Senior Principal Architect, AI Platform

Workday, Inc.; Pleasanton (CA); Hybrid; USD 242,000 - 364,000; Full time

Job summary

Workday, Inc. in Pleasanton, CA is seeking a Senior Principal Architect for the AI Platform to own end-to-end architecture and drive a coherent design across the organization.

You will lead cross-functional teams, align with business strategy, and influence executives on technical investment while shaping governance, security, and multi-cloud patterns.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science or related discipline.
• 15+ years of software engineering experience, including senior architecture roles.
• 8+ years defining architecture of large-scale distributed systems.

Responsibilities

• Define the long-term architecture vision and target state for the AI Platform with a practical roadmap.
• Own platform architecture including runtimes, orchestration, routing, and data infrastructure.
• Set architectural standards for reliability, performance, scalability, and fault tolerance.
• Define how models are integrated, served, evaluated, and optimized across the platform.

Education

Bachelor's degree in Computer Science or related

Tools

Kubernetes

AWS

GCP

Job description

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

At Workday, we believe AI agents will change how people and organizations work. The AI Platform organization builds the foundation that makes this possible: a secure, trusted, and scalable platform that Workday, our customers, and our partners use to build, run, and manage AI agents across some of the world's largest enterprises. Our team owns the full life of an agent. We govern how agents operate, help organizations build and measure them, and run them reliably at scale. We also manage the models that power them, route each request to the right model and provider, and provide the data and infrastructure underneath it all. Our customers trust Workday with their most sensitive people and financial data, and we hold our platform to that standard.

About the Role

The Sr Principal is the most senior architecture leader in the AI Platform organization. This person owns the end-to-end architecture of the platform, defines the target state and the path to get there, and ensures every pillar builds toward a single, coherent design. The role draws on deep expertise in distributed systems, AI platforms, model engineering, and AI governance. This is a senior individual contributor role with broad influence across the organization and the company. The successful candidate combines a clear architectural vision with the judgment to make lasting design decisions, the ability to align many teams around shared standards, and the communication skills to advise executives on technical strategy and investment.

Key Accountabilities

Architecture Vision and Target State

Define the long-term architecture vision and target state for the AI Platform, along with a practical roadmap to reach it. Ensure the architecture scales with Workday’s growing agent ecosystem and stays aligned with business strategy.

End-to-End Platform Architecture

Own the overall architecture of the platform services that power agents and AI workloads, including runtimes, orchestration, routing, model management, and data infrastructure. Ensure these services fit together as one platform rather than separate systems.

Distributed Systems Architecture

Set the architectural patterns for the highly available, large-scale distributed systems that underpin the platform. Define the standards for reliability, performance, scalability, and fault tolerance.

Model Architecture

Define how models are integrated, served, evaluated, and optimized across the platform. Set direction on the architectural tradeoffs between model quality, performance, and cost, and ensure the platform can adopt new models quickly.

Cloud Architecture

Define the cloud architecture across AWS and GCP, including multi-cloud design, the use of managed AI services, and cost-effective infrastructure patterns.

AI Governance by Design

Partner with the AI Governance and Sovereignty and Routing teams to build governance, security, privacy, and compliance into the architecture from the start. Ensure the platform supports auditability, responsible AI practices, and evolving regulatory requirements.

Architecture Standards and Governance

Establish the reference architectures, design patterns, and architecture principles used across the organization. Lead the architecture review process and make or guide the critical design decisions that shape the platform.

Technology Evaluation

Lead the evaluation of frameworks, platforms, and vendors, including build versus buy decisions. Ensure technology choices support the long-term architecture rather than short-term needs alone.

Cross-Pillar and Cross-Company Alignment

Work across all pillars of the AI Platform organization, and with architects across Workday, to align on shared standards, resolve design conflicts, and ensure the platform integrates cleanly with Workday products.

Mentorship and Architecture Community

Mentor architects and senior engineers, raise the design bar across the organization, and build a strong architecture community that can carry the vision forward.

Executive and External Influence

Advise senior leadership on architecture strategy, technical risk, and investment tradeoffs. Represent Workday externally through industry partnerships, standards bodies, open-source communities, and conferences.

About You

Basic Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science or a related discipline
• 15+ years of software engineering experience, including significant time in senior architecture roles
• 8+ years experience defining the architecture of large-scale distributed systems running in production
• 8+ years experience running architecture practices, such as reference architectures, architecture decision records, and architecture review boards
• 5+ years of experience architecting AI or machine learning platforms that support production workloads at enterprise scale

Other Qualifications

• Strong background in model engineering, including model selection, evaluation, serving, and optimization, with the ability to guide architecture decisions in this space
• Deep familiarity with large language models, including their strengths, limitations, and the architectural patterns used to apply them in production, such as retrieval-augmented generation and agent orchestration
• Strong experience with AWS and GCP architecture, including core infrastructure and managed AI services
• Working knowledge of AI governance, including security, privacy, compliance, and responsible AI practices in enterprise environments
• Demonstrated ability to set architectural direction and influence multiple teams without direct authority
• Excellent communicator, able to explain complex architecture clearly to executives and engage deeply with engineers
• Strong track record of mentoring architects and senior engineers
• Experience with agent frameworks and interaction protocols, such as LangGraph, MCP, and A2A
• Experience architecting container and orchestration platforms, such as Kubernetes, at scale
• Familiarity with AI regulation and data sovereignty requirements, such as the EU AI Act
• Recognized technical reputation through publications, patents, open-source contributions, or industry speaking
• Sound judgment for balancing innovation against platform stability, cost, and risk

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.

Primary Location: USA.CA.Pleasanton Primary Location Base Pay Range: $242,400 USD - $363,600 USD

Additional US Location(s) Base Pay Range: $205,200 USD - $363,600 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.

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.

If you require a reasonable accommodation, you may email [e-mail], as far in advance as possible.

We do not accept resumes from headhunters, placement agencies, or other suppliers that have not signed a formal agreement with us.

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 input 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 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.

If you require a reasonable accommodation, you may email [e-mail], as far in advance as possible.