Walmart is trying to transform itself from America’s grocery store into a global tech titan and is reshaping its workforce in the process.
The 63-year-old company has been the largest retailer in the world for decades and has held the top spot on the Fortune 500 list since 2013. But it has also invested heavily over the past several years in becoming a powerhouse of e-commerce and retail media.
Salary data shows how serious Walmart is about competing with the likes of Amazon, Facebook, and Google for talent to beef up its tech.
Company filings with the US Labor Department show Walmart sought to hire more than 4,000 workers through the US H-1B visa program in the most recent reporting year, which ended September 30. Those workers were largely in software development, business intelligence, and IT. That number is up slightly from about 3,800 for the same period a year before.
This publicly available work visa data — which companies are required to disclose to the government — refers only to foreign hires and doesn’t include equity or other benefits that employees can receive in addition to their base pay.
In addition to base salary, a Walmart spokesperson said that the company’s compensation packages include bonus opportunities and stock awards and that the company invests in employees’ career growth.
Still, the reported pay rates are benchmarked against industry standards for US workers. That can shed light on how much Walmart employees earn in specific roles and where the company is looking to expand.
Business Insider analyzed the salaries companies, from Apple to Walmart, are paying for tech jobs and other roles. Explore salary data from America’s biggest employers.
At the same time, the process for obtaining an H-1B visa is changing.
President Donald Trump instituted a new $100,000 fee for the visa in September, and other proposed changes to H-1B visa rules would tilt the program in favor of the highest-paid applicants, lawyers told Business Insider.
Other employers, including Amazon, submit work visa data, and Walmart’s salaries are largely in line with those for similar roles at the e-commerce giant.
Any changes to the H-1B visa program could have a significant impact on Walmart’s workforce strategy.
The retail giant boasts a global workforce of 2.1 million people, of whom about 1.6 million are in the US, making it the largest private employer in both cases.
Most of the company’s open positions as of December were for jobs in Walmart stores and Sam’s Club warehouses, while about 650 openings were for technology roles.
The company has been expanding in tech, hiring in July a new executive vice president of AI acceleration, product, and design who reports directly to the CEO, and recruiting for an EVP of AI platforms.
Most of Walmart’s white-collar jobs are based either in its Bentonville, Arkansas, headquarters or in one of the company’s satellite offices in the Bay Area. According to the H-1B data, about half of the positions are in Bentonville, while a third are in California, and most of the remainder are assigned to sites in Texas, New Jersey, Washington, and Virginia.
Here’s a deeper look at some of the roles and their annual base salaries:
Software engineers can earn up to $286,000
Quality engineer III: $64,730 to $117,000
Software engineer III: $99,052 to $234,000
Senior software engineer: $100,294 to $234,000
Staff software engineer: $127,292 to $286,000
Principal software engineer: $149,607 to $286,000
Many IT project managers start at $121,000
Senior product manager: $121,000 to $234,000
Staff product manager: $136,500 to $286,000
Principal product manager: $166,962 to $286,000
Data scientists can make more than $98,000
Data scientist III: $98,800 to $234,000
Senior data scientist: $124,176 to $234,000
Staff data scientist: $138,333 to $338,000
Principal data scientist: $158,642 to $286,000
A senior UX designer can pull up to $234,000
Senior design researcher: $142,002 to $234,000
Senior UX designer: $111,000 to $234,000
Senior manager, UX design: $183,227 to $286,000
Team leaders can take home more than $300,000
Director, software engineering: $177,154 to $338,000
Director, data science: $169,000 to $338,000
Director, product management: $174,300 to $338,000
Senior director, product management: $208,000 to $416,000
Group director, product management — international: $254,000 to $481,000
