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Software Leadership Jobs (NOW HIRING)

Walmart

Principal, Software Engineer

Fremont, CA

$143K - $286K/yr

Leadership & Problem Solving  Exceptional analytical, debugging, and problem-solving skills.  ... Drives the full software development lifecycle across multiple teams--including coding, testing, CI ...

L3HHCM20

Lead, Software Engineer

Herndon, VA · On-site

$158K - $294K/yr

Experience leading large software planning efforts. Preferred Additional Skills: * Active Secret Clearance. * Experience with Linux OS configuration, including kernel modifications, drivers, and ...

Walmart

Principal, Software Engineer

San Jose, CA

$143K - $286K/yr

Leadership & Problem Solving  Exceptional analytical, debugging, and problem-solving skills.  ... Drives the full software development lifecycle across multiple teams--including coding, testing, CI ...

Walmart

Principal, Software Engineer

Mountain View, CA

$143K - $286K/yr

Leadership & Problem Solving  Exceptional analytical, debugging, and problem-solving skills.  ... Drives the full software development lifecycle across multiple teams--including coding, testing, CI ...

Walmart

Principal, Software Engineer

Cupertino, CA

$143K - $286K/yr

Leadership & Problem Solving  Exceptional analytical, debugging, and problem-solving skills.  ... Drives the full software development lifecycle across multiple teams--including coding, testing, CI ...

Walmart

Principal, Software Engineer

Sunnyvale, CA

$143K - $286K/yr

Leadership & Problem Solving  Exceptional analytical, debugging, and problem-solving skills.  ... Drives the full software development lifecycle across multiple teams--including coding, testing, CI ...

Walmart

Principal, Software Engineer

Milpitas, CA

$143K - $286K/yr

Leadership & Problem Solving  Exceptional analytical, debugging, and problem-solving skills.  ... Drives the full software development lifecycle across multiple teams--including coding, testing, CI ...

Material Handling Systems, Inc.

Software Engineer III

$87K - $131K/yr

FORTNA partners with the world's leading brands to transform omnichannel and parcel distribution ... This work includes integrating software solutions with robotics, autonomous vehicles, machine ...

Walmart

Principal, Software Engineer

San Mateo, CA

$143K - $286K/yr

Leadership & Problem Solving  Exceptional analytical, debugging, and problem-solving skills.  ... Drives the full software development lifecycle across multiple teams--including coding, testing, CI ...

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Software Leadership information

See salary details

$48K

$111.8K

$166K

How much do software leadership jobs pay per year?

As of Jun 9, 2026, the average yearly pay for software leadership in the United States is $111,845.00, according to ZipRecruiter salary data. Most workers in this role earn between $90,000.00 and $130,000.00 per year, depending on experience, location, and employer.

What is software leadership?

Software leadership refers to the practice of guiding and managing teams involved in the development, deployment, and maintenance of software projects. Software leaders, such as engineering managers or technical leads, are responsible for aligning team efforts with business goals, fostering collaboration, and supporting the professional growth of their team members. They also ensure that software projects are delivered on time, meet quality standards, and leverage best practices in technology. Strong software leadership is crucial for building high-performing teams and successful software products.

What is the difference between Software Leadership vs Software Engineering Manager?

AspectSoftware LeadershipSoftware Engineering Manager
Primary FocusStrategic vision, team guidance, and organizational goalsProject delivery, team management, and technical oversight
Required CredentialsExtensive technical experience, leadership skills, often advanced degreesTechnical background, management experience, often certifications like PMP or Scrum
Work EnvironmentExecutive meetings, strategic planning, cross-team collaborationTeam supervision, project planning, code reviews
Industry UsageUsed in organizations emphasizing strategic tech directionCommon in tech companies managing development teams

Software Leadership focuses on setting strategic direction and guiding multiple teams, while Software Engineering Managers handle day-to-day project management and team oversight. Both roles require technical expertise, but Software Leadership emphasizes vision and organizational impact, whereas Engineering Managers focus on project execution and team performance.

What are some common challenges faced by professionals in software leadership roles, and how can they effectively address them?

Software leaders often encounter challenges such as balancing technical decision-making with people management, aligning team goals with organizational objectives, and managing distributed or cross-functional teams. To address these challenges, successful leaders focus on clear communication, foster a collaborative culture, and invest in ongoing professional development for both themselves and their teams. Regular feedback sessions, prioritizing mentorship, and staying up-to-date with industry best practices can help leaders navigate these complexities effectively.

What are the key skills and qualifications needed to thrive in Software Leadership, and why are they important?

To thrive in Software Leadership, you need a strong background in software development, project management, and team leadership, often supported by a degree in computer science or related fields. Familiarity with agile methodologies, version control systems (like Git), and project management tools (such as Jira or Trello) is typically required. Outstanding communication, strategic thinking, and the ability to mentor and motivate teams are key soft skills for this role. These skills and qualities are crucial for delivering high-quality software, fostering innovation, and ensuring team productivity within fast-paced tech environments.
More about Software Leadership jobs
What cities are hiring for Software Leadership jobs? Cities with the most Software Leadership job openings:
What states have the most Software Leadership jobs? States with the most job openings for Software Leadership jobs include:
What job categories do people searching Software Leadership jobs look for? The top searched job categories for Software Leadership jobs are:
Software Leadership jobs near you
Infographic showing various Software Leadership job openings in the United States as of June 2026, with employment types broken down into 1% As Needed, 88% Full Time, 7% Part Time, 1% Temporary, and 3% Contract. Highlights an 92% Physical, 2% Hybrid, and 6% Remote job distribution, with an average salary of $111,845 per year, or $53.8 per hour.
Principal, Software Engineer

Principal, Software Engineer

Walmart

Fremont, CA

$143K - $286K/yr

Full-time

Medical, Dental, Vision, Life, Retirement, PTO

Posted 24 days ago

Walmart rating

6.0

Company rating: 6.0 out of 10

Based on 21,657 frontline employees who took The Breakroom Quiz

23rd of 39 rated national retailers

Job description

Position Summary...What you'll do...
Principal Software Engineer – Data Security Platform
  About the Team
We are building Walmart’s next-generation Data Security Platform, responsible
for protecting data across Walmart’s systems, applications, and associates. Data
security is one of the most critical challenges for modern enterprises, requiring a careful balance between security, privacy, compliance, and productivity.
Our platform provides comprehensive capabilities including:
 Authentication and Identity Management
 Authorization and Access Control
 Audit Logging and Compliance
 Data Protection and Least-Privilege Enforcement
As part of this team, you will design and build highly scalable distributed systems
that protect petabytes of data at rest and in motion, across both structured and
unstructured data sources. You will solve complex engineering challenges
involving real-time policy enforcement, large-scale data processing, and low-
latency access control while ensuring a seamless user experience.
What You’ll Do
 Architect and build large-scale distributed systems for enterprise data
security.
 Design highly scalable and resilient services for authentication,
authorization, auditing, and data protection.
 Develop solutions that enforce fine-grained access controls with minimal
performance overhead.
 Drive technical strategy and influence cross-functional engineering teams
and stakeholders.
 Optimize system performance, reliability, scalability, and operational
excellence.
 Mentor engineers and establish engineering best practices across the
organization.
 Lead critical design reviews and contribute to long-term platform
architecture.
Required Qualifications
Technical Expertise
 10+ years of software engineering experience building large-scale
distributed systems.
 5+ years of experience designing and architecting complex distributed
systems in production environments.
 10+ years of hands-on experience with Java and Go.
 Deep understanding of JVM internals, memory management, garbage
collection, thread management, and performance tuning.
 Strong expertise in concurrent and multithreaded programming.
 10+ years of experience with SQL and NoSQL databases.
 Deep understanding of storage engines, indexing, query optimization,
database internals, and performance tuning.
 Strong hands-on coding skills with a track record of delivering production-
quality software.
Leadership & Problem Solving
 Exceptional analytical, debugging, and problem-solving skills.
 Proven ability to lead technical initiatives and drive alignment across
engineering teams and senior stakeholders.
 Strong communication and collaboration skills with the ability to influence
technical decisions through data-driven discussions.
 Experience mentoring engineers and driving engineering excellence at
scale.
Preferred Qualifications
 Experience building security, identity, authorization, governance, or data
protection platforms.
 Experience working with large-scale cloud-native systems and
microservices architectures.
 Familiarity with distributed data processing frameworks and big data
technologies.
 Experience operating systems at petabyte scale.
Platform Engineering Leadership:
Delivers platform capabilities across a technical area or sub-organization,
including shared infrastructure, reusable tooling, and scalable ML frameworks
(for example, CI/CD pipelines, SDKs, model runtimes, feature stores).
Aligns engineering efforts with roadmap milestones and domain strategies,
ensuring execution supports long-term platform evolution.
Applies cloud-native architecture principles and best practices in distributed
system design to enable high availability, scalability, and fault tolerance.
Technical Execution & Lifecycle Management:
Drives the full software development lifecycle across multiple teams—including
coding, testing, CI/CD deployment, observability, monitoring, incident response,
and maintenance.
Implements distributed architectures optimized for real-time data processing,
AI/ML integration, and cross-service reliability.
Maintains architectural decision records (ADRs) to ensure traceability, alignment,
and transparency in technical planning and tradeoffs.
AI/ML Integration & Product Development:
Architects and builds intelligent software systems and AI-enhanced applications
that serve millions of customers and associates.
Leads the integration of AI agents capable of multi-step reasoning and tool-
augmented tasks using technologies such as Python, Java, JavaScript, Dart, Rust,
and C++.
Applies model-driven design and leverage tools like GitHub Copilot to increase
development velocity and quality.
Technical Leadership & Mentorship:
Provides strategic technical guidance and mentorship to Engineers and their
teams, fostering engineering excellence and innovation.
Influences architectural decisions and design patterns across teams to promote
standardization, maintainability, and system interoperability.
Showcases Walmart’s engineering vision through knowledge sharing, community
leadership, and by publishing technical articles and insights internally and
externally.
Customer/Associate Problem Definition & Metrics:
Engages with cross-functional stakeholders to deeply understand business and
user needs.
Breaks down ambiguous problems into actionable technical requirements and
defines clear operational, engineering, and customer-centric metrics to measure
success and value delivery.
Technical Ownership:
Demonstrates responsibility for deliverables, ensuring solutions meet quality
standards and business objectives.
Takes initiative to resolve issues and drive projects to completion.
Technical Judgment:
Applies sound reasoning to make informed technical decisions, balancing trade-
offs and considering long-term impacts on system architecture and business
goals.
Change Agility:
Adapts quickly to change, embraces new technologies, and understands the
broader system context.
Anticipates the downstream effects of technical choices and integrates feedback
to improve outcomes.
Collaboration:
Works effectively across teams, openly shares knowledge, and communicates
complex ideas clearly to both technical and non-technical stakeholders.
Innovation & Continuous Improvement:
Proactively seeks opportunities to enhance processes, tools, and products.
Encourages experimentation and learning to drive ongoing improvement.
Drives the execution of multiple business plans and projects by identifying
customer and operational needs; developing and communicating business plans
and priorities; removing barriers and obstacles that impact performance;
providing resources; identifying performance standards; measuring progress and
adjusting performance accordingly; developing contingency plans; and
demonstrating adaptability and supporting continuous learning.
Provides supervision and development opportunities for associates by selecting
and training; mentoring; assigning duties; building a team-based work
environment; establishing performance expectations and conducting regular
performance evaluations; providing recognition and rewards; coaching for
success and improvement; and promoting a belonging mindset in workplace.
Promotes and supports company policies, procedures, mission, values, and
standards of ethics and integrity by training and providing direction to others in
their use and application; ensuring compliance with them; and utilizing and
supporting the Open Door Policy.
Ensures business needs are being met by evaluating the ongoing effectiveness of
current plans, programs, and initiatives; consulting with business partners,
managers, co-workers, or other key stakeholders; soliciting, evaluating, and
applying suggestions for improving efficiency and cost effectiveness; and
participating in and supporting community outreach events.
Software Development, Software Architecture, Solution Design, Continuous
Integration
Respect the Individual: Demonstrates and encourages respect for all; builds a
high-performing team; seeks, and embraces differences in people, cultures, ideas
and experiences; creates a workplace where all associates feel seen, supported
and connected through culture of belonging so associates thrive and perform;
drives a positive associate and customer/member experience for all; identifies,
attracts, and retains the best team members.
Respect the Individual: Creates a discipline and focus around developing talent,
through feedback, coaching, mentoring, and developmental opportunities;
promotes an environment allowing everyone to bring their best selves to work;
empowers associates and partners to act in the best interest of the
customer/member and company; and regularly recognizes others’ contributions
and accomplishments.
Respect the Individual: Builds strong and trusting relationships with team
members and business partners; works collaboratively and cross-functionally to
achieve objectives; and communicates and listens attentively, with energy and
positivity to motivate, influence, and inspire commitment and action.
Act with Integrity: Maintains and promotes the highest standards of integrity,
ethics and compliance; models the Walmart values and leads by example to
foster our culture; supports Walmart’s goal of becoming a regenerative company
by making a positive impact for associates, customers, and the world around us
(e.g., creating a sense of belonging, eliminating waste, participating in local
giving).
Act with Integrity: Follows the law, our code of conduct and company policies,
and sets expectations for others to do the same; promotes an environment where
associates feel comfortable sharing concerns and reinforces our culture of non-
retaliation; listens to concerns raised by associates. takes action and encourages
others to do the same; holds self and others accountable for achieving results in a
way that is consistent with our values.
Act with Integrity: Acts as an altruistic servant leader and is consistently humble,
self-aware, honest, and transparent.
Serve our Customers and Members: Delivers expected business results while
putting the customer/member first and consistently applying an omni-merchant
mindset and acts with an Every Day Low-Cost mindset to drive value and Every
Day Low Prices for customers/members.
Serve our Customers and Members: Adopts a holistic perspective that considers
data, analytics, customer/member insights, and different parts of the business
when making plans and shaping the team’s strategy.
Strive for Excellence: Consistently raises the bar and seeks to improve;
demonstrates curiosity and a growth mindset; seeks feedback, asks thoughtful
questions, fosters an environment that supports learning, innovation, and
learning from mistakes, and intelligent risk-taking; and exhibits resilience in the
face of setbacks.
Strive for Excellence: Seeks and implements continuous improvements and
encourages the team to leverage new digital tools and ways of working.
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 PTO, see https://one.walmart.com/notices. Live Better U is a Walmart-paid education benefit program for full-time and part-time associates in Walmart and Sam's Club facilities. Programs range from high school completion to bachelor's degrees, including English Language Learning and short-form certificates. Tuition, books, and fees are completely paid for by Walmart.
Eligibility requirements apply to some benefits and may depend on your job classification and length of employment. Benefits are subject to change and may be subject to a specific plan or program terms.
For information about benefits and eligibility, see One.Walmart.
The annual salary range for this position is $143,000.00 - $286,000.00 Additional compensation includes annual or quarterly performance bonuses. Additional compensation for certain positions may also include :
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Minimum Qualifications...

Outlined below are the required minimum qualifications for this position. If none are listed, there are no minimum qualifications.

Option 1: Bachelor's degree in computer science, computer engineering, computer information systems, software engineering, or related area and 5 years’ experience in software engineering or related area.
Option 2: 7 years’ experience in software engineering or related area.Preferred Qualifications...

Outlined below are the optional preferred qualifications for this position. If none are listed, there are no preferred qualifications.

Master’s degree in computer science, computer engineering, computer information systems, software engineering, or related area and 3 years' experience in software engineering or related area., We value candidates with a background in creating inclusive digital experiences, demonstrating knowledge in implementing Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.2 AA standards, assistive technologies, and integrating digital accessibility seamlessly. The ideal candidate would have knowledge of accessibility best practices and join us as we continue to create accessible products and services following Walmart’s accessibility standards and guidelines for supporting an inclusive culture.Primary Locatio...

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About Walmart

Sourced by ZipRecruiter

From our humble beginnings as a small discount retailer in Rogers, Ark., Walmart has opened thousands of stores in the U.S. and expanded internationally. Through innovation, we're creating a seamless experience to let customers shop anytime and anywhere online and in stores. We are creating opportunities and bringing value to customers and communities around the globe. Walmart operates approximately 10,500 stores and clubs in 19 countries and eCommerce websites. We employ 2.1 million associates around the world — nearly 1.6 million in the U.S. alone.

Industry

Retail and transportation and warehousing

Company size

10,000+ Employees

Headquarters location

Bentonville, AR, US

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