Sr. Associate Software Development Engineer in Test

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 Sana Search team operates at the core of Workday’s enterprise architecture, solving complex search and data scale problems across our application stack. We contribute to the technology driving data normalization, search relevance, recommendation systems, and machine learning-making enterprise data in the cloud more accessible and actionable.

We are a collaborative, inclusive group of engineers based in several offices across the globe - Atlanta, Dublin, Pleasanton, and Vancouver (operating on a hybrid model) who take pride in maintaining fast, reliable, and robust test infrastructure to match rapid continuous release cycles. This particular position is based in the Dublin office.

About the Role

As an SDET on the Search team, you will contribute directly to testing backend features, building automation scripts, and validating large-scale distributed systems. Working alongside senior engineers, developers, and designers, you will apply a quality-first mindset to write code that validates software functionality, identifies edge cases, and helps maintain high product quality across both legacy and cloud environments.

Key Responsibilities:

• Feature Execution & Automation: Participate in feature testing cycles by executing test cases, identifying edge cases, and writing reliable automated test scripts.
• API & Backend Validation: Validate backend services and application logic primarily through API testing using both proprietary and open-source tools.
• Cloud & Migration Validation: Assist in validating tenant data, application behavior, and system performance during data center-to-cloud migrations (AWS, GCP).
• Test Suite Maintenance: Maintain and update existing automated test suites to ensure high test coverage and reliability within our CI/CD pipeline.
• Triage & Defect Reporting: Investigate automated test failures, perform initial root cause analysis, log detailed defects, and collaborate with developers to verify fixes.
• Team Collaboration: Actively participate in sprint planning, code reviews, and quality discussions to ensure product standards are met early in development.
• Agentic Evaluations: Building and Maintaining Agentic Evals for Semantic Search pipelines.

About You

Basic Qualifications:

• 2+ years of experience in software testing or engineering (focusing on functional testing and API automation), or a proven track record through relevant coursework, internships, capstone/personal projects, or open-source contributions.
• 1+ years of programming experience in object-oriented or functional languages (e.g., Java, Python, Scala, C#, or C++).
• Automation Frameworks: Hands-on exposure to standard test automation tools or frameworks (e.g., TestNG, JUnit, PyTest, Selenium, Postman, or Robot Framework).
• CI/CD Awareness: Basic experience or familiarity with CI/CD environments (e.g., Jenkins, Bamboo, GitLab CI, TeamCity).

Other Qualifications:

• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering, Mathematics, or a related field (or equivalent practical experience).
• Experience or exposure to testing application deployments and migrations across public cloud environments (AWS, GCP) is a plus.
• Strong analytical, debugging, and problem-solving skills with a high attention to detail.
• Eagerness to learn complex distributed systems and expand test engineering practices.
• Experience with ElasticSearch, OpenSearch, Vespa, Quadrant, PGVector, Pinecone is a plus.

Workday Pay Transparency Statement (For EU Locations Only)

Listed below is the base salary range applicable to this position. Workday pay ranges (and the precise pay offered to the successful candidate) are based on a number of objective criteria such as relevant experience and skills, and educational qualifications, level of responsibility, demands of the role, work location and business need. 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 awarded by Workday Inc. For more information regarding Workday’s comprehensive benefits, please click here.

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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