Indian tech professionals in Canada will benefit from Walmart’s hiring
Suresh Kumar, left, Chief Technology officer, chatting with Doug McMillon, Walmart CEO
April 3, 2022
Walmart is the latest major American company hiring computer and other technologists in Canada. Last month, the Bentonville, Arkansas-based retailer announced it will set up new global tech hubs in Toronto, Canada – as well as in Atlanta, U.S.
The two cities were chosen because of their growing tech presence, connection to Walmart and broad and diverse local talent. “Work from these new hubs” will help better serve 230 million global customers “and transform the future of retail," Suresh Kumar, 58-years-old, Walmart's Chief Technology Officer said in a post on the company’s website.
In fiscal year ended January 2022, Walmart earned an operating income of $26 billion on $573 billion in revenues. A major reason for Walmart’s success, since the first store was set up in 1962, is its early adoption of technology. Walmart made Universal Product Codes, to identify a product, the standard in retail; developed advanced supply chains and launched satellite communication in the early 1980s. Today, Walmart’s technology includes cloud, data, enterprise architecture, infrastructure and security.
The company‘s plan is to create thousands of new jobs In Toronto, making it one of its larger tech hubs. The Toronto hub will be among the 17 Walmart technology hubs, including teams in Seattle, and Chennai, that launched last year. Walmart’s Bangalore site opened in 2008 to initiate the Walmart Global Tech India, which includes a site in Gurgaon, as well.
Globally, this fiscal year ending January 2023, Walmart plans to hire more than 5,000 tech employees. The hiring will include jobs in cybersecurity, software architecture and development, technical program management, artificial intelligence, virtual reality and automation. Last year, Walmart grew its tech hiring by 26% to 20,000; about a fifth of those in the global tech team earned a promotion.
Like many other major global companies, Walmart is apparently seeking to bypass the job visa restrictions in the U.S. by expanding operations and hiring in Canada. The U.S. caps the number of skilled temporary work visas issued each year. Worse, Indians on work visas are required to stay with their sponsoring employer and wait over 15 years to get a green card, or permanent residency. A green card frees them to seek higher paying and better jobs with any employer in the U.S.
Instead of waiting for a green card, which may not materialize if the job is cut, Indian professionals in the U.S. – as well as students in India considering taking on loans to study at U.S. universities - ought to migrate to Canada. The chances of getting a work visa and permanent residency, especially for engineering, technology, m and science graduates, are very good; in fact, those with advanced skills can get a permanent resident visa in a few months. Canada faces a shortage of skilled labor and has a population which is rapidly aging.
In 2020, Walmart announced a $3.5 billion investment to make the online and in-store experience more convenient for its Canadian customers. It is deploying the latest technology to improve everything from the supply chain to in-store services. Walmart is expanding in Toronto, which is the home to a quarter of Canada’s tech workforce. Each year, 25,000 students in the Toronto area graduate in engineering, science, technology and math fields.
Suresh Kumar joined Walmart as CTO in 2019. Earlier he was at Google and Microsoft. He was with Amazon for 15 years, including as vice president, Worldwide retail systems and services. In 1992, he started his career in the U.S. as a research staff member at IBM, where he stayed for seven years. That year he earned a PhD in Engineering from Princeton University; in 1987 he earned a degree in aeronautical engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras.
In fiscal 2021, Kumar earned a total $12 million at Walmart, including salary, bonus and stock; and in fiscal 2020, he earned $46 million. .
Discussing the Toronto and Atlanta Walmart tech hubs on LinkedIn, Kumar states, “I cover all the details in a post on our blog here: https://lnkd.in/e_V8My-3 and encourage you to learn more about us and roles that might be a great fit for you on our careers site at: https://lnkd.in/givHbKq.”
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