Principal, Technical Program Manager

GDF sits at the core of Walmart's AI & Data organization, building the foundational data platforms that make it possible for every team at Walmart — technical or non-technical — to build with trustworthy, well-governed, discoverable data. Our platforms serve billions of transactions and interactions across 19 countries, powering everything from supply chain intelligence to customer-facing personalization to enterprise AI agents. This particular team is newly formed to solve one of GDF's next big platform bets — which means you'll be shaping charter, operating model, and delivery cadence essentially from a blank page, not inheriting someone else's playbook.

Serve as the founding TPM for a newly created platform team — standing up program structure, delivery cadence, and governance where none previously existed.

Manage large, cross-cutting software/platform development programs end-to-end, partnering closely with architects and engineering leaders on architectural decision-making.

Define goals, stage gates, critical delivery paths, and key deliverables for programs spanning multiple workstreams, dependencies, timelines, and resource constraints.

Build and maintain strong stakeholder relationships across GDF, AI & Data, and downstream consuming teams — driving alignment on roles, responsibilities, and delivery cadences.

Establish a resource capacity allocation process and tooling to bring planning rigor to a fast-moving, newly formed org.

Drive efficient engineering resource utilization; simplify and clarify priorities into plans with milestones suitable for advance planning and executive buy-in.

Identify and champion AI-augmented program management practices — e.g., using AI to auto-summarize status updates, flag at-risk milestones from ticket/PR signal, or generate stakeholder-ready reporting — and work with tooling/eng leads to actually implement them.

Navigate setbacks and ambiguity with strong problem-solving and decision-making skills — this is a 0→1 team, so comfort operating without a fully paved path is essential.

Represent the platform team in leadership/executive reviews, translating technical delivery status into business-relevant narrative.

Bachelor's degree in Computer Science/Engineering or equivalent; 15+ years of overall technical experience , including 10+ years in a Technical Program Management leadership role delivering software programs with aggressive schedules and significant business impact.

Proven experience standing up new programs/teams from scratch — comfortable defining process, cadence, and governance rather than just operating within an existing one.

Strong leadership skills, with the ability to effectively manage and motivate a team of technical program managers and engineers.

Experience supporting and executing a large software/platform portfolio while collaborating with multiple business stakeholders.

Solid grounding in system/platform design concepts, architecture, technical design, services, APIs, and data platform technologies (data pipelines, lakehouse architectures, governance frameworks).

AI-forward program management skillset: Practical experience using GenAI tools (e.g., Copilot-style assistants, internal LLM platforms) to accelerate program artifacts — status reports, risk summaries, requirement drafts, meeting-notes-to-action-items. Familiarity with AI-assisted meeting intelligence (e.g., auto-transcription/summarization of Teams/Zoom calls) and using it to close the loop on decisions and action items faster. Working understanding of how AI/ML and agentic systems get built and deployed (MLOps basics, model lifecycle, data quality dependencies) — enough to program-manage platform work that directly enables AI use cases. Curiosity and judgment to identify where AI genuinely helps a program (signal, not noise) versus where it's a distraction.

Practical experience using GenAI tools (e.g., Copilot-style assistants, internal LLM platforms) to accelerate program artifacts — status reports, risk summaries, requirement drafts, meeting-notes-to-action-items.

Familiarity with AI-assisted meeting intelligence (e.g., auto-transcription/summarization of Teams/Zoom calls) and using it to close the loop on decisions and action items faster.

Working understanding of how AI/ML and agentic systems get built and deployed (MLOps basics, model lifecycle, data quality dependencies) — enough to program-manage platform work that directly enables AI use cases.

Curiosity and judgment to identify where AI genuinely helps a program (signal, not noise) versus where it's a distraction.

Ability to build positive relationships with product managers, translating target personas and business needs into features/user stories engineers can act on.

Strong sense of ownership and accountability, with a love for data and solving complex, ambiguous problems.

Expertise in change & risk management methodologies, project tracking tools, dashboards, and executive reporting.

Excellent verbal and written communicator — equally adept communicating upward, outward, and downward.

Deep hands-on familiarity with JIRA, JIRA Align, Big Picture, Airtable, or equivalent program tooling.

We aim to create a culture where every associate feels valued for who they are, rooted in respect for the individual. Our goal is to foster a sense of belonging, to create opportunities for all our associates, customers and suppliers, and to be a Walmart for everyone.

At Walmart, our vision is "everyone included." By fostering a workplace culture where everyone is—and feels—included, everyone wins. Our associates and customers reflect the makeup of all 19 countries where we operate. By making Walmart a welcoming place where all people feel like they belong, we’re able to engage associates, strengthen our business, improve our ability to serve customers, and support the communities where we operate.

Walmart, Inc., is an Equal Opportunities Employer – By Choice. We believe we are best equipped to help our associates, customers and the communities we serve live better when we really know them. That means understanding, respecting and valuing unique styles, experiences, identities, ideas and opinions – while being inclusive of all people.