Lead Software Engineer – C# .NET Sortation & Labeling Systems

Lead Software Engineer – C# .NET Sortation & Labeling Systems Job Location – Pune (Hybrid) About Williams-Sonoma, Inc. Founded in 1956 and headquartered in San Francisco, California, Williams-Sonoma, Inc. is a Fortune 500, digital first, multi-channel specialty retailer. Our company vision is to own the home, and the places where our customers work, stay, and play. We bring the latest home furnishing trends to life for customers through the individual lenses of our ten distinct brands, each serving different life stages and rooms of the home and beyond. Our brands include Williams Sonoma, Williams Sonoma Home, Pottery Barn, Pottery Barn Kids, Pottery Barn Teen, West Elm, Rejuvenation, Mark & Graham, GreenRow, and Dormify. We are committed to sustainability, continuously working to protect our planet, while building an open and collaborative culture across our organization. With more than 500 retail stores globally and multiple international franchise operations, technology is a core driver of our business strategy. We build and operate in-house platforms powering e-commerce, supply chain, merchandising, analytics, and customer experience ecosystems worldwide. Engineers at the Williams-Sonoma India Technology Center build and scale digital commerce platforms that power these global brands, serving millions of customers worldwide. Role Overview The Lead Software Engineer will lead the design, development, and delivery of a Windows-based sortation and labeling platform that integrates with PKMS/WMS systems, PLCs, and material handling equipment (MHE) across our distribution network. The system processes TCP socket messages for carton lifecycle events, persists data to enterprise databases, and coordinates downstream services. This role requires deep hands-on C#/.NET expertise, subject-matter depth in warehouse automation and MHE, and close collaboration with cross-functional business, DC operations, and third-party vendor teams such as Savoye, Opex, Honeywell Intelligrated, Boxer, and bagger/print-and-apply solution providers. Impact of the Role

• Provide technical leadership for the sortation and labeling domain — designing, developing, and leading delivery of high-throughput, low-latency Windows services and desktop applications.
• Own application health in production — monitoring, alerting, incident triage, and root-cause resolution during peak fulfillment periods.
• Partner with Distribution Center operations, Supply Chain, and third-party MHE vendors to translate operational requirements into scalable technical solutions.
• Identify and deliver AI and automation opportunities that improve DC operations, production support, and business-user productivity.
• Experience mentoring engineers and raising engineering standards across a team.Technology Platforms You Will Work On
• .NET Framework 4.8 and Visual Studio 2022.
• Socket-based services and Windows Service hosts.
• Integration with sortation devices, PLCs, MHE controllers, and WMS/PKMS via TCP.
• ZPL label print pipelines and event-forwarding mechanismsKey Responsibilities
• Provide technical leadership for the sortation and labeling domain — designing, developing, and leading delivery of high-throughput, low-latency Windows services and desktop applications.
• Design and maintain TCP socket server/client components for high-volume carton lifecycle messaging with PKMS/WMS and MHE controllers.
• Implement multithreading and asynchronous programming patterns for performance, responsiveness, and predictable throughput under peak volumes.
• Build and maintain desktop UI using WPF and coordinate with Windows Service hosts for end-to-end operational workflows.
• Lead integrations with PLCs, serial devices, scanners, print-and-apply, and material handling equipment, ensuring robust error handling, retry logic, and consistent state across data stores.
• Own ZPL label workflows and print pipelines, including label design, throughput tuning, and printer/applicator fault recovery.
• Define and enforce engineering standards for secure coding, unit testing, Git branching strategy, and code quality.
• Lead deployments, IIS configuration, and CI/CD automation, including automated testing and release readiness.
• Own application health in production — monitoring, alerting, incident triage, and root-cause resolution during peak fulfillment periods.
• Partner with Distribution Center operations, Supply Chain, and third-party MHE vendors to translate operational requirements into scalable technical solutions.
• Identify and deliver AI and automation opportunities that improve DC operations, production support, and business-user productivity.
• Drive Agile delivery — sprint planning, estimation, and delivery tracking — adhere to IT change management, and mentor engineers to raise the bar across the team.Qualifications
• 10–15 years of software engineering experience, including at least 3 years in a technical lead or staff-level role.
• Proven track record delivering enterprise-scale .NET applications in a retail, supply chain, or logistics environment.
• Demonstrated experience as an individual contributor with strong ownership, self-direction, and vendor coordination.
• Experience delivering in Agile environments using Jira for sprint planning, estimation, and delivery tracking.
• Strong knowledge of warehouse management, sortation, labeling, and Distribution Center operations.
• Hands-on experience integrating with PKMS, Manhattan WMOS, or comparable WMS platforms.
• Experience leading third-party vendor integrations, integration platforms, and enterprise web services.
• Strong business acumen with the ability to align technology solutions to throughput, accuracy, and cost goals.
• Subject-matter expertise in material handling equipment and warehouse automation, with hands-on integration experience across one or more OEM solution sets: Savoye, Opex, Honeywell Intelligrated, Boxer, and bagger / print-and-apply systems.
• Deep understanding of MHE process flows — induction, singulation, scanning, sortation, diverts, put walls, unit sortation, carton and bag creation, weigh-in-motion, and label print-and-apply.
• Experience defining and supporting MHE interface specifications and message contracts between WMS/WCS and equipment controllers, including carton lifecycle events, divert confirmations, no-reads, exceptions, and recirculation handling.
• Hands-on integration with PLCs, barcode scanners, scales, dimensioners, printers, and applicators over TCP/IP, serial, and OPC-style interfaces.
• Working knowledge of Warehouse Control System (WCS) and Warehouse Execution System (WES) layers and how they interact with WMS and MHE.
• Ability to troubleshoot live MHE issues on the floor — jams, mis-sorts, label misapplication, throughput degradation, and equipment/host message desynchronization — and drive root-cause resolution with vendors.
• Experience participating in MHE implementations: interface testing, dry runs, integration and acceptance testing, commissioning, go-live support, and post-go-live hypercare.
• Familiarity with MHE performance metrics — units per hour, sort accuracy, divert rates, read rates, and equipment uptime — and using them to tune application behavior.
• Ability to act as the technical point of contact and SME for MHE vendors, translating operational requirements into interface and application changes.
• Extensive hands-on experience with C#, .NET Framework 4.8, multithreading, async/await, and TCP/IP sockets.
• Experience with message parsing, custom protocols, and high-volume event processing.
• Desktop UI development with WPF, plus Windows Service hosting and deployment practices.
• Strong relational database skills and SQL data access patterns across SQL Server, Oracle, and DB2.
• Knowledge of ZPL label workflows, logging, diagnostics, and performance tuning.
• Experience with Internet Information Services (IIS), CI/CD pipelines, and automated testing.
• Working knowledge of secure coding standards, GitHub repository and branching strategies, and code quality tools such as Sonar.
• Proficiency with monitoring and observability tools such as AppDynamics, Splunk, ELK, and Grafana, including alert and notification setup.
• Familiarity with publisher/subscriber message brokers (Kafka, RabbitMQ) and an understanding of message acknowledgment and idempotent operations.
• Strong AI-first mindset.
• Experience using AI tools, AI agents, and automation platforms to improve operations, production support, data validation, reporting, testing, and documentation.
• Ability to design AI-agent led solutions for use cases such as issue triage, exception monitoring, MHE fault pattern detection, report generation, knowledge retrieval, regression testing support, and operational analytics.
• Understanding of responsible AI practices, including data privacy, security, auditability, compliance, and validation of AI-generated outputs.
• Demonstrated situational leadership — guiding teams, driving execution, and delivering measurable business value.
• Self-driven with strong ownership; comfortable operating as a hands-on individual contributor.
• Ability to facilitate productive discussions across DC operations, business, and vendor stakeholder groups and drive alignment.
• Experience mentoring engineers and raising engineering standards across a team.
• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or a related field, or equivalent work experience.Why Join Williams-Sonoma India Technology Center
• Our people first and performance driven culture means that we provide opportunities to grow and build a career and invest in the well-being of our associates, including comprehensive benefits to support you and your family.
• Scale and innovation of a Fortune 500 company combined with a high-ownership that empowers engineers to make real impact.
• Build and operate large-scale digital commerce platforms serving millions of customers worldwide, working on systems that run at global scale.
• Continuous learning environment with opportunities to work on cutting-edge technologies, AI-driven solutions, and large-scale engineering challenges.
• Hybrid work model designed for flexibility and collaboration, with two in-office days for team engagement.