Manager, Automation Engineering

• Position Summary...
• What you'll do...
• Manager, Automation Engineering
• Performance, Insights & Tools (Data Science & Analytics)
• About the Role
• Join Walmart's Accelerated Pickup & Delivery (APD) team to help transform back-of-store fulfillment through automation. This role focuses on scaling and optimizing our 30K automation initiative, where robotic systems support digital order fulfillment and help shape the future of retail. As
• Manager, Automation Engineering
• Performance, Insights & Tools
• , you will own automation performance management across systems, sites, and vendors while partnering closely with operations, product, data, and external partners.

You will help define automation potential and acceptance criteria for new systems, identify and quantify performance loss opportunities, support structured root-cause analysis and test-and-learn improvements, and build associate-facing and insight tools that maximize system performance. This role is critical to ensuring the 30K automation initiative runs at peak system performance, uptime, and pick rate while solving one of retail's most important challenges: efficient, scalable store fulfillment. The work is highly hands-on and blends automation engineering, data analysis, KPI definition, investigative problem solving, and tool building to help teams understand where performance is being lost and what actions will improve it.

• What You'll Do
• Instrument and analyze performance:
• define, validate, and monitor KPIs such as OEE, pick rate, tote cycle time, queue latency, downtime, wait time, perfect order, nil pick, OTP, and system health; build trend and insight reporting that surfaces actionable opportunities.
• Support system acceptance:
• define acceptance testing plans, success criteria, and vendor-specific automation potential and acceptance goals across throughput, cycle time, quality, uptime, and operational readiness.
• Find and help eliminate performance loss:
• partner with site, vendor, and cross-functional teams to perform structured root-cause analysis using operational data, automation studies, telemetry, and field observations; support corrective actions and verify impact.
• Partner on vendor expectations:
• translate system specifications into measurable SLAs, scorecards, and release gates; help run performance reviews and track issue follow-through.
• Indentify System Performance efficiency initiatives:
• design experiments, evaluate bottlenecks, and help standardize best practices across automation sites.
• Build performance and insight tools:
• develop dashboards, diagnostics, telemetry views, event-log analyses, health scores, Pareto views, and self-service reporting tools to support operational decision-making.
• Improve KPI visibility and trust:
• partner with data and business teams to validate metric definitions, align source-of-truth queries, and improve consistency between dashboards, reports, and operational conversations.
• Track performance to goal:
• maintain target-versus-actual performance views, highlight gaps, and help teams drive closure plans with site, operations, product, and vendor partners.
• Support deep-dive investigations:
• analyze store, order, and event-level data to understand exceptions, throughput loss, wait-time drivers, and quality defects, and translate findings into practical actions.
• Translate insights for action:
• create executive-ready summaries, recurring scorecards, and clear narratives that turn complex automation and fulfillment data into decisions.
• Feed future system designs:
• convert field learnings into requirement updates, design recommendations, and design-for-performance specifications for next-generation automation.
• Partner cross-functionally:
• work closely with operations, product, data, engineering, central teams, and external vendors to align on priorities, test ideas, and improve performance.
• Travel up to 25%:
• visit stores, vendor sites, and pilot or trial locations to validate performance, support testing, and accelerate issue resolution.
• Must Haves
• Bachelor's degree in Engineering (Industrial, Mechanical, Systems, Computer Science, Electrical, or related field) or Degrees in Data Science, Analytics, Statistics, Business Math, Operations Research, or other quantitative disciplines may also be considered when paired with relevant experience in automation, fulfillment systems, or operational performance engineering; Master's degree a plus.
• 3+ years of experience in automation, industrial engineering or data science with a strong focus on system performance, throughput, cycle time, quality, and acceptance.
• Experience owning or supporting system acceptance, performance qualification, and release-readiness criteria for automated systems.
• Strong expertise in root-cause analysis and continuous improvement methods
• Strong analytical capability with SQL, Python, and BI/reporting tools (for example Power BI) to investigate operational performance, validate KPI logic, and turn complex data into actionable insights.
• Experience building or supporting dashboards, recurring scorecards, or insight tools used by operations, engineering, or leadership teams. Leveraging AI to accelerate design, build agents that support analytics & Insights and next best action.
• Strong communication skills with the ability to translate technical findings into clear actions for executive, cross-functional, field, and vendor audiences.
• Nice to Have
• AI enthusiast with a passion for leveraging emerging technologies to drive innovation and enhance operational capabilities.
• Experience building telemetry pipelines, real-time dashboards, or alerting and observability tools.
• Experience in data science, data modeling or data engineering
• Experience in data science, data modeling or data engineering
• Simulation, digital-twin, or capacity-modeling experience.
• Retail or e-commerce fulfillment experience, including pick-rate, wait-time, perfect-order, or throughput improvement programs at scale.
• Experience building associate-facing performance or diagnostic tools that improve system adoption and execution.
• Experience working with store
• order
• or event-level data to investigate exceptions and performance loss patterns.
• Experience with AS/RS, shuttles, AMRs, sortation, pick systems, or goods-to-person solutions.
• Hands-on experience with engineering and operations tools such as SCADA, CMMS, telemetry/event-log analysis, automation diagnostics, and performance dashboards.
• Experience working with vendors and cross-functional teams to define expectations, review performance, and improve follow-through on issues.
• Why This Role Matters
• APD automation performance is not just about equipment uptime; it is about translating system capability into store-level execution and customer impact.

This role helps Walmart scale automation with clear acceptance standards, trusted performance insights, rapid issue identification, and practical tools that help operators, partners, and leadership teams make better decisions and deliver consistently at peak performance. At Walmart, we offer competitive pay as well as performance-based bonus awards and other great benefits for a happier mind, body, and wallet. 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. You will also receive PTO and/or PPTO that can be used for vacation, sick leave, holidays, or other purposes. The amount you receive depends on your job classification and length of employment. It will meet or exceed the requirements of paid sick leave laws, where applicable. For information about PTO, see https://one.walmart.com/notices . Live Better U is a Walmart-paid education benefit program for full-time and part-time associates in Walmart and Sam's Club facilities. Programs range from high school completion to bachelor's degrees, including English Language Learning and short-form certificates. Tuition, books, and fees are completely paid for by Walmart. Eligibility requirements apply to some benefits and may depend on your job classification and length of employment. Benefits are subject to change and may be subject to a specific plan or program terms. For information about benefits and eligibility, see One.

Walmart (https://one.walmart.com/) . The annual salary range for this position is $90,000.00

• $180,000.00 Additional compensation includes annual or quarterly performance bonuses. Additional compensation for certain positions may also include :
• Stock ㅤ ㅤ ㅤ ㅤ ‎
• Minimum Qualifications...
• _Outlined below are the required minimum qualifications for this position. If none are listed, there are no minimum qualifications._ Option 1: Bachelor's degree in Engineering or related field and 2 years' experience in engineering, supply chain, or related area. Option 2: 4 years' experience in engineering, supply chain, or related area.
• Preferred Qualifications...
• _Outlined below are the optional preferred qualifications for this position.

If none are listed, there are no preferred qualifications._

Masters:

Computer Engineering

• Primary Location...
• 802 Respect Dr, Bentonville, AR 72716, United States of America Walmart and its subsidiaries are committed to maintaining a drug-free workplace and has a no tolerance policy regarding the use of illegal drugs and alcohol on the job.

This policy applies to all employees and aims to create a safe and productive work environment.

Walmart, Inc. is an Equal Opportunity 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 diversity
• unique styles, experiences, identities, abilities, ideas and opinions
• while being inclusive of all people.