Principal Software Engineer

Workiva Inc.; United States; Remote; USD 177,000 - 284,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Discretionary bonus

RSUs

401(k) match

Benefits package

Job summary

Workiva seeks a Principal Software Engineer to drive architecture across platform modernization, AI-enabled development, and new product bets. This hands-on role requires defining strategy, delivering complex systems, and raising the technical bar for teams across the organization.

You will lead multi-team initiatives, shape scalable boundaries, and partner with engineering and product leadership to align technical decisions with business outcomes, while building durable runbooks and tests for

Qualifications

• 8+ years of experience building and scaling complex software systems.
• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Information Security, or related field; or 6+ years and a Master's; 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.

Responsibilities

• Deliver outcomes by partnering with engineering teams on complex work across platform modernization, product evolution, and new product bets.
• Adapt technical approach and delivery strategy to match project needs.
• Use AI-native development methods to build automation, validation, and engineering harnesses to improve speed and quality.
• Define and drive technical strategy across large multi-team initiatives with scalable interfaces.
• Design AI-driven systems and context-aware infrastructure connecting code, docs, and AI tooling.
• Mentor and raise the technical bar for Staff+ engineers; align technical decisions with business outcomes.

Skills

Distributed systems

Platform architecture

AI-driven development

Technical leadership

Cross-functional leadership

API design

TDD/BDD

Performance optimization

Mentoring Staff+

Strategic planning

Education

Bachelor's in Computer Science

Tools

Docker

Kubernetes

Terraform

Git

Job description

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. We are not simply adding AI to existing workflows. We are redesigning how engineering gets done. That means building systems, practices, and products where AI is a real collaborator in development, testing, validation, and platform evolution. We are hiring a Principal Software Engineer who can operate across multiple modes of work: platform modernization, iterative product development, and high-ambition greenfield exploration. This is a hands-on role for someone who can define strategy, deliver complex systems, and raise the technical bar for the teams around them.

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.

What You’ll Be Rewarded

• 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

Why Join Workiva

Workiva is the platform designed to bring confidence, control, and a competitive edge to the world's most complex organizations. Our AI-powered platform unifies finance, risk, and sustainability on a single, secure foundation-ensuring data is trusted, traceable, and ready to act on. With an unbroken path from source to output, leaders gain confidence in their numbers, visibility into current and emerging risks, and the ability to move with speed and precision in a constantly changing world. At Workiva, you'll bring technology to market that executives, boards, and regulators depend on. The work you do here helps organizations navigate uncertainty, maintain trust, and make decisions that stand up to scrutiny. If you're energized by meaningful challenges, inspired by collaborative teams, and motivated to help organizations turn uncertainty into advantage, we'd love to meet you.

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.