As a Principal Engineer on the Walmart Advertising technology team, you will lead the test engineering strategy for AI-powered advertising systems, including ML model validation and real-time bidding infrastructure. You’ll architect scalable test frameworks, embed quality into development lifecycles, and operate as a senior technical leader across teams. Key responsibilities include designing enterprise-scale test automation frameworks, driving shift-left quality practices, defining quality gates in CI/CD pipelines, and testing data pipelines at scale using BigQuery and Spark. Additionally, you will develop automated evaluation frameworks for AI models, ensure performance and chaos engineering for latency-sensitive systems, and mentor SDETs to raise the engineering bar. Required skills include 8+ years of test engineering experience with expertise in AI/ML system testing, designing test automation frameworks, data pipeline quality assurance, and enforcing quality gates in CI/CD pipelines.
Architect and own enterprise-scale test automation frameworks for APIs, data pipelines, UI, and services layers.
Drive shift-left quality by embedding automated checks at every stage of the development lifecycle.
Define and enforce quality gates in CI/CD pipelines for major platform changes.
Lead data pipeline testing at scale, including ETL/ELT validation and schema governance.
Own test strategy for AI/ML systems, ensuring model validation and algorithmic fairness testing.
What we're looking for
8+ years of experience in quality/test engineering with at least 3 years as a Staff or Principal SDET in large-scale systems.
Proven expertise in testing AI/ML systems, including model validation and data quality for ML training datasets.
Expert-level skills in designing test automation frameworks for APIs, data pipelines, and services layers.
Deep knowledge of data pipeline quality, including ETL/ELT validation and schema governance at scale.
Strong experience in testing event-driven and asynchronous systems such as Kafka pipelines and REST APIs.
Proficiency in using SQL for complex queries to validate data correctness against large analytical datasets.
Market check
Salary context
This
$143,000–$286,000
range sits above
94%
of similar postings on FindRole.
Peer median band
$117,000–$234,000
Median floor and ceiling across peers.
Typical midpoint (25–75%)
$165,000–$214,500
Middle half of comparable postings.
Based on 240 comparable postings.*
* 240 is the maximum number of comparable postings sampled.
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
495 open roles
on FindRole.
Listed pay typically runs
$117,000–$234,000
across 487 roles with salary data.