Distinguished, Software Engineer

Position Summary

We are seeking a Distinguished Software Engineer to provide hands‑on, domain‑level technical leadership for Walmart’s Search Runtime platform. This role owns the technical vision and architecture, driving the design of scalable, AI‑powered search systems that serve billions of queries. You will shape long‑term strategy, lead critical architectural decisions, and influence multiple teams to deliver high‑impact solutions that improve product discovery and business outcomes.

This role requires deep expertise in distributed systems, search technologies, and AI/ML‑driven relevance, along with a proven ability to operate across organizational boundaries to deliver impact at scale.

The Search team powers product discovery across Walmart’s global platforms, handling massive scale with strict latency and availability requirements. Whether a customer is searching for a specific item or browsing through categories, our platform powers the intelligence behind product discovery. We leverage large‑scale structured and unstructured data – combined with advanced information retrieval, machine learning, and ranking algorithms – to deliver highly relevant, personalized, and seamless discovery experiences.

• Define and drive the technical strategy and architecture for Search Runtime across retrieval, ranking, indexing, and serving systems.
• Lead the design of scalable, low‑latency, high‑availability distributed systems.
• Build and evolve AI‑powered search capabilities including semantic search, vector retrieval, and ML‑driven ranking.
• Integrate ML/AI models into real‑time production systems to improve relevance and conversion.
• Drive operational excellence including observability, reliability, performance, and cost efficiency.
• Lead large cross‑org initiatives and align engineering, product, and data science teams.
• Mentor and develop engineers across levels and raise the bar for design, code quality, and engineering practices.
• Identify and resolve system bottlenecks; drive continuous optimization and innovation.

• Bachelor’s degree with 12+ years (or Master’s with 10+ years) in software engineering, building and scaling large distributed systems.
• Strong product and engineering mindset, linking system design decisions to customer experience and business outcomes.
• Deep expertise in search architectures, including retrieval, indexing, ranking, and system trade‑offs.
• Experience designing and operating run‑time orchestration systems for complex, distributed workflows and services.
• Strong experience with low‑latency, high‑availability services, performance optimization, and reliability at scale.
• Proficiency in backend technologies (Java/Spring or similar) and modern cloud‑native architectures.
• Proven ability to lead large, cross‑team engineering initiatives and influence system design across organizations.

• Experience in e‑commerce or marketplace platforms at scale.
• Experience working with global or multi‑region systems and teams.
• Experience building 0→1 products or launching new product surfaces.
• Background in fast‑scaling consumer technology companies.

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 benefits and eligibility, see One.

Walmart ().

The annual salary range for this position is $ - $. Additional compensation includes annual or…