Principal Developer Relations 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 Developer Relations Engineering (DRE) team is one of the driving forces behind a productive, well-enabled developer ecosystem at Workday. Working within the Outbound Developer Platform organization alongside Outbound Product Management and Developer Relations, DRE brings a specialized, hands-on technical expertise rooted in building and developing on the platform itself — creating samples, frameworks, and demos, and translating complex capabilities into practical guidance that developers and internal teams depend on. This depth of engineering experience ensures that the platform's capabilities are not just understood, but actively put to use in the real world.
The DRE team sits at the forefront of one of the most significant shifts in Workday's history. As the developer ecosystem evolves from building traditional apps and integrations to building agents, agentic apps, and integrations designed for the agentic landscape, DRE is leading the way in helping developers embrace new AI tooling like Developer Agent and Agent Ready Tools, bring these capabilities together to build solutions faster, and champion responsible AI usage. DRE serves as a critical part of the feedback loop with Workday's product and engineering teams through programs like Early Adopter engagements, and is the engine that enables front-line resources, most notably the Forward Deployed Engineers, to lead the field in the AI shift with Workday's most strategic customers. At the same time, Workday is opening the developer experience more than ever before, and DRE plays a central role in making the platform an enticing place for developers to grow their careers and deepen their skills.
What makes this team special is its deeply hands-on culture. Every member comes from an implementer or developer background, which means the team does not just understand what the product is capable of, they know how to build with it. The team embraces every challenge thrown its way, takes tremendous pride in their work, and has a genuine sense of unity. Team members reprioritize to help one another and ensure everyone succeeds, whether they are directly involved in each other's initiatives or not.

About the Role

As a Principal Developer Relations Engineer, you will be a senior technical leader on the DRE team, serving as a bridge between the developer platform and the diverse communities that build on it. You will play a critical role in ensuring that developers, partners, and internal teams have the technical knowledge, resources, and enablement they need to succeed on the Workday platform, especially as the ecosystem shifts toward agentic solutions and AI-driven development workflows.

In this role, you will be responsible for:

• Enabling Forward Deployed Engineers and other front-line roles on both existing and emerging Developer Platform capabilities, with a particular focus on the newest AI features so they can position and solution the platform appropriately with Workday's most strategic customers.

• Running and supporting Early Adopter programs for emerging product features. This includes coordinating across Developer Platform, AI Platform, and Product Development Engineering to ensure EA programs are run effectively, products are thoroughly tested in real-world customer environments, and constructive feedback is curated for product teams prior to general availability.

• Ensuring that EA participants receive the enablement and support necessary to use and test EA products, driving positive outcomes that include successful testing, actionable product feedback, and customer success stories for marketing use at launch.

• Helping the developer community understand how to bring together agents, agentic apps, integrations, and AI tooling to build solutions faster — guiding them through the shift from a closed-wall approach to an open, flexible development model while championing responsible AI usage.

• Building and curating high-quality technical samples, frameworks, and demos that showcase Workday's platform capabilities, including Extend, Orchestrate, Data Cloud, custom agents, agentic apps, and AI-powered tooling such as Developer Agent, Workday MCP, and Agent Ready Tools. You will maintain these assets over time, keeping them current with the latest best practices and technical capabilities.

• Creating guided activities and hands-on technical content for Express Labs, Very Live Demos, and conference sessions at DevCon and Rising, as well as supporting Hackathon events with relevant technical samples, guidance, and expertise.

• Presenting on Developer Deep Dive calls, contributing to Developer Forums, and leading enablement sessions for sales, services, Forward Deployed Engineers (FDEs), and other customer-facing teams.

About You

Basic Qualifications:

• 10+ years of related work experience in developer relations, developer enablement, technical consulting, platform engineering, or a related technical field.

• Hands-on experience applying AI-powered tools within developer workflows to accelerate development and improve outcomes.

Other Qualifications:

• Skilled communicator, with the ability to exchange complex technical information clearly across a range of audiences from developers and engineers to product leaders and customer-facing teams. You are comfortable presenting at conferences, leading enablement sessions, and contributing to technical forums, adapting your style to ensure your message resonates.

• Experienced in managing relationships across multiple groups, with a demonstrated ability to identify the needs and expectations of diverse partners including product, engineering, sales, services, and customer teams, and to develop communication approaches that build alignment and facilitate engagement in cross-organizational programs.

• Forward-looking and analytical, with the ability to generate and apply unique insights about the developer ecosystem and platform landscape to identify opportunities, anticipate challenges, and develop plans that align with Workday's long-term goals. You think beyond the immediate task to consider the broader impact of your work.

• Creative, resourceful, and willing to explore beyond familiar tools and processes, with the ability to develop and implement new ideas, approaches, and solutions that create value for the developer community. You are not limited to what is already established. You actively seek out external tools, technologies, and methods that can push the boundaries of what is possible, and you bring that curiosity back to your team and the broader developer ecosystem.

• Deeply empathetic toward the developer experience, with a natural ability to understand the perspective, needs, and challenges of developers and customers. You actively listen, put yourself in the developer's shoes, and use that understanding to improve enablement, shape feedback for product teams, and ensure developers feel supported.

• Highly organized and adaptable, with a demonstrated ability to manage multiple projects, priorities, and responsibilities at the same time. You bring structure and discipline to your work while remaining flexible and ready to shift direction as product strategy evolves and urgent needs for DRE expertise arise.

• Excellent written and verbal communication skills, with the ability to create compelling technical content including samples, demos, guided activities, and documentation.

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 candidate’s 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 Workday’s comprehensive benefits, please click here.

Primary Location: USA.CA.Pleasanton

 

Primary Location Base Pay Range: $178,200 USD - $267,400 USD

 

Additional US Location(s) Base Pay Range: $150,500 USD - $267,400 USD

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.

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 [email protected].

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