Principal Software Engineer

Workiva Inc.; Iowa (LA); Hybrid; USD 177,000 - 284,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Restricted Stock Units

401(k) match

Comprehensive employee benefits package

Job summary

Workiva Inc. is looking for an experienced software engineer to lead technical strategy across complex projects. This role involves partnering with engineering teams, designing AI-driven systems, and improving engineering standards.

Ideal candidates will have over 8 years of experience, strong communication skills, and be proficient in using AI collaboratively. Workiva offers a competitive salary and a comprehensive benefits package.

Qualifications

• 8+ years of experience in software systems development.
• Strong quality standards for AI-generated software.
• Ability to mentor and guide other engineers.

Responsibilities

• Partner with engineering teams for complex project deliverables.
• Define the technical strategy for multi‑team initiatives.
• Design AI-driven systems for seamless engineering workflows.

Skills

AI development collaboration

Complex software systems

Engineering velocity improvement

Communication skills

Education

Bachelor's degree in Computer Science or related field

Master's degree or PhD with relevant experience

Job description

N/A At Workiva, we build and scale an enterprise platform that powers complex financial reporting, compliance, and collaboration for some of the world’s largest organizations. We solve for high‑throughput data, strict consistency, and architectural scale while exploring what AI can do to transform how engineering teams work.

What You’ll Do

• Deliver outcomes: Partner with engineering teams to co‑deliver complex work across platform modernization, product evolution, and new product bets. Adapt your technical approach, planning style, and delivery strategy to match the needs of the work. Use AI‑native development methods to build automation, validation, and engineering harnesses that improve speed, quality, and leverage.
• Define and drive technical strategy: Lead technical strategy across large, multi‑team initiatives with long‑term impact. Define and evolve system boundaries across complex domains, with a focus on clean interfaces and scalability. Identify and remove bottlenecks in performance, data flow, reliability, and architecture. Lead exploration, prototyping, and validation for ambiguous technical problems. Partner with cross‑functional peers on disaster recovery planning, testing, and optimization.
• Design AI‑driven systems: Design systems that enable autonomous or semi‑autonomous engineering workflows. Build context‑aware infrastructure that connects code, documentation, and systems to AI tooling. Develop guardrails such as validation layers, static analysis, and automation hooks to ensure safe and reliable AI‑assisted development. Improve how AI is used across the organization for both effectiveness and efficiency.
• Influence and lead: Raise the technical bar by helping teams think bigger and execute better. Mentor and challenge Staff+ engineers to expand their scope, judgment, and impact. Partner with engineering and product leadership to align technical decisions with business outcomes. Create durable artifacts such as runbooks, decision logs, and tests that can be handed off and evolved by others. Contribute across product domains, bringing context from one area to solve problems in another.

What You’ll Need

• Minimum Qualifications:
  - 8+ years of experience building and scaling complex software systems.
  - Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Information Security, or a related field; or 6+ years and a Master’s degree; or a PhD with 4+ years of experience; or equivalent practical experience.
  - Demonstrated experience using AI as a primary development collaborator, with a strong quality bar for AI‑generated output.
• Preferred Qualifications:
  - Proven success leading large, cross‑pillar technical initiatives.
  - Track record of working effectively across platform modernization, iterative product development, and greenfield delivery.
  - Strong architectural judgment across distributed systems, APIs, and platform design.
  - Ability to operate as a force multiplier for other engineers.
  - Experience improving engineering testing standards through approaches such as TDD, BDD, load testing, stress testing, chaos testing, invariant testing, or mutation testing.
  - Experience building infrastructure that improves engineering velocity and quality at scale.
  - Strong background in distributed systems and platform architecture.
  - Experience inferring behavioral specifications from existing systems through code, tests, logs, and subject‑matter experts.
  - Ability to deliver production‑quality outcomes in a small, time‑boxed team setting.
  - Strong written communication skills and a habit of creating durable, useful artifacts.
  - A leadership style that empowers others rather than creating dependency.

Compensation and Benefits

Salary range in the US: $177,000.00 – $284,000.00. A discretionary bonus typically paid annually. Restricted Stock Units granted at time of hire. 401(k) match and comprehensive employee benefits package.

Employment decisions are made without regard to age, race, creed, color, religion, sex, national origin, ancestry, disability status, veteran status, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, genetic information, marital status, citizenship status or any other protected characteristic. Workiva is committed to working with and providing reasonable accommodations to applicants with disabilities.