Senior Backend Engineer, AI Runtime & Policy

Workday, Inc.; Colorado; Hybrid; USD 156,000 - 234,000; Full time

Job summary

Workday, Inc. in Colorado is seeking a Senior Software Development Engineer to design and build core runtime capabilities for policy-governed agent execution. You will own high-impact areas across sandbox execution, sidecar interfaces, enforcement flows, and production reliability.

You will mentor engineers, contribute to architecture reviews, and collaborate with cross-functional teams to deliver scalable runtime services with strong observability and security guarantees.

Qualifications

• 8+ years experience in software development, architecting and scaling robust systems.
• Strong experience with distributed systems, APIs, and service-oriented architecture.
• Proficiency in Python, Rust, Java or Go.
• Proficiency with IaC tools such as Terraform.
• Experience operating production services with reliability and observability practices.

Responsibilities

• Design and implement core runtime services for secure, isolated agent execution.
• Build deterministic enforcement pathways for data, context, tool, and model boundaries.
• Define and evolve service interfaces and contracts across maincar and sidecar components.
• Improve performance, scalability, and resilience for high-concurrency workloads.
• Build deep observability into runtime behavior, policy decisions, and audit traces.
• Mentor engineers and help raise engineering quality across the team.
• Write high-quality, testable code and participate in code and design reviews.
• Develop telemetry and logging capabilities for traceability and operational insight.
• Collaborate with senior engineers and partner teams on roadmap delivery.

Skills

Distributed systems

APIs

SOA

Backend languages

Tools

Terraform

Job description

Workday, Inc. in Colorado is seeking a Senior Software Development Engineer to design and build core runtime capabilities for policy-governed agent execution. You will own high-impact areas across sandbox execution, sidecar interfaces, enforcement flows, and production reliability.

You will mentor engineers, contribute to architecture reviews, and collaborate with cross-functional teams to deliver scalable runtime services with strong observability and security guarantees.