Arkansas Staffing
Senior Distinguished I, Software Engineer-Backend
Arkansas Staffing, Sunnyvale, California, United States, 94087
Project Sparky Technical Leader
These roles support Project Sparky, an AI-powered chat assistant for iOS and Android platforms. Sparky helps users manage everyday shopping taskssuch as ordering groceries or scheduling car servicesby remembering preferences and past interactions to streamline repeat activities. The project is deeply rooted in generative AI and creating the groundwork to move towards agentic AI by enabling personalized, context-aware assistance that evolves with user behavior. We are seeking a highly skilled professional with extensive experience in large-scale distributed systems and cloud-native architectures. The ideal candidate will have a proven track record in designing and developing scalable APIs and agentic workflows, as well as integrating Large Language Models (LLMs), vector databases, and inference pipelines. A strong focus on performance, security, and reliability is essential. The candidate should demonstrate organizational-level architectural leadership and excel in cross-functional collaboration. As a key technical leader, you will operate with a broad mandate to influence, innovate, and execute on our most complex technical initiatives. Your responsibilities will include: Architect Foundational Systems: Design and document the end-to-end backend architecture for our conversational AI platform, decomposing complex requirements into scalable, fault-tolerant microservices and data pipelines. Design and develop scalable APIs and agentic workflows for cloud-native platforms. Innovate in the LLM Space: Pioneer robust solutions for core conversational challenges, including state management, long-term memory RAG at scale, and low-latency model inference. Drive Technical Strategy & Roadmap: Lead the evaluation, selection, and integration of the core technology stack, including vector databases, model serving frameworks, orchestration engines, and cloud infrastructure. Align technical priorities with product vision and business objectives. Lead architectural initiatives at the organizational level, collaborating with cross-functional teams across multiple geographies. Define Engineering Excellence: Establish the gold standard for non-functional requirements, including system reliability, security, cost-efficiency, and the extreme low-latency performance essential for conversational AI. Pioneer LLM Operations (LLMOps): Architect the systems and processes for robust application monitoring, CI/CD, and telemetry. Define novel testing strategies and quality metrics to address the unique challenges of LLM-based systems, such as non-determinism and response quality evaluation. Drive performance improvements in inference platforms and distributed systems, ensuring solutions meet strict latency and reliability requirements. Solve the Hardest Problems: Lead root cause analysis for the most complex, systemic issues spanning model performance, distributed systems, and data integrity. Your solutions will set the precedent for future development. Mentor and Elevate: Act as a force multiplier for the engineering organization. Mentor senior engineers, lead architectural reviews, and cultivate a culture of deep technical expertise, innovation, and continuous learning. You will have: Advanced degree in Computer Science, Math, or related field preferred 25+ years of software development experience, with a proven track record of designing, building, and operating large-scale, distributed backend systems. Expert-level knowledge of architectural principles, patterns, and styles, particularly in microservices, event-driven architectures, and distributed data systems. Deep, hands-on experience with the technical ecosystem for modern AI applications, including: LLM serving and inference optimization techniques. Vector databases (e.g., Pinecone, Weaviate, Milvus) and embedding models. Frameworks for LLM orchestration and chaining (e.g., LangChain, LlamaIndex). Demonstrated expertise in at least one modern programming language such as Java, Python, Go, or C++. Extensive experience with cloud platforms (AWS, GCP, or Azure) and container orchestration technologies (Kubernetes). A strategic mindset, capable of translating ambiguous business needs into concrete and scalable technical architectures. Strong organizational-level architectural leadership and cross-functional collaboration skills. Preferred Qualifications: Expertise in designing scalable APIs and agentic workflows. Experience with the performance tuning and fine-tuning of Large Language Models. Experience architecting and implementing large-scale Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) pipelines. A history of significant contributions to open-source projects in the AI/ML or distributed systems communities. Experience building and deploying stateful conversational AI or chatbot systems from the ground up. Imagine working in an environment where one line of code can make life easier for hundreds of millions of people. That's what we do at Walmart Global Tech. We're a team of software engineers, data scientists, cybersecurity experts, and service professionals within the world's leading retailer who make an epic impact and are at the forefront of the next retail disruption. People are why we innovate, and people power our innovations. We are people-led and tech-empowered. We train our team in the skillsets of the future and bring in experts like you to help us grow. We have roles for those chasing their first opportunity as well as those looking for the opportunity that will define their career. Here, you can kickstart a great career in tech, gain new skills and experience for virtually every industry, or leverage your expertise to innovate at scale, impact millions and reimagine the future of retail. Walmart's culture is a competitive advantage, and it's fostered by being together. Working together in person allows us to collaborate, align quickly and innovate with greater speed. We use our campuses to create purposeful connection rooted in deepening understanding and investing in the development of our associates. Walmart is a global company with offices across the United States and around the world. Our global headquarters is in Bentonville, Arkansas, with primary hubs in the San Francisco Bay area and New York/New Jersey.
These roles support Project Sparky, an AI-powered chat assistant for iOS and Android platforms. Sparky helps users manage everyday shopping taskssuch as ordering groceries or scheduling car servicesby remembering preferences and past interactions to streamline repeat activities. The project is deeply rooted in generative AI and creating the groundwork to move towards agentic AI by enabling personalized, context-aware assistance that evolves with user behavior. We are seeking a highly skilled professional with extensive experience in large-scale distributed systems and cloud-native architectures. The ideal candidate will have a proven track record in designing and developing scalable APIs and agentic workflows, as well as integrating Large Language Models (LLMs), vector databases, and inference pipelines. A strong focus on performance, security, and reliability is essential. The candidate should demonstrate organizational-level architectural leadership and excel in cross-functional collaboration. As a key technical leader, you will operate with a broad mandate to influence, innovate, and execute on our most complex technical initiatives. Your responsibilities will include: Architect Foundational Systems: Design and document the end-to-end backend architecture for our conversational AI platform, decomposing complex requirements into scalable, fault-tolerant microservices and data pipelines. Design and develop scalable APIs and agentic workflows for cloud-native platforms. Innovate in the LLM Space: Pioneer robust solutions for core conversational challenges, including state management, long-term memory RAG at scale, and low-latency model inference. Drive Technical Strategy & Roadmap: Lead the evaluation, selection, and integration of the core technology stack, including vector databases, model serving frameworks, orchestration engines, and cloud infrastructure. Align technical priorities with product vision and business objectives. Lead architectural initiatives at the organizational level, collaborating with cross-functional teams across multiple geographies. Define Engineering Excellence: Establish the gold standard for non-functional requirements, including system reliability, security, cost-efficiency, and the extreme low-latency performance essential for conversational AI. Pioneer LLM Operations (LLMOps): Architect the systems and processes for robust application monitoring, CI/CD, and telemetry. Define novel testing strategies and quality metrics to address the unique challenges of LLM-based systems, such as non-determinism and response quality evaluation. Drive performance improvements in inference platforms and distributed systems, ensuring solutions meet strict latency and reliability requirements. Solve the Hardest Problems: Lead root cause analysis for the most complex, systemic issues spanning model performance, distributed systems, and data integrity. Your solutions will set the precedent for future development. Mentor and Elevate: Act as a force multiplier for the engineering organization. Mentor senior engineers, lead architectural reviews, and cultivate a culture of deep technical expertise, innovation, and continuous learning. You will have: Advanced degree in Computer Science, Math, or related field preferred 25+ years of software development experience, with a proven track record of designing, building, and operating large-scale, distributed backend systems. Expert-level knowledge of architectural principles, patterns, and styles, particularly in microservices, event-driven architectures, and distributed data systems. Deep, hands-on experience with the technical ecosystem for modern AI applications, including: LLM serving and inference optimization techniques. Vector databases (e.g., Pinecone, Weaviate, Milvus) and embedding models. Frameworks for LLM orchestration and chaining (e.g., LangChain, LlamaIndex). Demonstrated expertise in at least one modern programming language such as Java, Python, Go, or C++. Extensive experience with cloud platforms (AWS, GCP, or Azure) and container orchestration technologies (Kubernetes). A strategic mindset, capable of translating ambiguous business needs into concrete and scalable technical architectures. Strong organizational-level architectural leadership and cross-functional collaboration skills. Preferred Qualifications: Expertise in designing scalable APIs and agentic workflows. Experience with the performance tuning and fine-tuning of Large Language Models. Experience architecting and implementing large-scale Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) pipelines. A history of significant contributions to open-source projects in the AI/ML or distributed systems communities. Experience building and deploying stateful conversational AI or chatbot systems from the ground up. Imagine working in an environment where one line of code can make life easier for hundreds of millions of people. That's what we do at Walmart Global Tech. We're a team of software engineers, data scientists, cybersecurity experts, and service professionals within the world's leading retailer who make an epic impact and are at the forefront of the next retail disruption. People are why we innovate, and people power our innovations. We are people-led and tech-empowered. We train our team in the skillsets of the future and bring in experts like you to help us grow. We have roles for those chasing their first opportunity as well as those looking for the opportunity that will define their career. Here, you can kickstart a great career in tech, gain new skills and experience for virtually every industry, or leverage your expertise to innovate at scale, impact millions and reimagine the future of retail. Walmart's culture is a competitive advantage, and it's fostered by being together. Working together in person allows us to collaborate, align quickly and innovate with greater speed. We use our campuses to create purposeful connection rooted in deepening understanding and investing in the development of our associates. Walmart is a global company with offices across the United States and around the world. Our global headquarters is in Bentonville, Arkansas, with primary hubs in the San Francisco Bay area and New York/New Jersey.