Senior Software Development Engineer

Workday, Inc.; Boulder (CO); Hybrid; USD 156,000 - 264,000; Full time

Job summary

Workday, Inc. in Boulder, Colorado, is seeking a Senior Software Development Engineer for the AI Foundations team to design, build, and operate core services that host AI-powered applications.

You will partner with ML engineers, design APIs, build ETL pipelines with PySpark, and mentor others while upholding security, reliability, and on-call ownership.

Qualifications

• 8+ years of professional software development experience, including architecting, building, and scaling secure, robust, and efficient software systems.
• 5+ years of experience with Python development
• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or related discipline, or equivalent practical experience

Responsibilities

• Design, build, and operate core services and infrastructure for AI development, evaluation, and deployment.
• Own a significant surface area end to end, including production health and on‑call.
• Turn open‑ended problems into scoped, sequenced work — for yourself and for others.
• Raise the bar through design and code review, and mentor engineers on the team.

Skills

Python

Distributed systems

APIs and services

On-call ownership

Mentoring

Security and privacy

Unix/Linux

Education

Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or related discipline

Tools

Docker

Kubernetes

PySpark

Unix/Linux

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

We’re an AI platform organization. We build the platform other engineering teams use to develop, evaluate, and deploy AI systems, and we build production applications on top of it — agentic solutions alongside a broad range of classical ML. The work spans the full applied‑AI stack: model and agent development, evaluation infrastructure, serving performance and cost, and the pipelines that get it all into an enterprise product. Our systems run against real customer data, so correctness, reliability, and observability matter as much as capability.

About the Role

As a Senior Software Development Engineer on the AI Foundations team, you will be primarily responsible for designing, building, and operating the software systems that host, run, and scale AI‑powered applications at Workday.

• Work closely with machine learning engineers to write and maintain production‑grade backend services that power AI‑driven capabilities and agent applications
• Design and implement APIs and service integrations that enable AI capabilities to be consumed across Workday products and platforms
• Build and operate data ingestion and ETL pipelines that support AI application workflows
• Apply distributed systems principles in production to address scalability, concurrency, fault tolerance, and performance challenges
• Ensure systems meet enterprise requirements for security, privacy, robustness, and compliance
• Own services through their full lifecycle, including deployment, monitoring, debugging, and ongoing operational improvements

What you’ll do

• Design, build, and operate core services and infrastructure for AI development, evaluation, and deployment
• Own a significant surface area end to end, including production health and on‑call
• Turn open‑ended problems into scoped, sequenced work — for yourself and for others
• Raise the bar through design and code review, and mentor engineers on the team
• Partner with product, research, and infrastructure teams on tradeoffs and roadmap

About You

You are a strong technical leader with deep Python expertise and solid software engineering skills, capable of writing beautiful, well‑designed code while delivering solutions efficiently.

Basic Qualification

• 8+ years of professional software development experience, including architecting, building, and scaling secure, robust, and efficient software systems
• 5+ years of experience with Python development
• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or related discipline, or equivalent practical experience

Other Qualifications

• Understanding of object‑oriented design principles and ability to apply them in a Python context
• Proficiency with advanced Python concepts, such as asynchronous and concurrent programming, generators, and higher‑order abstractions
• Ability to write clean, testable, and well‑structured code, with high standards for clarity, aesthetics, and long‑term maintainability
• Deep systems knowledge, including comfort operating in and debugging Unix/Linux environments, fluency with command‑line tooling, and understanding of practical networking fundamentals
• Understanding of distributed systems concepts, including concurrency, fault tolerance, and performance tradeoffs
• Ability to design and build well‑defined, stable APIs and service interfaces for consumption by other teams and systems
• Ability to build ETL pipelines that efficiently process large amounts of data using tools like PySpark
• Proficiency with cloud and container platforms, including containerized workloads and orchestration systems (e.g., AWS or GCP, Docker, Kubernetes)
• Ability to collaborate effectively across teams, working closely with other engineers while maintaining independent execution
• Ownership mindset, able to take responsibility for a work area and deliver high‑quality, reliable systems
• Ability to mentor and coach other engineers, promoting best practices and raising the engineering bar
• Architectural thinking skills, with the ability to contribute meaningful ideas and practical solutions in design and architecture discussions
• Ability to communicate complex technical concepts clearly to both technical and non‑technical stakeholders

Workday Pay Transparency Statement

Primary Location: USA.CO.Boulder

• Primary Location Base Pay Range: $156,000 USD - $234,000 USD
• Additional US Location(s) Base Pay Range: $148,200 USD - $264,000 USD

Additional Considerations: The application deadline for this role is the same as the posting end date stated as below: 10/09/2026

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.

Are you being referred to one of our roles? If so, ask your connection at Workday about our Employee Referral process! At Workday, we value our candidates’ privacy and data security. 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.

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. You may view the Workday's Pay Transparency Policy, and Know Your Rights Notice, by clicking on their corresponding links.