Principal Software Development Engineer Developer Platform

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

As a Principal Software Development Engineer on the Developer Platform team you will serve as a force multiplier for the organizationsetting the technical vision for an open developer ecosystem and acting as a trusted advisor to engineering and product leadership on platform strategy architecture and long-term investment. You will define and drive the roadmap lead API and SDK design at scale and influence decisions that extend well beyond a single team or product line.

You will bring outsized organizational impact by raising the technical bar across a distributed engineering organization establishing the standards that govern how Workday builds for external developers and representing the platform to the broader developer community.

A key focus area for this role is leading the evolution of the Developer Portal front-end platformfrom a monolithic UI into a set of decoupled independently deployable applications with clear patterns for routing state sharing and application stitching.

In this role you will:

• Define and drive the platform roadmap toward an open developer ecosystem including API design SDK frameworks reusable component libraries and extensibility primitives that enable thirdparty developers and partners.

• Lead the technical strategy for the Developer Portal front-end platform defining the architecture and shared patterns for splitting a monolithic UI into decoupled independently deployable frontend applications including routing state sharing and application stitching.

• Partner with product engineering leadership and external stakeholders to identify and prioritize platform capabilities that unlock new growth vectors.

• Establish and champion API governance versioning strategy backward-compatibility standards and other platform engineering best practices.

• Evaluate and influence build-vs-integrate decisions for foundational components with a long-term view toward extensibility and ecosystem health and translate long-horizon goals into phased executable engineering plans.

• Mentor and grow senior engineers across teams and sponsor engineers working through complex ambiguous problems.

• Represent the platform externally through developer documentation technical blogs or developer relations activities to build trust and adoption.

About You

Basic Qualifications

• 12 years of software engineering experience including 35 years at a principal or staff level leading front-end or platform architecture in large distributed engineering organizations.

• 6 years experience specifically focused on designing building and operating distributed systems.

• Deep expertise in modern front-end technologies including React HTML and CSS with extensive experience in advanced state management patterns and building reusable component libraries/design systems.

• Experience owning the technical strategy for a complex web platform (such as a developer portal or multi-surface front-end) and driving platform-wide decisions from design through rollout.

• Experience designing building or operating developer platforms or external-facing ecosystems at scale including responsibility for end-to-end application observability (error tracking metrics instrumentation and product analytics).

• Bachelors degree in a relevant field such as Computer Science Engineering or a related discipline; a Masters degree (e.g. MS in Computer Science Distributed Systems or related field) is strongly preferred or equivalent practical experience.

Other Qualifications

• Ability to establish API governance SDK design standards versioning strategy and developer portal architecture that teams adopt consistently across the organization not just within a single product or team.

• Deep expertise in cloud-native infrastructure and Kubernetes with demonstrated experience deploying operating and scaling services on GCP AWS or Azure in production environments.

• Strong API design skills across REST and GraphQL including authentication patterns such as OAuth 2.0 and OIDC and the judgment to design public APIs that remain reliable backward-compatible and well-documented as they evolve.

• Ability to translate long-horizon platform goals into phased executable engineering plans and build cross-team alignment on technical direction without relying on direct authority.

• Experience building platforms and developer portals consumed by external developers and partners with a product-oriented approach to developer experience as a core quality bar.

• Strong communication skills both verbal and written with the ability to represent technical platforms externally through developer documentation technical writing or developer relations activities and to explain complex architecture decisions clearly to varied audiences.

The following are advantageous but not required:

• Hands-on experience with LLM-backed services agent frameworks or related tooling.

• Knowledge of enterprise HCM talent or workforce management domains.

• Experience building or operating developer portals API catalogs marketplace platforms or self-serve onboarding flows.

• Experience in multi-product or multi-tenant environments where a platform layer abstracts across distinct systems.

• Cloud certifications (GKE AWS Solutions Architect etc.).

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 .

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