below marketmost similar roles pay hereabove market
This role pays more than
60%
of similar roles. Most pay
$138,250–$214,500
— the blue band above.
At the midpoint, this role pays about
$195k
versus about
$176k
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.
As a Distinguished, Software Engineer within the AI & Data organization, you will serve as a senior individual contributor and technical leader for the Colony Platform. You will shape the long-term technical vision, architecture, and engineering excellence of enterprise-scale AI/ML systems. Your daily responsibilities include defining architectural standards for reliability, security, and scalability, leading architecture reviews for GenAI integrations, and mentoring senior technical talent. You will build and oversee model serving, intelligent pipelines, and production strategies for mission-critical systems. Key technologies and skills include distributed software systems, cloud-native design, observability tools like structured logging and tracing, and frameworks such as JSON Schema, OpenAPI, Pydantic, and protobuf. You will solve complex problems regarding safe, governed AI adoption and large-scale inference infrastructure across the enterprise.
What does a Software Engineer earn in California?
Median $214500 from 1193 postings across 76 companies.
Define and drive the long-term technical vision and architecture for enterprise-scale AI/ML platforms.
Lead architecture reviews and design principles for GenAI integrations, model serving, and intelligent pipelines.
Set architectural standards for reliability, security, scalability, and performance across the AI & Data organization.
Provide hands-on technical guidance to multi-team engineering and data science groups on AI/ML lifecycle practices.
Shape patterns for safe, governed AI adoption and lead prototyping for mission-critical AI systems.
Influence senior stakeholders on technical trade-offs and strategic decisions to accelerate value delivery.
Mentor senior individual contributors and emerging technical talent to elevate engineering excellence and standards.
Champion best practices in code quality, CI/CD pipelines, and operational maturity through technical communities of practice.
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 experience.
Alternatively, must have 8 years of experience in software engineering or a related area.
Must have 10+ years of experience building and operating large-scale, distributed software systems.
Must have a proven track record as a senior individual contributor driving system architecture or technical strategy.
Must have deep experience with AI/ML systems productionization, model serving, orchestration, and performance considerations.
Must have experience with observability including structured logging, metrics, traces, and debugging distributed flows.
Must have strong expertise in scalable cloud-native design and platform engineering.
Must have excellent communication and technical storytelling skills to articulate complex concepts to diverse audiences.
Experience leading AI/ML systems or platforms in a large enterprise environment (preferred).
Experience with LLM tool-calling, agentic systems, and schema/contract frameworks like JSON Schema or Pydantic (preferred).
Familiarity with responsible AI practices, governance frameworks, and GenAI prompt engineering (preferred).
Experience with creating inclusive digital experiences and implementing WCAG 2.2 AA standards (preferred).