Principal Software Engineer

Job Description

Nordstrom, a leading fashion retailer, is seeking a highly skilled Principal Software Engineer to join our Inventory Technology team. Inventory is Nordstrom’s biggest investment and the productive use of it is critical to the company’s success. Our team is responsible for the movement execution and optimization of inventory across a network of 400+ stores and our warehouses, as well as the visibility and traceability of the inventory. Lastly, we are also responsible for the systems that support all of the reverse logistics lifecycle for Nordstrom. Our platform provides a real-time, unified representation of inventory state, enabling stores, fulfillment centers, and enterprise stakeholders to make informed decisions about stock availability, movement, and allocation. We’re also at the forefront of applying AI and agentic architectures to transform how inventory systems are built, tested and operated.

As a Principal Software Engineer, you will play a crucial role in building technology to improve the way we move, track and optimize our inventory. As a key member of our Inventory technology leadership team, you will oversee the design, architecture, and implementation of critical technology. Your expertise will be instrumental in driving innovation and ensuring the scalability, reliability, and performance of our technology.

A day in the life...

• Set technical direction for a 150+ engineering org on how the org designs, builds, and ships code, with agentic development practices where agents write code and engineers provide the context and review
• Architect and develop complex systems at scale that meet SLA’s, KPI's and engineering standards
• Design and evolve event-driven, microservices-based architectures (e.g., streaming platforms such as Kafka) that power real-time inventory visibility, movement, and traceability across our store, warehouse, and RFID systems
• Collaborate with and influence senior technology and business leaders to recommend solutions and articulate trade-off’s
• Set technical direction and strategy across the Inventory Technology portfolio, serving as the domain’s technical authority to peer engineering organizations (Supply Chain, Merchandising, Data Science) and enterprise business stakeholders
• Lead engineers across multiple teams through projects by providing guidance on software design and development
• Diagnose and remedy performance or security issues
• Demonstrates expertise in industry standards for secure development practices
• Apply expertise with telemetry solutions and products available in the industry
• Contributes to great open source, community projects and engineering standards
• Mentor and elevate Senior engineers across the broader Inventory Technology organization; help acquire and retain top engineering talent
• Stay hands-on: build POCs and dig into complex problem areas directly, not just at the whiteboard

You own this if you have…

• Bachelor’s or master’s degree in computer science, Computer Engineering, or related field
• 10+ years of professional software engineering experience
• Highly proficient with Java and Python
• Highly experienced with AWS and/or GCP
• Hands-on experience with agentic AI systems; experience with AWS Bedrock AgentCore is a strong plus
• Experience with Agile methodologies with a continuous improvement and quality mindset
• DevOps experience with track record of improving time to recovery and mitigating failures
• Highly experienced with various CI/CD process and tools (GitLab) and containerization technologies
• Highly skilled at applying architectural patterns to express complex scalable systems that optimize for simplicity, operational support and implementation velocity
• Experienced with developing data science enabled solutions using big data and traditional software skills
• Experience leveraging AI, particularly Generative AI, to enhance platform automation, reduce operational costs, and improve engineering productivity. Identify opportunities where AI can streamline workflows, optimize data processing, and enable intelligent decision-making
• Track record of designing and developing services and applications with enterprise grade security to protect sensitive data from threats
• Highly experienced with mentoring and coaching engineers
• Track record of architecting and solving complex engineering problems at scale with outstanding business and technology results
• Experience in supply chain and/or complex ecommerce domains is preferred
• Domain experience with inventory management, warehouse management systems (WMS), or RFID-based tracking systems is a strong plus

Pay Range Details

The pay range(s) below has been provided in compliance with state specific laws. Pay ranges may be different for other locations.

Pay offers are dependent on the location, as well as job-related knowledge, skills, and experience.

We’ve got you covered…

Our employees are our most important asset and that’s reflected in our benefits. Nordstrom is proud to offer a variety of benefits to support employees and their families, including:

• Medical/Vision, Dental, Retirement and Paid Time Away
• Life Insurance and Disability
• Merchandise Discount and EAP Resources

A few more important points...

The job posting highlights the most critical responsibilities and requirements of the job. It’s not all-inclusive. There may be additional duties, responsibilities and qualifications for this job.

For Los Angeles or San Francisco applicants: Nordstrom is required to inform you that we conduct background checks after conditional offer and consider qualified applicants with criminal histories in a manner consistent with legal requirements per Los Angeles, Cal. Muni. Code 189.04 and the San Francisco Fair Chance Ordinance. For additional state and location specific notices, please refer to the Legal Notices document within the FAQ section of the Nordstrom Careers site.

Applicants with disabilities who require assistance or accommodation should contact the nearest Nordstrom location, which can be identified at www.nordstrom.com.

Please be mindful that there may be legal notices and requirements related to this job posting that are specific to your state. Review the Career Site FAQ’s for relevant information and guidelines.

Current Nordstrom employees: To apply, log into Workday, click the Careers button and then click Find Jobs.