At 23, Kiley Pulley Is Walmart's Youngest U.S. Store Manager

Kiley Pulley, 23, earns more than six figures as the youngest store manager at any Walmart in the United States. She dropped out of college, bought her first home, and is planning a wedding she hopes to fund without debt—all on a Walmart paycheck.

Pulley joined Walmart at 16 as a part-time cashier in Arizona, following her mother and sister, who also worked for the retailer. At the time, she told Business Insider, she was a high school student earning spending money.

How fast did she climb?

Two years in, Walmart promoted her to Academy Trainer, a role training new employees. She had just started her first semester at Grand Canyon University and initially didn't see the job as a career. Six months later she accepted a promotion to Team Lead—a move that reframed her future.

"When I got Team Lead, it really stuck with me that Walmart is something I can make a career out of and something I want to continue to grow in," Pulley told the Phoenix Business Journal. "That's when I started applying for salary positions."

By 19, she was an operations manager. Two years later, she became store manager—the youngest person ever to hold the title at a U.S. Walmart. She now runs a Neighborhood Market outside Phoenix.

What was her method?

Her approach, she told Business Insider, was simple: show up daily ready to learn and take on work beyond her job description. She joined calls with Walmart leaders, including monthly discussions with her market manager, and involved herself in succession planning. As operations manager, she took on projects across her market.

She also volunteered to cover for store managers on their days off. That willingness to absorb extra responsibility built relationships with senior leaders and the skills to advance.

"Kiley has embodied ambition, dedication and perseverance since I first met her six years ago as an hourly associate," Ray Shouse, Walmart's Phoenix market manager, told the Phoenix Business Journal. "Throughout her career, she has consistently sought out mentors and development opportunities to strengthen her leadership."

She isn't stopping at store manager. Pulley is back in school through Walmart's tuition-assistance program and targets a market manager role by 27 or 28—and eventually regional executive vice president.

Who else climbed from the hourly ranks?

Pulley's path mirrors the route two Walmart CEOs took to the top of the Bentonville, Arkansas-based retailer.

CEO John Furner started in 1993 as a part-time hourly associate in the company's garden center. He rose to store manager before moving into merchandising roles across Walmart and Sam's Club. He says the key leadership quality is embracing change.

"As long as I've been in retail—it's officially 33 years—it's always been changing," Furner told Fast Company earlier this year. "Getting comfortable with change in a world that continues to change, I think, is a really great trait for any leader."

His predecessor, Doug McMillon, started as a warehouse associate unloading trucks and served as CEO from February 2014 to January 2026. Like Pulley, he credited his ascent to volunteering for work tied to his next promotion.

"One of the reasons that I got the opportunities that I got was that I would raise my hand when my boss was out of town and he or she was visiting stores or something," McMillon recalled in a 2024 Stratechery interview.

"I then put myself in an environment where I became a low-risk promotion because people had already seen me do the job," he said.

For Walmart, Pulley's rise is proof the hourly-to-executive pipeline still functions—at a time when retailers compete hard for frontline talent and Gen Z workers weigh trades and startups against four-year degrees.