Senior Software Development Engineer

Your work days are brighter here.

We’re obsessed with making hard work pay off, for our people, our customers, and the world around us. As a Fortune 500 company and a leading AI platform for managing people, money, and agents, we’re shaping the future of work so teams can reach their potential and focus on what matters most. The minute you join, you’ll feel it. Not just in the products we build, but in how we show up for each other. Our culture is rooted in integrity, empathy, and shared enthusiasm. We’re in this together, tackling big challenges with bold ideas and genuine care. We look for curious minds and courageous collaborators who bring sun-drenched optimism and drive. Whether you're building smarter solutions, supporting customers, or creating a space where everyone belongs, you’ll do meaningful work with Workmates who’ve got your back. In return, we’ll give you the trust to take risks, the tools to grow, the skills to develop and the support of a company invested in you for the long haul. So, if you want to inspire a brighter work day for everyone, including yourself, you’ve found a match in Workday, and we hope to be a match for you too.

About the Team

The work spans the full applied-AI stack: model and agent development, evaluation infrastructure, serving performance and cost, and the pipelines that get it all into an enterprise product. Our systems run against real customer data, so correctness, reliability, and observability matter as much as capability.

We're hiring at senior software engineer to have someone own a significant surface area end to end - design through delivery and operation.

About the Role

As a Senior Software Development Engineer on the AI Foundations team, you will be primarily responsible for designing, building, and operating the software systems that host, run, and scale AI-powered applications at Workday. Specifically, you will:

Work closely with machine learning engineers to write and maintain production-grade backend services that power AI-driven capabilities and agent applications

Design and implement APIs and service integrations that enable AI capabilities to be consumed across Workday products and platforms

Build and operate data ingestion and ETL pipelines that support AI application workflows

Apply distributed systems principles in production to address scalability, concurrency, fault tolerance, and performance challenges

Ensure systems meet enterprise requirements for security, privacy, robustness, and compliance

Own services through their full lifecycle, including deployment, monitoring, debugging, and ongoing operational improvements

What you'll do

• Design, build, and operate core services and infrastructure for AI development, evaluation, and deployment
• Own a significant surface area end to end, including production health and on-call
• Turn open-ended problems into scoped, sequenced work - for yourself and for others
• Raise the bar through design and code review, and mentor engineers on the team
• Partner with product, research, and infrastructure teams on tradeoffs and roadmap

About You

You are a strong technical leader with deep Python expertise and solid software engineering skills, capable of writing beautiful, well-designed code while delivering solutions efficiently.

Basic Qualification:

8+ years of professional software development experience, including architecting, building, and scaling secure, robust, and efficient software systems

5+ years of experience with Python development

Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or related discipline, or equivalent practical experience.

Other Qualifications:

Understanding of object-oriented design principles and ability to apply them in a Python context

Proficiency with advanced Python concepts, such as asynchronous and concurrent programming, generators, and higher-order abstractions

Ability to write clean, testable, and well-structured code, with high standards for clarity, aesthetics, and long-term maintainability

Deep systems knowledge, including comfort operating in and debugging Unix/Linux environments, fluency with command-line tooling, and understanding of practical networking fundamentals

Understanding of distributed systems concepts, including concurrency, fault tolerance, and performance tradeoffs

Ability to design and build well-defined, stable APIs and service interfaces for consumption by other teams and systems

Ability to build ETL pipelines that efficiently process large amounts of data using tools like PySpark.

Proficiency with cloud and container platforms, including containerized workloads and orchestration systems (e.g., AWS or GCP, Docker, Kubernetes)

Ability to collaborate effectively across teams, working closely with other engineers while maintaining independent execution

Ownership mindset, able to take responsibility for a work area and deliver high-quality, reliable systems

Ability to mentor and coach other engineers, promoting best practices and raising the engineering bar

Architectural thinking skills, with the ability to contribute meaningful ideas and practical solutions in design and architecture discussions

Ability to communicate complex technical concepts clearly to both technical and non-technical stakeholders

Workday Pay Transparency Statement

The annualized base salary ranges for the primary location and any additional locations are listed below. Workday pay ranges vary based on work location. As a part of the total compensation package, this role may be eligible for the Workday Bonus Plan or a role-specific commission/bonus, as well as annual refresh stock grants. Recruiters can share more detail during the hiring process. Each candidate’s compensation offer will be based on multiple factors including, but not limited to, geography, experience, skills, job duties, and business need, among other things. For more information regarding Workday’s comprehensive benefits, please click here.

Additional Considerations:

The application deadline for this role is the same as the posting end date stated as below:

Our Approach to Flexible Work

With Flex Work, we’re combining the best of both worlds: in-person time and remote. Our approach enables our teams to deepen connections, maintain a strong community, and do their best work. We know that flexibility can take shape in many ways, so rather than a number of required days in-office each week, we simply spend at least half (50%) of our time each quarter in the office or in the field with our customers, prospects, and partners (depending on role). This means you'll have the freedom to create a flexible schedule that caters to your business, team, and personal needs, while being intentional to make the most of time spent together. Those in our remote "home office" roles also have the opportunity to come together in our offices for important moments that matter.

Pursuant to applicable Fair Chance law, Workday will consider for employment qualified applicants with arrest and conviction records.

Workday is an Equal Opportunity Employer including individuals with disabilities and protected veterans.

Workday is committed to providing reasonable accommodations for qualified individuals during our application process, in order to perform one or more essential functions of their job, as well as regarding the use of AI tools for employment decision-making to any degree. Please see below for more details including how to request an accommodation as a qualified veteran, due to a disability or for religious reasons, or as otherwise provided under applicable law.

Workday prohibits taking adverse action against any candidate or employee for reporting a possible violation of this policy, requesting one or more work accommodations, exercising a privacy right, or cooperating in an investigation in accordance with applicable law. Any employee who retaliates against a candidate or employee for doing so may be subject to disciplinary action, up to and including termination of employment, to the fullest extent allowable under applicable law.

If you require a reasonable accommodation, you may email [email protected], as far in advance as possible.

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