Principal API Architect, Product Engineering – AgentReady APIs & Data

Your work days are brighter here.

Were 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 were shaping the future of work so teams can reach their potential and focus on what matters most. The minute you join youll 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. Were 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 youre building smarter solutions supporting customers or creating a space where everyone belongs youll do meaningful work with Workmates whove got your return well 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 youve found a match in Workday and we hope to be a match for you too.

About the Team

About the Role

We are seeking a Principallevel API Architect in Product Engineering to lead our API strategy for agentic and integrationheavy scenarios. You will own the API architecture vision for Product Engineering set standards (OpenAPI patterns error models observability) and partner with engineering leaders to make them real.

In this role you will:

• Act as the Chief API Architect for Product Engineering.
• Define and evolve the API architecture standards and review processes that guide how Product Engineering teams design and deliver APIs.
• Partner with product and platform leaders to shape the operating model including API champions across product pillars and a clear intake/prioritization path for API needs.

What youll do

• Define the API architecture and governance model for Product Engineering spanning REST GraphQL SOAP and emerging integration models used by Workday agents and products.
• Establish and maintain API standards:
  • OpenAPI contract guidelines review and approval process.
  • Resource modeling naming and pagination conventions.
  • Authentication/authorization and multitenant patterns.
  • Error handling retry semantics and idempotency guidelines.
  • Versioning and deprecation policies.
• Partner with Product Engineering leaders and API champions in each product area to:
  • Shape their API roadmaps.
  • Identify gaps or duplication.
  • Drive convergence on shared patterns and building blocks.
• Define reference architectures and patterns for:
  • Agentready APIs and orchestration patterns used by the Agent Factory.
  • Datacentric APIs including how Product Engineering safely exposes data via Data Cloud / SQL projections.
  • Latency and observability standards across the endtoend request path.
• Lead critical crossteam API design reviews and act as the tiebreaker on contentious or highimpact design decisions.
• Work closely with platform partners (Gateways Trident Web Service Frameworks Core Services Data Cloud AI/Agent Factory) to ensure Product Engineerings needs are represented and that platform capabilities are consistently applied.
• Shape and help run a single transparent intake and prioritization process for key Product Engineering API investments.
• Evaluate build/borrow/buy options for tools that help Product Engineering design test and operate APIs (including contract testing catalogs MCP/Data Cloud connectors and developer tooling).
• Mentor senior engineers and managers on API architecture distributed systems and integration best practices; build communities of practice across Product Engineering.
• Communicate the API vision and status to senior stakeholders and help influence product and resourcing decisions.

About You

Basic Qualifications

• 12 years of experience building largescale missioncritical backend systems and APIs.

• 5 years in a senior architecture or staffplus role with responsibility for crossteam or organizationwide API/platform architecture.

• Deep handson experience using TypeScript or Python to build web services and APIs (REST SOAP GraphQL JSON XML WSDL Swagger/OpenAPI)

• Understanding of the MCP protocol specification and architecture

• Proven track record of setting and driving technical standards that scale across multiple teams.

• Able to prototype reference implementations and dive into code reviews when needed

Other Qualifications

• Experience leveraging AIassisted code generation and review tools (e.g. Cursor Claude Code GitHub Copilot) to improve development speed and quality.

• Strong expertise in distributed systems and cloud architectures including highthroughput lowlatency services horizontal scaling and faulttolerant design.

• Extensive experience with edge and gateway patterns (routing auth throttling rate limiting transformation multitenant concerns).

• Demonstrated leadership in API governance: standards definition contract review documentation and lifecycle management.

• Experience designing or evolving observability for APIs (metrics tracing logging) and using that data to define and monitor SLOs.

• Familiarity with agentic AI use cases and patterns for integrating LLMs/agents with enterprise APIs

• Experience with data platforms and analytical stores (such as Data Cloud or equivalent) and designing APIs that expose data safely and efficiently.

• Ability to collaborate and influence across Product Engineering platform teams and business stakeholders.

• Excellent written and verbal communication skills; able to articulate complex technical topics in simple compelling terms.

• Passion for growing others: mentoring stafflevel engineers supporting managers and building a strong API culture within Product Engineering.

• Growth mindset and comfort working in evolving spaces where the operating model is still being defined.

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 candidates 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 Workdays comprehensive benefits please click here.

Our Approach to Flexible Work

With Flex Work were 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 youll 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.

At Workday we are committed to providing an accessible and inclusive hiring experience where all candidates can fully demonstrate their skills. If you require assistance or an accommodation at any point please email .

Are you being referred to one of our roles If so ask your connection at Workday about our Employee Referral process!

At Workday we value our candidates privacy and data security. Workday will never ask candidates to apply to jobs through websites that are not Workday Careers.

Please be aware of sites that may ask for you to input your data in connection with a job posting that appears to be from Workday but is not.

In addition Workday will never ask candidates to pay a recruiting fee or pay for consulting or coaching services in order to apply for a job at Workday.