Sr 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 Deployment Technology organization supports Workday's product strategy and roadmap by delivering secure, agentic capabilities that eliminate the historic complexities associated with deploying and continuously optimizing the platform. By using innovative tools like the Configuration Cloud and automated migration intelligence, the team effectively bridges deep software expertise with scalable, customer-controlled technology.

This focus empowers both customers and partners to confidently transition technical tasks to intelligent systems, allowing them to focus on high-value business outcomes. Our team is fast-paced, collaborative, and customer-focused - if you enjoy solving meaningful technical problems that directly improve the experience of Workday's customers and partners, this is a team where you can make a real impact!

About the Role

Partner with cross-functional engineering teams, product management, and platform/infrastructure leadership to define and drive the technical strategy for Data Lifecycle Management (DLM) capabilities within the Deployment Technology organization.

Design and build systems that manage the full lifecycle of data - retention, archival, tiering, purge/deletion, backup and restore, and migration - ensuring compliant, efficient, and reliable operation at scale.

Proactively identify systemic risks and scalability bottlenecks across data retention pipelines and deployment processes, and design engineering mitigations that span multiple services and release trains.

Lead standardization and continuous improvement efforts for data lifecycle tooling and deployment processes across the Deployment Technology organization.

Facilitate technical design reviews and architecture discussions with senior engineering and product stakeholders on DLM and deployment systems.

Deliver regular technical updates to engineering leadership covering system health, deployment readiness, data compliance milestones, and risk mitigation for DLM initiatives.

Shape engineering best practices for data lifecycle and deployment tooling, and mentor engineers across the team.

About You

Basic Qualifications

8+ years of experience in software development engineering - architecting, building, and scaling robust and efficient software systems - ideally including exposure to data management, storage systems, or deployment/release engineering.

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

Other Qualifications:

Strong algorithmic thinking, with expertise in data structures, graph algorithms, and dynamic programming, applied to large-scale data retention, archival, and purge/deletion problems.

Experience designing and building scalable, distributed APIs and services that manage data lifecycle states (retention, tiering, archival, deletion) across large multi-tenant systems, applying REST and modern versioning best practices.

Hands-on experience with deployment technologies and release engineering - CI/CD pipelines, infrastructure as code, and orchestration/automation tooling used to safely roll out data lifecycle changes at scale.

Proficiency in advanced testing methodologies (unit, integration, performance) for data pipelines and deployment systems, with hands-on experience using industry-standard testing frameworks.

Solid grasp of Object-Oriented Design principles, including design patterns and SOLID principles, applied to scalable data management and deployment architectures.

Familiarity with data governance, compliance, and privacy requirements (e.g., retention policies, right-to-be-forgotten/deletion, audit trails) as applied to enterprise data lifecycle systems.

Strong proficiency in modern programming languages and development methodologies, including Agile and CI/CD practices.

Experience with source control management tools and advanced branching/merging strategies, particularly in the context of coordinated multi-service deployments.

Proven ability to collaborate within a software development team and mentor junior engineers on data lifecycle and deployment best practices.

Skilled in producing comprehensive technical documentation, including system design and architecture decisions for data lifecycle and deployment systems.

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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