Walmart confirms plans to add hundreds of tech jobs this year

Walmart continues to staff up its massive technology arm known as Walmart Labs. The retail giant added roughly 1,700 tech-related jobs in fiscal 2019 which ends Jan. 31. There are roughly 2,000 more jobs to be added to its nine tech centers located across the globe this next fiscal year, according to Jenn Ericksen, a corporate spokeswoman with Walmart Labs.

She told Talk Business & Politics the new technology jobs will include data scientists, software engineers, designers and other professionals who will expand the technology division by roughly 25%. The jobs will support Walmart’s store technology, online commerce as well as data and cloud services.

Jeremy King, chief technology officer and head of Walmart Labs, made the announcement last week at the National Retail Federation (NRF) annual conference. King said Walmart Labs roughly employs 7,500 people who continue to innovate and support services such as store mapping, grocery pickup.

Walmart did not say how many of the 2,000 new jobs will be added to the Bentonville Walmart Labs unit. The retailer said it is recruiting for all nine locations: San Bruno, Sunnyvale, Carlsbad, Calif., Hoboken, N.J., Portland, Ore.; Reston, Va.; Dublin, Ireland and Bangalore, India.

On Walmart’s Careers web portal there are 101 open technology jobs in Bentonville for Walmart Labs as Monday (Jan. 21). Walmart also eliminated roughly 300 jobs from its Information Systems Division (ISD), also part of Walmart Labs, in April 2018. This past year, Walmart had four rounds of corporate layoffs. President and CEO Doug McMillon said they were an attempt to be leaner and more nimble in the company’s continued transformation into a digital company.

Walmart will hold its year-beginning meeting in Houston next week with employees from around the country. At the annual meeting, company executives typically unveil any new operational plans or programs on tap for fiscal 2020, which begins Feb. 1.