Sr. Software Engineer (Distributed Systems)

Workday, Inc.; Dublin; Hybrid; EUR 96,000 - 144,000; Full time

Job summary

Workday, Inc. in Ireland is seeking a senior distributed systems engineer to design, build, and operate large-scale messaging, streaming, and caching services. You will contribute to core middleware platforms, develop client libraries, and help run clusters across private and public clouds.

The role emphasizes resiliency, observability, and collaboration with cross-functional teams, with flexible/hybrid work in Ireland and the EU sovereign cloud context.

Qualifications

• 6+ years of experiences as a Kafka, Redis or RabbitMQ Admin with cloud platform experience.
• 6+ years of software engineering experience using Java/Scala or Golang.
• 4+ years of distributed systems experience.
• 3+ years of development and DevOps experience in designing and operating large-scale deployments of distributed NoSQL & messaging systems.
• 1+ year of leading a NoSQL technology related product from conception to deployment.

Responsibilities

• Design, build, and enhance critical distributed services like Kafka, Redis, RabbitMQ.
• Design, develop, deploy and maintain core distributed services across Kubernetes, OpenStack, Bare Metal, etc.
• Develop modules for streaming, messaging and caching.
• Construct observability modules and automation for dashboard lifecycle management.
• Operate and tune distributed service clusters in production.
• Champion resiliency and operational excellence across services.
• Evaluate and implement new open-source and cloud-native tools as needed.
• Participate in on-call rotation to support the platforms.
• Manage and optimize Workday distributed services in AWS, GCP & Private cloud.

Skills

Kafka

Redis

RabbitMQ

Zookeeper

Java/Scala

Golang

Tools

Kubernetes

OpenStack

Job description

About the Team

Data Platform and Observability team is based in Pleasanton, CA, Atlanta, GA, Dublin, Ireland and Chennai, India. Our focus is on the development of large scale distributed data systems to support critical Workday products and provide real‑time insights across Workday’s platforms, infrastructure and applications. The team provides platforms that process 100s of terabytes of data that enable core Workday products and use cases like core HCM, Fins, AI/ML skus, internal data products and Observability. If you enjoy writing efficient software or tuning and scaling large distributed systems you will enjoy working with us. Do you want to tackle exciting challenges at massive scale across private and public clouds for our 10000+ global customers? Do you want to work with world class engineers and facilitate the development of the next generation Distributed systems platforms? If so, we should chat.

About the Role

The Messaging, Streaming and Caching team is a full-service Distributed Systems Engineering team. We architect and provide async messaging, streaming, and NoSQL platforms and solutions that power the Workday products and SKUs ranging from core HCM, Fins, Integrations, and AI/ML. We develop client libraries and SDK’s that make it easy for teams to build Workday products. We develop automation to deploy and run hundreds of clusters, and we also operate and tune our clusters as well.

As a team member you will play a key role in improving our services and encouraging their adoption within Workday's infrastructure both in our private cloud and public cloud. As a member of this team you will design and build new capabilities from inception to deployment to exploit the full power of the core middleware infrastructure and services, and work hand in hand with our application and service teams.

Primary Responsibilities

• Design, build, and enhance critical distributed services, including Kafka, Redis, RabbitMQ etc.
• Design, develop, build, deploy and maintain core distributed services using a combination of open source and proprietary stacks across diverse infrastructure environments (Kubernetes, OpenStack, Bare Metal, etc.)
• Design and develop core software modules for streaming, messaging and caching.
• Construct observability modules, alerts and automation for Dashboard lifecycle management for the distributed services.
• Build, deploy and operate infrastructure components in production environments.
• Champion all aspects of streaming, messaging and caching with a focus on resiliency and operational excellence.
• Evaluate and implement new open‑source and cloud‑native tools and technologies as needed.
• Participate in the on‑call rotation to support the distributed systems platforms.
• Manage and optimize Workday distributed services in AWS, GCP & Private cloud env.

About You

You are a senior software engineer with a distributed systems background and significant experience in distributed systems products like Kafka, Redis, RabbitMQ or Zookeeper. You have independently led product features and deployed on large scale NoSQL clusters.

Basic Qualifications (Senior)

• 6+ years of experiences as a Kafka, Redis or RabbitMQ Admin with cloud platform experience
• 6+ years of software engineering experience using one or more of the following: Java/Scala, Golang.
• 4+ years of distributed systems experience
• 3+ years of development and DevOps experience in designing and operating large‑scale deployments of distributed NoSQL & messaging systems.
• 1+ year of leading a NoSQL technology related product right from conception to deployment and maintenance.

Basic Qualifications (Mid‑Level)

• 5+ years of experiences as a Kafka, Redis or RabbitMQ Admin with cloud platform experience
• 5+ years of software engineering experience using one or more of the following: Java/Scala, Golang
• 4+ years of distributed systems experience
• 3+ years of development and DevOps experience in designing and operating large‑scale deployments of distributed NoSQL & messaging systems.
• 1+ year of leading a NoSQL technology related product right from conception to deployment and maintenance.

Other Qualifications

Consistent track record of technical project leadership and success involving collaborators and interested partners across the enterprise. Expertise in developing distributed system software and deployments that perform well and degrade gracefully under excessive load. Hands‑on experience with at least one or more distributed systems technologies like Kafka/RabbitMQ, Redis, Cassandra experience learning complex open source service internals via code inspection. Extensive experience with modern software development tools including CI/CD and methodologies like Agile expertise with configuration management using Chef and service deployment on Kubernetes via Helm and ArgoCD. Experience with Linux system internals and tuning. Experience with distributed system performance analysis and optimization. Strong written and oral communication skills and the ability to explain esoteric technical details clearly to engineers without a similar background.

Preferred Experience – EU Sovereign Cloud (EU‑SOV)

Candidates with experience supporting EU Sovereign Cloud (EU‑SOV) or other regulated cloud environments are highly preferred. Experience in the following areas is desirable:

• Operating production workloads in sovereign, government, or regulated cloud environments.
• Managing Kafka, Redis and RabbitMQ in environments with strict data residency, compliance, and security requirements.
• Implementing platform security controls, including IAM, RBAC, TLS, encryption, certificate management, and secrets management.
• Supporting compliance initiatives such as GDPR, ISO 27001, SOC2, or similar regulatory frameworks.
• Collaborating with Security, Compliance, and Infrastructure teams to prepare for audits and maintain operational compliance.
• Supporting disaster recovery, business continuity, and operational resilience for mission‑critical distributed platforms.

Workday Pay Transparency Statement (For EU Locations Only)

Listed below is the base salary range applicable to this position. Workday pay ranges (and the precise pay offered to the successful candidate) are based on a number of objective criteria such as relevant experience and skills, and educational qualifications, level of responsibility, demands of the role, work location and business need. 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 awarded by Workday Inc. For more information regarding Workday’s comprehensive benefits, please click here.

Primary Location

Base Pay Range: €96,000 EUR - €144,000 EUR Ireland

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.

Equal Opportunity

Workday is an Equal Opportunity Employer including individuals with disabilities and protected veterans. Workday is committed to providing reasonable accommodations for qualified individuals during our application process, in order to perform one or more essential functions of their job, as well as regarding the use of AI tools for employment decision‑making to any degree. Please see below for more details including how to request an accommodation as a qualified veteran, due to a disability or for religious reasons, or as otherwise provided under applicable law. Workday prohibits taking adverse action against any candidate or employee for reporting a possible violation of this policy, requesting one or more work accommodations, exercising a privacy right, or cooperating in an investigation in accordance with applicable law. Any employee who retaliates against a candidate or employee for doing so may be subject to disciplinary action, up to and including termination of employment, to the fullest extent allowable under applicable law. If you require a reasonable accommodation, you may email [e-mail], as far in advance as possible.

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. Workday is committed to providing reasonable accommodations for qualified individuals during our application process, in order to perform one or more essential functions of their job, as well as regarding the use of AI tools for employment decision‑making to any degree.

We do not accept resumes from headhunters, placement agencies, or other suppliers that have not signed a formal agreement with us.

Workday is a proud equal opportunity workplace. Individuals seeking employment at Workday are considered without regards to age, ancestry, color, gender (including pregnancy, childbirth, or related medical conditions), gender identity or expression, genetic information, marital status, medical condition, mental or physical disability, national origin, protected family care or medical leave status, race, religion (including beliefs and practices or the absence thereof), sexual orientation, military or veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by federal, state, or local laws. Further, pursuant to applicable local ordinances, Workday will consider for employment qualified applicants with arrest and conviction records. We do not accept resumes from headhunters, placement agencies, or other suppliers that have not signed a formal agreement with us.

Workday is committed to providing reasonable accommodations for qualified individuals during our application process, in order to perform one or more essential functions of their job, as well as regarding the use of AI tools for employment decision‑making to any degree.