Distinguished Engineer

Socket.dev; Pleasanton (CA); On-site; USD 290,000 - 435,000; Full time

Job summary

Workday seeks a Distinguished Engineer in the Office of CTO to translate architectural direction into real artifacts. You’ll produce code, prototypes, and reference implementations to ground cross-cutting conversations in runnable solutions.

You’ll report to a leader in the Office of CTO and collaborate with the CTO team to drive Workday's platform forward with impactful, scalable patterns.

Qualifications

• Extensive software engineering experience at enterprise scale.
• Deep expertise in distributed systems, API design, and data modeling.
• Proven ability to shape architectural direction, not just follow it.
• Security-first mindset with tenant isolation and data protection.
• Ambiguity tolerance with driving code-based outcomes.
• Track record of reference implementations and platform tooling.
• Strong technical writing and documentation skills.
• Proven cross-team collaboration and leadership.

Responsibilities

• Turn architectural direction into working MVPs and artifacts.
• Build prototypes and reference implementations guiding standards.
• Produce runnable HOWTOs and pattern libraries for adoption.
• Demonstrate AI-native development practices with current tooling.
• Coordinate parallel engineering efforts across teams.
• Partner with product teams to resolve friction and deliver.
• Contribute to the CTO's priority stack with rapid code-driven answers.
• Mentor engineers and multiply impact across projects.

Skills

Experience 18+ years

Distributed systems

API design

Data modeling

Multi-tenant SaaS

Security-first design

Ambiguity to results

Technical writing

Collaboration across org

AI-native patterns

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.

About the Team

The Office of CTO sits at the cross-cutting layer of Workday's engineering organization. Our mission is to extend the reach of architectural direction by turning it into working code. We build steel-thread prototypes, reference implementations, and proof-of-concept systems that explore early ideas, shape technical decisions, and inform standards adoption across the Workday technology stack, with a growing focus on agentic systems.

If you are energized by the opportunity to explore what is possible with Workday's platform and the agent stack on top of it — writing code, shipping prototypes, and leaving behind patterns that other teams pick up and run with — this is the team for you. Everything we do is in service of driving Workday's platform forward.

About the Role

As a Distinguished Engineer in the Office of CTO, you will be the engineer who turns architectural direction into working artifacts. This role exists to extend the reach of Workday’s Chief Architect and CTO organization by producing the code, prototypes, and reference implementations that keep cross-cutting technical conversations grounded in what actually runs.

You will report to a people leader in the Office of CTO and take technical direction from Workday's Chief Architect. You will collaborate closely with the CTO's Senior Principal Product Strategist and with the Area Tech Lead network across the platform engineering organization. You will join standing forums with Workday's CTO, Chief Architect, and CTO Office team where direction is set and progress is reviewed.

In this role, you will be responsible for:

• Taking ambiguous, one-line problem statements and turning them into working MVPs. You will receive asks like "show whether X is feasible" or "demonstrate what an agent-native version of Y looks like," and the work of scoping, resolving technical conflicts, and shipping a working artifact is yours to own.
• Building steel-thread prototypes and proof-of-concept systems that validate cross-cutting architectural decisions and inform standards adoption before product teams commit resources.
• Producing reference implementations for paved paths defined by the Workday Technical Council — converting architectural guidance into adoptable artifacts such as working code, runnable HOWTOs, and pattern libraries.
• Developing and demonstrating AI-native development practices for Workday engineering, showing what is possible with current tooling and where the boundaries are.
• Running parallel engineering efforts on cross-organization initiatives that no single product team owns, carrying prototypes from concept to working system fast enough to keep architectural conversations grounded.
• Partnering with product teams adopting paved paths. When teams encounter friction, you help debug it alongside them.
• Contributing to the Chief Architect's priority stack as a hands-on engineer: technical diligence on candidate platforms, deep evaluations of vendor or M&A targets, and fast turnaround on questions that need code to answer.
• Mentoring IC engineers across Workday on the patterns and practices you develop, multiplying your impact through the work others build on top of yours.

About You

Basic Qualifications

• 18+ years of software engineering experience, with extensive time spent as a hands-on individual contributor designing, building, and operating production systems at enterprise scale across multiple technology domains
• Deep and broad expertise in distributed systems, API design, data modeling, and multi-tenant SaaS architecture, with a demonstrated ability to shape the architectural direction of an engineering organization — not just follow it
• Security-first mindset — you treat authentication, authorization, tenant isolation, and data protection as foundational design constraints, and you have a history of embedding these principles into the systems and standards that other engineers adopt
• Sustained ability to take highly ambiguous, organization-level technical challenges and independently drive them to resolution through working code — scoping steel threads, shipping them, and establishing the patterns that inform broader adoption
• A well-established record of producing reference implementations, platform tooling, and architectural patterns that have been adopted at scale across multiple teams or organizations, shaping how other engineers build
• Exceptional written and verbal communication — you set the standard for technical documentation, and your patterns, HOWTOs, and reference materials are used as exemplars across the engineering organization

Other Qualifications

• Mastery of the full software development lifecycle — from conception and design through programming, testing, and long-term maintenance — with the ability to set engineering standards, define best practices, and elevate the quality of software development across the organization
• Expert-level algorithmic thinking, with the ability to design, implement, and critically analyze complex solutions, and to guide other engineers in applying efficient, well-reasoned approaches to novel and ambiguous problems
• Extensive experience in API development, including architecting interfaces that serve as organizational standards, defining API governance practices, and ensuring security, scalability, and long-term maintainability across a broad portfolio of systems
• Mastery of code testing strategy — unit, integration, functional, and regression — with the ability to define and champion testing standards that improve software quality, reliability, and engineering confidence across teams
• Expert proficiency in object-oriented design principles, with a history of establishing reusable, well-structured component architectures that other teams adopt as models for their own work
• Extensive experience with source control management at organizational scale, including defining branching strategies, establishing contribution workflows, and maintaining codebase integrity across large, distributed engineering teams
• A natural collaborator and connector who operates effectively across organizational boundaries, builds trusted relationships with senior technical and executive leaders, and fosters an inclusive, high-trust environment where engineers at all levels contribute their best work
• Expert-level technical writing and documentation skills, with the ability to create comprehensive architectural guides, pattern libraries, and reference materials that establish organizational standards and enable broad adoption without direct involvement
• Deep, hands-on experience with agent architectures, LLM integration, and AI-native application patterns, including fluency with protocols such as MCP, A2A, and equivalent emerging standards (preferred)
• Deep, hands-on experience with public cloud platforms (AWS and/or GCP), including the ability to design cloud-native infrastructure, evaluate platform capabilities, and ship production-quality prototypes across multi-cloud environments (preferred)
• Deep familiarity with Workday's internal stack: OMS, XO, Business Process framework, Domain Security Policies (expected for internal candidates)
• Demonstrated ability to rapidly evaluate and integrate unfamiliar technologies — reading specifications, spinning up tooling, and delivering a working integration in days — with a reputation for being the person the organization turns to when speed and technical judgment are both essential (preferred)

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: $289,800 USD - $434,800 USD

Additional US Location(s) Base Pay Range: $247,000 USD - $434,800 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.

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.

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If you require a reasonable accommodation, you may email [e-mail], as far in advance as possible.

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