Director Data Engineering

About the role

Walmart’s End-to-End Data & Analytics team in Costa Rica is looking for a Director of Data Engineering to shape and evolve the enterprise data platform. You will be the technical authority driving architecture for scalable, AI‑native workloads that power supply‑chain decisions, transportation efficiency and next‑gen store performance.

Key responsibilities

• Define and evolve enterprise data architecture across batch, streaming and hybrid systems, supporting both traditional analytics and AI workloads.
• Establish standards for structured, semi‑structured and unstructured data, ensuring discoverability and semantic richness for LLMs, copilots and multi‑agent workflows.
• Partner with engineering, AI/ML, product and platform leaders to align roadmaps with autonomous decision‑making goals.
• Design observability, telemetry, lineage, governance and AI auditability standards for trust, reliability and scale.
• Lead modernization of legacy data lakes into composable, event‑driven, agent‑aware platforms while balancing short‑term delivery and long‑term scalability.
• Provide hands‑on technical guidance, mentorship and design‑review leadership to data engineers across high‑impact initiatives.

Required profile

• Bachelor’s (and Master’s) degree in Computer Science or related field.
• 10+ years of data‑engineering experience with at least 5 years leading or managing teams.
• Proven track record shaping architecture across multiple domains and organizations.
• Strong communication skills in English (C1) and ability to thrive in a fast‑paced, adaptable environment.

Required skills

• Python, Java or Scala programming; Spark/PySpark and SQL optimization at scale.
• Experience with batch and real‑time streaming platforms such as Kafka, Spark Structured Streaming, Hadoop, Hive.
• Cloud‑native expertise on GCP (BigQuery, Dataflow, Airflow, Vertex AI, Cloud Storage) and related tools (dbt, Databricks).
• Knowledge of data modeling, ETL/ELT, data classification and governance.

What we offer

• Impact at scale – work with some of the world’s largest datasets influencing millions of customers.
• Global collaboration – partner with data professionals worldwide in a diverse, inclusive culture.
• Innovation powerhouse – be at the forefront of supply‑chain optimization using cutting‑edge tools.
• Work‑life balance – supportive team environment with opportunities to travel and grow globally.