Principal Engineer, AI Production Readiness

Workday; Toronto; Hybrid; CAD 149,000 - 224,000; Full time

Job summary

Workday is seeking a Principal AI Engineer in Toronto to own the path from prototype to enterprise‑grade AI on Databricks and AWS. You will design architecture, write reference implementations, and drive production readiness for AI applications across the stack.

You will collaborate with business teams to translate needs into platform data design, while leading cross‑functional technical efforts and ensuring robust security and operations handoffs.

Qualifications

• 8+ years of Data & AI application development using Python, IaC and CI/CD.
• 8+ years of modern data stack experience: Databricks, AWS, Snowflake, GCP.
• 6+ years of professional experience with LLM applications in an AI-native stack.

Responsibilities

• Define and enforce production‑ready criteria for AI apps in the Workday stack.
• Own architecture for AI apps across Databricks and AWS; provide reference templates.
• Hands‑on coding with AWS Bedrock, AgentCore, Databricks assets to productionize.
• Diagnose non‑deterministic issues; reproduce, bisect, trace latency and cost.
• Lead design reviews with platform, data, security and SRE partners for production handoff.
• Collaborate with business teams to translate needs into platform data design.
• Provide cross‑functional technical direction and influence.

Skills

Python

IaC

CI/CD

Databricks

AWS

Snowflake

GCP

LLM applications

Bedrock

AgentCore

Databricks Agent Bricks

Unity Catalog

Tools

Bedrock

AgentCore

Databricks Agent Bricks

Unity Catalog

Job description

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.

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 Architecture & AI (AAI) organization is a dynamic and evolving team that is spearheading Workday’s growth through trusted data excellence, innovation, and architectural thought leadership. Equipped with an array of skills in data & AI platforms and architecture, data science, engineering, machine learning and AI strategy & product management, this team orchestrates the flow of data across our growing company while ensuring data accessibility, accuracy, and security. With a relentless focus on innovation and efficiency, Workmates in AAI enable the transformation of complex data sets into actionable insights that fuel strategic decisions and position Workday at the forefront of the technology industry.

About The Role

We are seeking a Principal AI Engineer to own the technical path that carries internally built AI agents from prototype to enterprise‑grade production on Workday’s Databricks and AWS estate. This is a hands‑on engineering role at the intersection of AI applications, data, identity and platform. You will design the architecture and work in code to build the reference implementations and evaluation harnesses that business‑built applications are re‑architected onto, and hold the technical bar as those applications move into production.

Job Duties

• Production readiness standards and automated enforcement: Define and enforce what production‑ready means for an AI application at Workday — exit criteria against BT's existing security, code, testing and documentation gates, plus the evaluation sets, graders and regression suites that run in the deployment pipeline to prove those criteria are met, drawing on representative data, production signals and human review.
• Architecture and paved‑road assets: Own the architecture patterns for AI applications across the Databricks and AWS stacks, and build and maintain the reference implementations and deployment templates for each recurring pattern, so a team building a known pattern inherits correct identity, data access and logging posture by construction.
• Hands‑on engineering: Work in code with the current stack; AWS Bedrock and AgentCore, Databricks Agent Bricks and Unity Catalog — to build prototypes, tool and system integrations, and to re‑architect AI‑generated applications into services that can hold a production state.
• Technical diagnosis and resolution: Diagnose complex implementation challenges in non‑deterministic systems, reproduce failures, bisect regressions across model version, prompt, retrieval index and tool schema, trace latency and token cost across multi‑step agent runs, test hypotheses, and drive blockers to resolution with platform, data, security and SRE owners.
• Design review and transition to operations: Run design and readiness reviews with platform, data, security and SRE partners, and own the handoff so no application enters production without an operator, a patch path and a rollback.
• Business engagement: Work with the business teams building these applications to translate what they need into platform and data design, and translate platform constraints back into decisions they can act on, including the decision not to proceed.
• Cross‑functional technical leadership: Be the technical counterpart business owners consult before building, and carry direction across partner functions on influence rather than mandate.

About You

Basic Qualifications

• 8+ years of experience in Data & AI application development in a Python, IaC and CI/CD; production environment.
• 8+ years of modern data stack experience, ie; Databricks, AWS, Snowflake, GCP, or comparable technologies.
• 6+ years of professional experience with LLM applications in a major cloud AI‑native stack.

Other Qualifications

• Excellent verbal and written communication skills.
• Ability to work in alignment with business teams to build applications and translate platform constraints back into decisions.
• Work with business counterparts and carry direction across partner functions on influence.
• Open to 50% reporting to our Toronto office.

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: CAN.ON.Toronto
Primary CAN Base Pay Range: $149,300 - $223,900 CAD
Additional CAN Location(s) Base Pay Range: $149,300 - $223,900 CAD

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.

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