Senior Backend Engineer — Secure Agent Runtime (Remote/Flex)

Workday; Pleasanton (CA); On-site; USD 148,000 - 264,000; Full time

Job summary

Workday in Pleasanton, CA is seeking a Senior Software Development Engineer to design and build core runtime capabilities for policy-governed agent execution. You will own sandbox execution, sidecar interfaces, and production reliability, collaborating with cross-functional teams to ship secure, observable backend services.

You will mentor engineers, contribute to architecture reviews, and help raise engineering quality across the team, while delivering high-performance, scalable systems for

Qualifications

• 5+ years experience in software development engineering including designing, developing, and deploying software solutions.
• 8+ years experience in software development; architecting, building, and scaling robust systems.
• 6+ years experience building backend or platform systems.
• Strong experience with distributed systems, APIs, and service-oriented architecture.
• Proficiency in at least one backend language (Java, Go, Rust, Python).
• Experience operating production services with strong reliability and observability practices.
• Demonstrated ownership of complex technical projects from design through production.
• Strong collaboration and communication skills in cross-functional environments.

Responsibilities

• Design and build 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.
• Partner with cross-functional teams to integrate data prep, context assembly, tool gating, and model mediation.
• Participate in architecture reviews, incident response, and operational hardening.
• Mentor engineers and help raise engineering quality across the team.

Skills

Distributed systems

APIs

Observability

Security

Backend architecture

Mentoring

Tools

Java

Go

Rust

Python

Job description

Workday in Pleasanton, CA is seeking a Senior Software Development Engineer to design and build core runtime capabilities for policy-governed agent execution. You will own sandbox execution, sidecar interfaces, and production reliability, collaborating with cross-functional teams to ship secure, observable backend services.

You will mentor engineers, contribute to architecture reviews, and help raise engineering quality across the team, while delivering high-performance, scalable systems for