Principal, Software Engineer (Distributed Systems)

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 Engineer you will partner with engineering and product leadership to shape the platforms long-term architecture vision and strategic investments. We are looking for a product-minded engineer with a startup mentalitysomeone who can wear multiple hats thrive in ambiguous environments and act as an owner to drive core platform initiatives from conception to completion. You will lead the design of large-scale distributed systems and drive cross-team initiatives prioritizing capabilities that unlock new growth. Ultimately you will translate abstract long-horizon goals into phased executable engineering plans that ensure high-impact delivery across the organization.

This role requires deep expertise in distributed systems and microservices architecture combined with the ability to translate business requirements into robust technical solutions. You are not just building software to a specification; you possess a deep curiosity about how your components integrate into the broader business ecosystem a relentless focus on customer adoption and mastery of AI-driven engineering tools to drastically reduce delivery cycles You will solve complex technical challenges and drive cross-team alignment to ensure scalable high-velocity delivery.

What Youll Do

• Architect design and evolve core product microservices and large-scale distributed systems that are secure scalable highly available and mission-critical with full end-to-end ownership of major platform initiatives.

• Drive cross-organizational technical strategy resolving complex and ambiguous challenges that span multiple services and business units to improve agility modularity and operational excellence.

• Establish and champion best practices in domain-driven design API contract management and observability; advocate for technical debt reduction architectural modernization and adoption of cutting-edge tooling.

• Accelerate product velocity through automation standardization and repeatable design patterns while improving end-to-end reliability self-healing and incident response across platform services.

• Champion and personally leverage AI-assisted engineering tools and autonomous coding agents (e.g. Cursor Claude Code) to accelerate delivery eliminate execution bottlenecks and elevate code quality across the team.

• Lead cloud infrastructure efficiency and cost optimization across large-scale AWS/GCP deployments ensuring architectural decisions balance high performance with financial scalability.

• 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.

About You

Basic Qualifications:

• Bachelors or Masters 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.

• Demonstrated proficiency with AI-assisted development tools (Cursor Claude Code GitHub Copilot or similar) including the ability to direct review and validate AI-generated code.

Other Qualifications:

• Previous experience as a technical founder or early-stage engineer at a startup (<50 headcount) is highly preferred.

• Expert programming proficiency in Java or Scala with deep command of advanced design patterns clean code practices and modern architectural standards including Model Context Protocol (MCP) for spec-driven development

• Proven ability to integrate AI capabilities into scalable software solutions while adhering to Responsible AI practices.

• Deep experience with CI/CD pipelines advanced IDE integrations and automated end-to-end testing strategies.

• Demonstrated ability to manage and scale cloud footprints across AWS and GCP with cost-aware architectural patterns and tenant-based infrastructure optimization.

• Strong service ownership mindset taking pride in end-to-end code quality long-term architectural health and operational reliability.

• Excellent collaborator and communicator: proven track record partnering with Product and cross-functional stakeholders articulating complex technical tradeoffs and delivering high-impact initiatives in fast-paced agile environments.

• Experience with frontend frameworks (e.g. React/TypeScript) and/or Developer Platforms DevTools or core engineering platforms is a plus.

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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