience working with diverse, collaborative, cross-functional teams

* Strong verbal and written communication skills with the ability to communicate technical information to nontechnical audiences

* Curious mindset for AI adoption to optimize work processes

* Passion for new technologies, operational…