Principal, Software Engineer (Distributed Systems)

As a Principal Software Engineer at Workday, you will partner with engineering and product leadership to shape the platform’s long‑term architecture, vision, and strategic investments. You will lead the design of large‑scale distributed systems and drive cross‑team initiatives, translating abstract, long‑horizon goals into executable engineering plans that ensure high‑impact delivery across the organization.

Responsibilities

• Lead the architecture, design, and evolution of core product microservices, ensuring they are secure, scalable, decoupled, and highly available.
• Design and deliver large‑scale, resilient distributed systems that support mission‑critical product features with strong performance and reliability guarantees.
• Drive cross‑organizational technical strategy to improve the agility, modularity, and operational excellence of the microservices ecosystem.
• Identify, define, and drive solutions for complex, ambiguous product and domain challenges that span multiple services and business units.
• Establish and champion best practices for domain‑driven design, strict API contract management, and observability.
• Accelerate product velocity and feature delivery through automation, standardization, and repeatable microservice design patterns.
• Improve end‑to‑end observability, reliability, and automated recovery for platform services, including proactive detection, self‑healing, and robust incident response.
• Advocate for the team by securing alignment on technical debt reduction, architectural modernizations, and adoption of cutting‑edge development tools.
• Champion the integration of AI‑assisted engineering tools and modern coding techniques, empowering the team to write higher‑quality code faster and safer.
• Provide technical leadership and mentorship to senior and staff engineers, raising the overall technical bar and fostering a culture of continuous learning and engineering excellence.
• Lead cloud infrastructure efficiency and cost optimization initiatives, particularly across large‑scale AWS & GCP deployments, ensuring architectural decisions balance high performance with financial scalability.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or equivalent practical experience.
• 12+ years of software engineering experience, with a proven track record of designing, building, and maintaining large‑scale distributed systems and production‑grade microservice architectures.
• 12+ years of hands‑on experience with object‑oriented or functional programming languages, specifically Java or Scala.
• Solid experience delivering and scaling large distributed production services to a global enterprise customer base.
• 5+ years of experience building, operating, and driving cost‑optimization for products within large‑scale cloud environments, with deep expertise in AWS and/or GCP (including S3, Lambda, EC2).
• 5+ years of hands‑on experience with containerization and orchestration technologies, specifically Docker and Kubernetes.
• Hands‑on AI integration: proven ability to integrate AI capabilities directly into scalable software solutions while adhering to Responsible AI practices.
• Proficiency with AI‑assisted development tools (e.g., Cursor, Claude Code, GitHub Copilot) and ability to review and validate AI‑generated code.
• Expert‑level programming proficiency in Java, Scala, and/or Go, with deep understanding of advanced design patterns and clean code practices.
• Deep experience with modern CI/CD pipelines, advanced IDE integrations, and robust automated end‑to‑end testing strategies.
• Experience managing and scaling cloud footprints across AWS and GCP, with a track record of cost‑aware architectural patterns.
• Strong track record of partnering closely with Product Management and cross‑functional stakeholders to define, refine, and break down complex technical and product requirements.
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills, with demonstrated ability to articulate complex technical concepts and influence business partners.
• Experience delivering high‑impact initiatives within fast‑paced, matrixed, and agile enterprise environments.

Pay Transparency

Primary Location: USA--CA--Pleasanton: Base pay range $222,900 USD – $334,300 USD. Additional US location base pay range $187,100 USD – $334,300 USD.

Equal Opportunity & EEO Statement

Workday is an Equal Opportunity Employer including individuals with disabilities and protected veterans. We consider for employment qualified applicants with arrest and conviction records. Workday is committed to providing a reasonably accessible and inclusive hiring experience for all candidates. For assistance or accommodations, please contact View email address on click.appcast.io.