Distinguished, Technical Program Manager

Position Summary

What you'll do...

What You'll Do:

• Enterprise-Scale Execution: Lead the strategy, planning, and end-to-end delivery of company-wide, multi-year technical initiatives with complex cross-functional dependencies, spanning dozens of organizations and hundreds of engineers.
• Strategic Technical Partnership: Partner with Senior Engineers and Senior Architects to shape technical strategy. Actively oversee system design discussions to ensure scalability, high availability, performance, and alignment with delivery timelines.
• Ambiguity Resolution & Plan Execution: Take ownership of highly ambiguous "0 to 1" initiatives where no precedent exists. Define the problem space, secure cross-functional alignment, manage critical dependencies, and build comprehensive roadmaps from scratch.
• Systemic Optimization & Workflows: Identify and dismantle organizational silos and systemic friction points. Architect and deploy scalable workflows, prioritization frameworks, operational excellence practices, and continuous improvement processes to increase velocity company-wide.
• Executive & Stakeholder Communication: Act as a trusted advisor to the executive team and board members. Deliver clear, data-driven updates, impact analyses, and candid assessments of program health, technical risks, and strategic trade-offs.
• Mentor & Elevate: Serve as the champion for the TPM discipline. Mentor Principal, Senior, and mid-level team members, foster high-performance environments, define hiring standards, and elevate the overall craft across the organization.

What You'll Bring (Qualifications)

• Experience: 15+ years of experience driving complex strategic programs, managing cross-functional outcomes, and leading technical program management, software engineering, or systems architecture—including 2+ years operating at a Principal, or equivalent highly-senior Individual Contributor (IC) level.
• Technical Depth: Extensive expertise in system architecture, software development, and infrastructure design. Deep foundational knowledge of large-scale distributed systems, cloud infrastructure, AI/ML pipelines, or equivalent domains, with the ability to translate complex requirements into scalable solutions and challenge engineering assumptions.
• Analytical Problem Solving: Demonstrated skills in data-driven decision-making, rigorous impact analysis, and proactive risk mitigation to maintain program momentum.
• Proven Scale: A track record of successfully delivering massive-scale, mission-critical software or infrastructure programs from inception to global deployment.
• Influence & Alignment: Exceptional stakeholder management skills with a proven ability to lead without authority across multiple VP-level organizations, driving consensus among highly opinionated technical leaders.
• Education: Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, or a related technical field (or equivalent practical experience).
• Preferred Qualifications: Engineering Background: Previous experience as a Senior/Staff Software Engineer or Systems Architect before transitioning to program management. Crisis Management: Proven ability to step into failing, high-visibility projects, stabilize them, and drive them to successful completion under extreme pressure. Industry Eminence: A recognized presence in the broader tech community (e.g., conference speaking, published papers, or contributions to major open-source projects).

Benefits

• 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.

Additional Compensation

• Annual or quarterly performance bonuses.
• Stock.

Minimum Qualifications

• Option 1: Bachelor’s degree in computer science, information technology, engineering, or related area and 7 years’ experience in engineering, engineering program management, technical program management, product management, or related area.
• Option 2: 9 years’ experience in engineering, engineering program management, technical program management, product management, or related area.

Preferred Qualifications

• Certification in Project Management.
• Master’s degree in Business Administration, with specialization in strategy, supply chain, finance, information systems, or related area and 5 years’ experience in product design.
• 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.