Principal Engineer Architect [T500-24382]

About Albertsons Companies Inc.:

As a leading food and drug retailer in the United States, Albertsons Companies, Inc. operates over 2,200 stores across 35 states and the District of Columbia. Our well-known banners across the United States, including Albertsons, Safeway, Vons, Jewel-Osco and others, serve more than 36 million U.S customers each week.

We build and shape technology solutions that solve customers problems every day, making things easier for them when they shop with us online or in a store. We have made bold, strategic moves to migrate and modernize our core foundational capabilities, positioning ourselves as the first fully cloud-based grocery tech company in the industry.

Our success is built on a one-team approach, driven by the desire to understand and enhance the customer experience. By constantly pushing the boundaries of retail, we are transforming shopping into an experience that is easy, efficient, fun and engaging.

About Albertsons Companies India:

At Albertsons Companies India, we're not just pushing the boundaries of technology and retail innovation, we're cultivating a space where ideas flourish and careers thrive. Our workplace in India is a vital extension of the Albertsons Companies Inc. workforce and important to the next phase in the companys technology journey to support millions of customers lives every day.

At the Albertsons Companies India, we are raising the bar to grow across Technology & Engineering, AI, Digital and other company functions, and transform a 165-year-old American retailer. At Albertsons Companies India associates collaborate directly with international teams, enhancing decision-making processes and organizational agility through exciting and pivotal projects. Your work will make history and help millions of lives each day come together around the joys of food and inspire their well-being.

Role Summary:

We are looking for a Principal Engineer / Architect to define and lead the architecture of large-scale digital platforms powering next-generation retail intelligence and workforce experiences.

This role will architect and scale two mission-critical platforms:

• Associate Mobile Platform used by ~300K employees with embedded AI assistant and conversational capabilities
• Retail AI / Store Intelligence Platform deployed across ~2,300 retail stores, delivering real-time operational insights and automation
• As a senior technical authority, you will drive platform architecture, system design, and AI integration strategies across engineering teams, enabling highly scalable, resilient, and intelligent systems.
• You will partner with engineering, product, and data science leaders to build AI-native enterprise platforms that transform retail operations and employee productivity.

What You Will Do:

Lead Platform Architecture

• Define the end-to-end architecture for large-scale mobile and AI-powered platforms.
• Design systems supporting hundreds of thousands of users and real-time operational workloads.
• Architect cloud-native, distributed, and event-driven systems optimized for scale and resilience

Drive AI Integration

• Lead the integration of LLMs, AI copilots, and autonomous agent frameworks into enterprise applications.
• Architect conversational systems powering AI assistants and intelligent workflows.
• Collaborate with data science teams to operationalize AI-driven insights, automation, and decision systems.

Build Scalable Digital Platforms

• Architect high-performance mobile-first platforms with robust backend ecosystems.
• Define scalable APIs and services enabling real-time intelligence across stores and workforce platforms.
• Ensure architecture supports high availability, low latency, and enterprise-grade reliability.

Influence Engineering Direction

• Serve as the highest-level technical advisor across multiple engineering teams.
• Lead architecture reviews and establish engineering standards and best practices.
• Mentor senior engineers and architects to drive technical excellence across the organization.

Drive Technology Strategy

• Define long-term technology roadmaps and architecture strategies.
• Evaluate emerging technologies in AI, distributed systems, and platform engineering
• Lead innovation initiatives and proof-of-concepts that accelerate AI-first platform development.

Required Qualifications:

• 12+ years of software engineering experience, including significant experience in architecture and distributed systems design.
• 5+ years of experience architecting AI/ML or GenAI platforms at enterprise scale.
• Proven experience architecting large-scale enterprise or consumer platforms.
• Experience building mobile-first digital platforms with complex backend ecosystems.
• Experience integrating AI/ML capabilities into production-grade systems.

Technical Expertise:

• Architecture & Backend
• Distributed systems design
• Microservices architecture
• API-driven platform design
• Event-driven architectures

Languages & Frameworks:

• Java or equivalent backend technologies
• Modern frontend frameworks (React / Angular)
• AI & Intelligent Systems
• Experience integrating LLMs, AI copilots, or conversational systems
• Familiarity with frameworks such as LangChain, CrewAI, AutoGen, or OpenAI APIs.

Data & Messaging:

• Kafka or event-streaming platforms
• SQL and NoSQL databases (PostgreSQL, MongoDB, Cassandra, etc.)
• Cloud Platforms
• AWS, GCP, or Azure
• Cloud-native architecture patterns

Leadership Expectations:

• Influence architecture decisions across multiple product and engineering teams
• Act as a technical thought leader for large-scale platform development
• Drive engineering excellence, scalability, and innovation
• Partner with product, AI, and data leaders to deliver AI-powered enterprise capabilities