Senior Principal Software Development Engineer - US Federal

Your work days are brighter here.

At Workday, it all began with a conversation over breakfast. When our founders met at a sunny California diner, they came up with an idea to revolutionize the enterprise software market. And when we began to rise, one thing that really set us apart was our culture. A culture which was driven by our value of putting our people first. And ever since, the happiness, development, and contribution of every Workmate is central to who we are. Our Workmates believe a healthy employee-centric, collaborative culture is the essential mix of ingredients for success in business. That’s why we look after our people, communities and the planet while still being profitable. Feel encouraged to shine, however that manifests: you don’t need to hide who you are. You can feel the energy and the passion, it's what makes us unique. Inspired to make a brighter work day for all and transform with us to the next stage of our growth journey? Bring your brightest version of you and have a brighter work day here.

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About the Team

We're the team that drives the product and strategy for Workday’s secret sauce - our technology platform that was designed from scratch for the cloud. We own the complete stack and tools that delivers and supports Workday products across private and public clouds (e.g. on-premise, AWS, GCP, Azure). We enable Workday's scale: ~50% of Fortune 500 companies, 8000+ customers, 55M+ Workers, ~365B Transactions!
Workday is seeking a Senior Software Development Engineer (SDE) to be part of the Federal Cloud Platform Engineering team. This team supports direct and indirect contracts with the U.S. Federal Government which, due to federal government security requirements, mandates all Workday personnel working on the contracts be United States citizens (naturalized or native).

About the Role

This role will support one or more direct or indirect contracts with the U.S. Federal Government which, due to federal government security requirements, mandates that all Workday personnel working on the contracts be United States citizens (naturalized or native).

As a Senior Principal SDE on the Federal Cloud Platform Engineering team, you will focus on design, development, analysis, acquisition, installation, modification and support of operating systems, deployments, databases, utilities and network-related tools! You will conduct programming and support activities, such as new or revised program language codes, processing routines and report generations. You will also conduct programming tasks including program design, program coding, debugging and documentation to increase flexibility in deployments.

As part of our team, you will oversee and manage deployment of Workday technology stack on air-gapped cloud environments, develop proprietary tools, and deliver analytics to enable optimized deployments company-wide. This role is ideal for engineers with a holistic approach to cloud deployment, performance, and scalability who thrive on driving innovation and system-wide improvements.

Key Responsibilities:

• Manage and optimize Workday in the air-gapped U.S. AWS cloud regions and in doing so, form the nexus of the core team responsible for this mission as well as closely working with our commercial software engineering teams responsible for the overall Workday platform. 

• Partner with the Workday Federal Cyber Defense team responsible for security operations, overall cybersecurity posture, governance, risk, and compliance,  and platform security health.

• Develop and maintain deployment tools and analytics to support company-wide deployment flexibility and cost savings

• Collaborate across teams to ensure robust, scalable, and efficient solutions.

Skills:

• Cloud Platforms & Infrastructure: AWS, GCP, Azure, Terraform

• Configuration Management & Automation: Puppet, Ansible, Chef, Terraform, CloudFormation

• Containerization & Orchestration: Docker, Kubernetes, Helm

• CI/CD & DevOps Tools: Jenkins, Git, TeamCity, GitLab CI/CD

• Programming & Scripting Languages: Go (Golang), Python, Ruby, Java, Bash

• Database & Middleware: MySQL, PostgreSQL, Tomcat, ZooKeeper, Kafka

About You

Basic Qualifications:

• This position requires a TS/SCI with CI polygraph security clearance. Applicants must already possess a valid and active TS/SCI with CI polygraph security clearance.

• 6+ years in deploying large-scale, complex applications, with 3+ years in cloud-based deployments on AWS or GCP.

• 2+ years experience with automation tools and languages, including Ansible, Python, Go, Chef, and Puppet; proficient in CI/CD, build management and monitoring.

• 2+ years experience with networks, servers, storage, and operating systems in cloud environments; skilled in deployment orchestration and automation frameworks.

• Hands-on experience with infrastructure automation tools like Chef, Puppet, and Ansible.

Other Qualifications :

• Extensive experience in developing orchestration and automation frameworks using Ansible and Jenkins, with cloud deployments

• Proven ability to introduce, integrate, and implement new technologies rapidly.

• Skilled in network analysis and troubleshooting, using tools like tcpdump to resolve network, firewall, and connectivity issues in collaboration with engineering teams.

• Proficient in Unix/Linux environments, with strong Python scripting expertise for automation and system management.

• Familiar with Agile/Scrum practices, including sprint planning and daily stand-ups using Jira; excellent communication skills and a collaborative approach in team environments.

• Extensive experience creating and operating automation frameworks for deployment orchestration in production environments.

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.VA.McLean (Tyson's Corner)

 

Primary Location Base Pay Range: $218,400 USD - $327,600 USD

 

Additional US Location(s) Base Pay Range: $197,600 USD - $351,600 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.

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