Software Engineer - Membership

Costco IT is responsible for the technical future of Costco Wholesale , the third largest retailer in the world with wholesale operations in fourteen countries. Despite our size and explosive international expansion, we continue to provide a family, employee-centric atmosphere in which our employees thrive and succeed. As proof, Costco ranks eighth in Forbes “World’s Best Employers” .

This is an environment unlike anything in the high-tech world and the secret of Costco’s success is its culture. The value Costco puts on its employees is well documented in articles from a variety of publishers including Bloomberg and Forbes. Our employees and our members come FIRST. Costco is well known for its generosity and community service and has won many awards for its philanthropy. The company joins with its employees to take an active role in volunteering by sponsoring many opportunities to help others.

Come join the Costco Wholesale IT family . Costco IT is a dynamic, fast-paced environment, working through exciting transformation efforts. We are building the next generation retail environment where you will be surrounded by dedicated and highly professional employees.

Software Engineer Role

Software Engineers perform development work across the technology stack (both front-end/back-end expertise). They are versatile in how they can add value, demonstrating the ability to manage the completion of projects that involve databases, backend services, or the development of front-end applications. They should be able to demonstrate a strong understanding of emerging technologies to support the development of new solutions. Software Engineers understand the full technology stack and underlying applications, services, and databases in order to ensure optimal performance.

The Software Engineer will work directly with Solution Architects, Product management, and software-development delivery pods to provide technical oversight for end-to-end core system design, development, implementation, and operations aimed at maximizing efficiency and usability.

This person must be a passionate, driven, self-starting problem-solver who is comfortable with change and excels in a fast-paced environment. They will have deep understanding and practical experience in a broad range of skills from database architecture and management to security, performance analysis, continuous integration and deployment, and support of large distributed system operations. This individual will be a proven mentor who is able to work effectively cross-functionally with technical and non-technical team members/audiences, and will quickly develop an advanced understanding of business requirements and how technology fits those needs.

The Costco IT Membership team is breaking new ground with advanced technology solutions. As a member of the team, this position will have a direct impact on how we enable Costco to grow its membership base and achieve continued success.

Responsibilities

• Develops the conceptual systems architecture design and the supporting technologies needed to enable new and/or enhanced functionality within a given product/application, applying principles that promote availability, reusability, interoperability and security into the design framework.
• Supports release planning activities in conjunction with Product Owners and teams.
• Identifies high level requirements to support the definition and refinement of a robust testing strategy.
• Supports the Product Owner with the identification and definition of enablers/work items to support the architectural runway of a given product/application.
• Defines the non-functional requirements (e.g., performance, security, resiliency, etc.) which support the development of epics and user stories aligned to a value stream.
• Identifies technical dependencies across several product/application teams to support the implementation of new or enhanced functionality.
• Performs development, optimization, and automation activities to support the implementation of a product/application.
• Develops and implements front-end architecture to support user interface concepts.
• Increases proficiency and understanding of relational and non-relational databases, distributed application architectures, user interfaces and user experience, quality assurance, security concerns, and business value creation.
• Drives engineering best practices to deliver higher quality and scalable solutions.
• Provides the team with the development strategy, solution recommendations, and estimates for a given product/application.
• Participates in scrum ceremonies (sprint planning, retrospective, showcases/demos, stand-ups, backlog refinement, etc.).
• Creates and executes unit tests which validate the code changes made to support the implementation of a user story.
• Uses test driven development (TDD) practices to assist with the detection/recognition of software defects early in the development process.
• Estimates, plans, and manages all implementation tasks and reports on development progress.
• Designs, builds, debugs, optimizes and implements solutions in approved tool sets and databases.
• Develops high quality, efficient and fault tolerant software.
• Supports, extends and builds automated CI and CD pipelines.
• Designs and delivers DevSecOps automation for app deployment and testing.
• Uses APM/monitoring tools such as Dynatrace/Splunk and browser tools to perform request purepath/waterfall analysis to identify bottlenecks and suggest improvements.
• Participates in the development and documentation of department standards and best practices, and mentors junior engineers.
• Provides the team with solution recommendations and estimates for a given product/application.
• Identifies deficiencies within a product/application’s code base and identifies opportunities to improve overall code quality.
• Collaborates with team members (e.g., Systems Architects, Systems Analysts) to define project specifications and release documentation for all phases of the product development cycle from product definition to design, through implementation.
• Conducts peer code reviews for the software changes made by other engineers within a team.
• Evaluates and selects appropriate frameworks, libraries, and technologies to support the architecture and meet project requirements.
• Conducts architectural reviews and provides guidance on design patterns, coding standards, and development methodologies.
• Provides technical expertise and hands-on coding when necessary to support the team in complex development tasks.
• Ensures adherence to coding standards, code quality, and best practices throughout the development lifecycle.
• Defines remediation tactics for large and complex defects impacting several features and/or capabilities within a given product or application.
• Collaborates with other architects and technical leads to ensure consistency and compatibility across systems and projects.
• Collaborates and works effectively in agile environments with multi-functional teams, comprising product managers, Scrum Masters, UX/UI designers, software engineers, and Quality Engineers; to establish technical requirements and ensure the successful delivery of projects.
• Provides technical leadership and mentorship to the Membership development team, fostering a culture of excellence, innovation, and continuous improvement.
• Develops and maintains technical documentation, diagrams, and guidelines for the Android development team to ensure consistent and clear communication.
• Identifies potential risks and technical challenges early in the development lifecycle and develops effective solutions to address them.
• Leads the development team in implementing the defined architectural vision and technical strategies.
• Drives operational efficiency and technical growth by mentoring delivery pod teams through documentation, workshops, and other appropriate methods in the areas of software applications design, development, automation, CI/CD pipeline, and architecture.
• Provides active support for business-critical outage situations.

Required Qualifications

• 5+ years’ software development lifecycle experience, including proven front-end, back-end, macro and micro-level design experience successfully deploying cross-platform software solutions for large IT environments.
• 3+ years’ experience as a development lead on major projects/initiatives.
• 3+ years’ Scrum Agile development/delivery.
• Experience developing, integrating, and deploying custom-made software from scratch in enterprise IT environment.
• Demonstrated experience programming in 1+ major database: Azure Cosmos DB, IBM DB2, MS SQL, or Oracle.
• Strong competency in leveraging and planning for the scalability of IT infrastructure.
• Fundamental comprehension of network design and routing.
• Basic understanding of technical architecture principles and best-practices for distributed systems.
• Strong communication - both oral and written - and collaboration skills with all team/management levels.
• Proven ability to determine, align, and communicate software development standards and mentor highly-efficient development teams.
• Outstanding work ethic, self-motivation, and ability to work independently and effectively in high-stress situations, within time constraints, and on multiple efforts in parallel.
• Excellent troubleshooting skills and the ability to logically think through problem-resolution.
• Strong knowledge of object-oriented concepts and applied UML experience.
• Open availability to work in a 24x7x365 environment, on-call, and on-location as required.

Recommended Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Sciences, Engineering, or equivalent work experience.
• Knowledge of Costco’s Business and Membership Operations.
• Familiarity and/or experience with existing and future Costco Membership solutions.
• Experience in Membership systems.
• Advanced understanding of technical architecture principles and best-practices.
• Certifications in Microsoft Azure Solutions Design, PMI Agile Practitioner, Leading SAFe, and/or SAFe Architect.
• Proven experience delivering Azure cloud technology solutions.
• Deep understanding of Costco’s cloud strategy.

Required Documents

• Cover Letter
• Resume

California applicants, please click to review the Costco Applicant Privacy Notice.

Pay Ranges

Level Sr - $150,000 - $190,000, Bonus and Restricted Stock Unit (RSU) eligible
Level Staff - $180,000 - $225,000, Bonus and Restricted Stock Unit (RSU) eligible

We offer a comprehensive package of benefits including paid time off, health benefits - medical/dental/vision/hearing aid/pharmacy/behavioral health/employee assistance, health care reimbursement account, dependent care assistance plan, short-term disability and long-term disability insurance, AD&D insurance, life insurance, 401(k), stock purchase plan to eligible employees.

Costco is committed to a diverse and inclusive workplace. Costco is an equal opportunity employer. Qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard of race, national origin, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, protected veteran status, disability, age, or any other legally protected status. If you need assistance and/or a reasonable accommodation due to a disability during the application or the recruiting process, please send a request to

If hired, you will be required to provide proof of authorization to work in the United States.