IT Application Engineer III, Checkout Engineering

BA/BS degree and 6-8 years’ relevant experience OR equivalent combination of education and relevant experience.
MS degree and 6-8 years’ relevant experience OR equivalent combination of education and relevant experience.

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As an Application Engineer III, you will be a technical leader and strategic player in the Checkout Engineering organization, driving innovation and best practices across multiple teams and functional areas.

Lead the design and implementation of large-scale, distributed systems that power critical WWGST services. Drive architectural decisions and best practices across teams to ensure scalability, reliability, and performance of mission-critical applications. Collaborate with product managers and business stakeholders to translate complex requirements into innovative technical solutions.

Evaluate and integrate technologies and frameworks to drive innovation and improve processes.

Mentor junior engineers to elevate quality and promote best practices. Participate in capacity planning and performance. Troubleshoot complex issues in production environments, performing root cause analysis and implementing robust solutions.

Collaborate with cross-functional teams to design and implement APIs and services that enable seamless integration between various Amazon platforms.

Champion a culture of operational excellence through monitoring, logging, and alerting best practices. Participate in on-call rotations to ensure high availability and rapid incident response for critical systems. Continuously improve system resilience.

The ideal candidate will be a recognized technical expert with a track record of efficiently delivering high-impact solutions. You should be able to work outside your primary technical domain, assist in other areas as required, and be regarded as an expert by peers across the organization. Strong communication skills, the ability to influence across divisions, and a commitment to being vocally self-critical are essential for success in this role.

Key job responsibilities
Lead the architecture and design of significant development initiatives across major segments of the organization, ensuring high-performance, stable, and scalable solutions.

Identify opportunities for automation and improvement, collaborating with cross-functional teams to develop and implement viable solutions.

Spearhead projects to design, develop, test, deploy, and support applications, interfaces, and integrations using a variety of tools.

Provide expert software advice and consultation, influencing strategic decisions and roadmaps for your functional area.

Engage application developers to establish and promote design, coding, and system methodology best practices across the organization.

Identify and evaluate new technologies that can be applied to improve systems and overall processes.

Mentor and provide technical leadership to team members, fostering a culture of continuous learning and improvement.

Lead technical reviews of large-scale projects, applying your expertise to guide critical decisions and ensure successful outcomes.

Drive the definition and implementation of metrics and standards for your team and the broader technical community.

Contribute significantly to your group's strategy, planning, and hiring processes, leveraging your deep understanding of business, priorities, and interconnections.

Demonstrate excellent judgment balancing short-term and long-term needs, making sound trade-offs benefiting your group and the company.

Maintain a system-wide view of solutions and architecture, considering broader impacts.


A day in the life
As an IT Application Engineer for Checkout systems (POS, Self-Checkout, Hospitality POS), you are responsible for driving the SDLC for business and technical features for the product and services owned by the team. You'll tackle a prioritized backlog of improvements for US stores, focusing on operational excellence. Collaborating with vendors and cross-functional teams, you'll progress high-priority items while providing daily support for critical POS functions. You'll participate in SAFe ceremonies, and engage in architecture discussions. Your expertise will be crucial in mentoring junior members and translating stakeholder requirements into innovative technical solutions that propel our global retail operations forward.

About the team
We are a small, dynamic team responsible for the Point of Sale (POS) systems in WWGST's Whole Foods Market stores. Our work is critical to the smooth operation of all retail locations in US market. We collaborate closely with third-party software vendors to optimize our core POS solution, while also working directly with operations partners, product teams, and other technical and support teams across WWGST. Our mission is to continuously improve the POS experience for both our store associates and customers, driving operational excellence.