Principal, Software Engineer

## Position Summary... Walmart Global Tech - Critical Infrastructure Automation Observability team is focused on enabling highly reliable and efficient infrastructure through an intent-based platform, offering advanced abstraction, seamless automation, real-time observability, proactive assurance, and actionable insights. The team is developing next-generation Zero-Touch Networking platform for designing intelligent, scalable systems that transform how infrastructure is managed across one of the world’s largest technology environments. ## What you'll do... Walmart Global Tech is seeking a **Principal Engineer – Automation & Orchestration** to lead the design, development, and operation of cloud-based, programmable infrastructure across one of the world's most complex technology footprints. This role sits at the intersection of software engineering, network engineering, and platform infrastructure — owning the systems, workflows, and toolchains that automate Walmart's global network fabric across Azure and GCP. You will refine and enhance the architecture for automation platforms, workflow orchestration pipelines, and self-healing infrastructure systems powering Walmart's stores, eCommerce, and supply chain. As a technical authority, you'll shape a multi-year roadmap that shifts Walmart's infrastructure from manual operations to automation-driven outcomes — directly reducing manual processes, accelerating change velocity, and improving reliability at global scale. ### **What You'll Do** ### **Automation Architecture & Strategy:** ### Define and own the technical vision for Walmart's infrastructure automation platform, spanning device configuration, topology-driven provisioning, change workflows, policy enforcement, and closed-loop remediation. Lead event-driven automation pipelines — from signal ingestion through automated remediation and ticket closure — to reduce MTTR and eliminate repeat manual interventions. Champion everything-as-workflow principles including version-controlled configuration, CI/CD-driven delivery, and source-of-truth state reconciliation. ### ### **Workflow Orchestration & Automation Platforms:** ### Design and operate scalable workflow orchestration systems with DAG principles, retry/failure handling, idempotency guarantees, and observability patterns. Build reusable automation abstractions — provisioning, validation, rollback, and notification — enabling engineers to compose workflows with AI tooling and minimal coding expertise. Drive event-driven orchestration via RabbitMQ and Kafka to trigger and track distributed automation tasks across large device fleets. ### ### **Network Programmability & Cloud Automation:** ### Architect programmable infrastructure using platforms and tools such as Kubernetes, WCNP, YANG, NETCONF, RESTCONF, and gNMI/gRPC for model-driven configuration and integrating observability, complemented by custom Python/Django and Go tooling. Automate device provisioning and lifecycle management — including ZTP, site onboarding, firewall policy enforcement, and GitOps-based continuous deployment. Establish Kubernetes-native networking patterns, Create/Read/Update/Delete-based operator models, and simulation-backed testing frameworks for production validation. ### ### **Platform & State Management:** ### Design and integrate source-of-truth systems for device inventory, configuration snapshots, topology graphs, and compliance audit trails using PostgreSQL, Graph databases, and document stores. Architect telemetry and observability infrastructure using Elasticsearch/OpenSearch, Redis, Prometheus, and Grafana — including IPAM/CMDB bidirectional sync with ServiceNow and Infoblox. Establish zero-trust access and secrets management via Akeyless and PingFederate, and define SLO/SLA reliability frameworks for the automation platform. ### ### **Cross-Functional Leadership:** ### Mentor Staff and Senior Engineers through architectural pairing, design reviews, and technical hiring across automati…