below marketmost similar roles pay hereabove market
This role pays more than
80%
of similar roles. Most pay
$138,500–$253,500
— the blue band above.
At the midpoint, this role pays about
$254k
versus about
$196k
for comparable roles.
Based on 240 similar postings.
Employer
About Walmart
Walmart Inc. is the world''s largest retailer by revenue, operating a chain of hypermarkets, discount department stores, and grocery stores, as well as a growing e-commerce presence through Walmart.com. Industry: General Merchandise & Grocery Retail
Walmart currently has
825 open roles
on FindRole.
Listed pay typically runs
$121,000–$242,000
across 473 roles with salary data.
JOB TITLE: Distinguished, Software Engineer
The Distinguished Software Engineer serves as the senior-most technical leader for the International Search & Personalization team. This role is responsible for the architecture, technical strategy, and engineering standards of discovery platforms serving global markets like Canada and Mexico. You will define the multi-year vision for AI-native search, building data pipelines, retrieval systems, ranking models, and generative agentic experiences. Key responsibilities include resolving complex cross-cutting architectural problems, mentoring senior talent, and establishing organization-wide standards for MLOps and system design. You will utilize technologies including Python, Java, Scala, and Go, alongside tools like Spark, Kafka, Flink, and Kubernetes. Expertise in search engines like Vespa or Elasticsearch, vector databases, and frameworks like PyTorch, TensorFlow, and LangGraph is required to solve large-scale distributed systems challenges.
What does a Software Engineer earn in California?
Median $214500 from 1193 postings across 76 companies.
Define and own the multi-year technical strategy and reference architecture for International Search & Personalization.
Architect AI-native discovery systems including LLM-powered query understanding, semantic retrieval, and agentic shopping experiences.
Design multi-tenant, multi-market platforms to support diverse languages and catalogs on shared foundations.
Establish organization-wide engineering standards for MLOps, data quality, model evaluation, and system resilience.
Resolve complex cross-cutting technical challenges including critical incidents, performance bottlenecks, and platform modernization.
Mentor and grow a technical leadership bench of Principal and Senior engineers.
Partner with business leaders to shape roadmaps and communicate technical tradeoffs to executive audiences.
Represent the international discovery organization in enterprise architecture forums and external industry engagements.
What we're looking for
Must have a Bachelor's degree in computer science, computer engineering, computer information systems, software engineering, or a related area and 6 years of software engineering experience.
Alternatively, must have 8 years of experience in software engineering or a related area.
Must have 15+ years of experience in the design and development of highly scalable distributed applications and platforms.
Must have a distinguished track record architecting and operating large-scale, cloud-native distributed systems for search, recommendations, personalization, or ads serving hundreds of millions of users.
Must possess deep hands-on experience with search engines like Vespa, Elasticsearch, or OpenSearch, including tensor ranking and vector retrieval.
Must have production experience with LLMs for query understanding, generative shopping, and agentic AI frameworks like LangGraph.
Must have expertise in ML platforms (PyTorch, TensorFlow, Ray), data engineering (Spark, Kafka, Flink), and cloud platforms (Azure, GCP, or AWS).
Must have strong programming skills in Python, Java, Scala, Go, or C++.
Must have experience building multi-tenant or multi-market systems, including multilingual search and localization (preferred).
Must have a Master's degree in computer science, computer engineering, computer information systems, software engineering, or a related area and 4 years of software engineering experience (preferred).
Must have knowledge of implementing Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.2 AA standards and assistive technologies (preferred).
Distributed Systems
SDK Architecture
Rendering Engines
HLS
DASH
SSAI
Video Monetization
Experimentation Systems
Ranking Systems
iOS
Android
Web
Linux
Embedded Systems
WCAG) 2.2 AA