Principal Machine Learning Engineer, Business Process Optimization

Workday, Inc.; Pleasanton (CA); Híbrido; USD 228.000 - 342.000; Jornada completa

Descripción de la vacante

Workday, Inc. in Pleasanton, CA is seeking a Principal Machine Learning Engineer to lead the architecture and implementation of next-generation AI platforms and autonomous agent frameworks.

You will craft ML infrastructure, multi-agent orchestration layers, and high-availability pipelines powering enterprise billing and decision-making at scale. You will collaborate with software engineers, PMs, Data Eng, SRE, and Compliance to translate business needs into scalable designs, ensuring reliability

Formación

• 12+ years in ML development and R&D leadership, incl. 8+ years with advanced ML methodologies, distributed frameworks, cloud platforms.
• 6+ years building scalable ML services and data pipelines in production using Java, Go, Scala, or Python.
• 4+ years working with LLMs, generative AI, RAG pipelines, and autonomous agent frameworks for real-world enterprise apps.

Responsabilidades

• Design ML infrastructure, multi-agent orchestration layers, and high-availability pipelines for enterprise use.
• Lead secure, high-throughput REST services and event-driven data pipelines.
• Establish end-to-end MLOps standards including CI/CD, observability, and model monitoring.
• Collaborate with engineers, PMs, Data Eng, SRE, and Compliance to align tech with business needs.

Conocimientos

ML development

R&D leadership

Distributed frameworks

Cloud platforms

Java/Go/Scala/Python

LLMs / Generative AI

MLOps & CI/CD

Team leadership

Educación

Bachelor's in Computer Science / Data Science / Engineering

Master's or PhD preferred

Herramientas

Python

PyTorch / TensorFlow

Kubernetes

Docker

PostgreSQL

Redis

Kafka

Descripción del empleo

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

Admin Central is building the future of how administrators works across Workday—turning a fragmented patchwork of tools and disconnected AI into a single, unified experience. Within Admin Central, the Business Process Optimize team powers the underlying platform infrastructure. You’ll build mission‑critical distributed systems, high‑availability usage pipelines, and event‑driven data flows across global product regions to ensure enterprise billing integrity at scale. If you're excited to build from scratch, move fast, and transform how thousands of admins work every day, come join us!

About the Role

As a Principal Machine Learning Engineer on the Business Process Optimize team within Admin Central, you will lead the architecture and implementation of Workday’s next‑generation AI platforms and autonomous agent frameworks. You’ll sit at the intersection of machine learning, event‑driven data systems, and enterprise platform engineering—transforming cutting‑edge AI research into production‑ready, highly reliable systems handling tens of millions of daily requests for over 100+ Tier‑0 enterprise tenants. In this hands‑on, high‑impact role, you will design the ML infrastructure, multi‑agent orchestration layers, and high‑availability usage pipelines that power enterprise‑grade decision‑making, usage tracking, and billing integrity across international regions.

Your Primary Focus

• Agentic AI & Orchestration: Design, implement, and maintain advanced agentic capabilities, including tool calling, multi‑agent workflows, long‑range planning, reasoning frameworks, and human‑in‑the‑loop integrations.
• Scalable ML Infrastructure: Build secure, high‑throughput REST services and event‑driven data pipelines using Python, Kubernetes, and cloud‑native tech. Architect multi‑tenant runtimes that deliver fast, low‑latency inference to millions of global users.
• MLOps & Enterprise Reliability: Establish end‑to‑end MLOps standards—including CI/CD automation, observability, evaluation frameworks, model monitoring, and privacy/anonymization guardrails—ensuring systems are explainable, secure, and production‑resilient.
• Technical & Strategic Leadership: Partner closely with software engineers, Product Managers, Data Engineering, SRE, and Legal/Compliance stakeholders to turn ambiguous business needs into scalable technical designs and long‑term data‑governance strategies.

About You

Basic Qualifications

• 12+ years in ML development and R&D leadership, including 8+ years with advanced ML methodologies, distributed frameworks, and cloud‑based platforms — designing complex, scalable, production‑grade ML systems.
• 6+ years building and hosting scalable ML services, microservices, and high‑throughput data pipelines in production using Java, Go, Scala, or Python.
• 4+ years working with LLMs, generative AI, RAG pipelines, and autonomous agent frameworks for real‑world enterprise applications.

Other Qualifications

• Data Processing & Pipelines: Expert in high‑throughput streaming (Kafka), real‑time feature extraction (Spark/Flink), and distributed columnar storage (ClickHouse, Iceberg) to architect large‑scale ML pipelines.
• AI/ML Expertise: Deep knowledge of deep learning, LLM orchestration, RAG, and agentic systems — applying ML algorithms and Model‑Based Design (including MCP integrations and tool‑use frameworks) to multi‑agent coordination, intent classification, and workflow optimization.
• Data Analysis & Feature Engineering: Proven ability to lead EDA on multi‑tenant agentic workflows to shape data strategy, paired with mastery of high‑dimensional embeddings, vector database management, and data isolation.
• Model Lifecycle: Proven ability to lead model building, fine‑tuning, and deployment of domain‑specific foundation models — including Kubernetes/Docker deployment, automated CI/CD retraining, and managing drift/latency at scale.
• Technical Stack: Mastery of Python and the ML ecosystem (PyTorch, TensorFlow, LangChain, LangSmith, LlamaIndex, NumPy, Pandas, Scikit‑learn), with strong experience deploying production systems on PostgreSQL, Redis, Kafka, and cloud infrastructure (AWS/GCP/Azure).
• Team Leadership: Exceptional collaboration and mentoring skills — technically leading cross‑functional pods, driving sprint planning, and translating technical/governance decisions for executives.
• Education: Bachelor's in Computer Science, Data Science, Statistics, Mathematics, Engineering, or related field (or equivalent experience); Master's or PhD strongly 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: $228,000 USD - $342,000 USD

Additional US Location(s) Base Pay Range: $190,600 USD - $342,000 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.

Workday is an Equal Opportunity Employer

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.

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.

Employee Referral

If you are being referred to one of our roles? If so, ask your connection at Workday about our Employee Referral process! At Workday, we value our candidates’ privacy and data security. Workday will never ask candidates to apply to jobs through websites that are not Workday Careers. Please be aware of sites that may ask for you to provide your data in connection with a job posting that appears to be from Workday but is not. In addition, Workday will never ask candidates to pay a recruiting fee, or pay for consulting or coaching services, in order to apply for a job at Workday.

Workday Equality and Inclusion Statement

Workday is proud to be an 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.

Workday prohibits taking adverse action against any candidate or employee for reporting a possible violation of this policy, requesting one or more work accommodation, 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.

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