Senior Software Development Engineer - AI Tools

Workday, Inc.; Pleasanton (CA); On-site; USD 190,000 - 285,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Flexible work options

Annual stock grants

Bonus plan eligibility

Job summary

Workday, Inc. is seeking a senior engineer for the AI Tools team in Pleasanton to design and build the AI platform layer, including LLM gateways and MCP registries, used by thousands of Workday engineers daily.

You will work on AI agents, compliance tooling, and scalable infrastructure, collaborating with security and DevEx teams to ensure safe, high‑quality deployments. This role emphasizes rapid iteration and close partner engagement.

Qualifications

• 5+ years of software engineering experience.
• 3+ years building and operating backend services or platform infrastructure in production.
• Strong proficiency in Python and/or TypeScript.
• Hands‑on experience building or integrating with LLM APIs (OpenAI, Anthropic, etc.).
• Robust understanding of AI security principles and responsible AI practices.
• Genuine excitement about being on the leading edge of AI.

Responsibilities

• Design and build the AI platform layer: LLM gateways, MCP registries, abstraction APIs, and shared infrastructure that teams across Workday build on.
• Architect and implement AI agents and automation that improve the developer workflow – code review, documentation, testing, and beyond.
• Drive the evaluation and integration of AI model providers, keeping a strong eye on cost, safety, and performance tradeoffs.
• Serve as a scout for emerging AI capabilities – track new models, tools, and frameworks, and make recommendations to engineering leadership on when to adopt, evaluate, or pass.
• Lead technical design on complex, cross‑cutting projects in partnership with Security, DevEx, and infrastructure teams.
• Build observability and governance tooling that gives the organization visibility into how AI tools are being used.
• Operationalize AI policy and compliance requirements into our platform.

Skills

Python

TypeScript

LLM APIs

AI Security

Agentic AI

REST APIs

Kubernetes

Docker

Security/Policy

Communication

Tools

MCP Servers

Claude skills

Docker

Kubernetes

REST API

Cloud Deploy

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

Welcome to the AI Tools team at Workday! We identify, deploy, and scale AI‑powered tools that eliminate friction from the developer experience – and extend those capabilities to the broader organization as they mature. We build the AI platform layer that powers code generation, AI‑assisted code review, agentic workflows, and enterprise‑wide developer tooling. We own the MCP registry and gateway that connects Workday's developers to AI capabilities, and we build the technical guardrails that operationalize how AI is used responsibly across the company. If you want to do high‑impact AI infrastructure work in enterprise software, we'd love to hear from you.

About the Role

The Workday AI Tools team is looking for a senior engineer who thrives at the intersection of AI, platform engineering, and developer experience. You'll design and build systems that thousands of Workday engineers rely on every day - from LLM gateways and MCP server infrastructure to AI‑native agents and compliance tooling. You'll help define how we integrate emerging AI capabilities into our platform, and you'll be a technical anchor on a team that moves fast and takes quality seriously. You'll also work directly with the engineers using these tools - through office hours, Slack support, and our Champions program - and your work will be shaped by their feedback.

• Design and build the AI platform layer: LLM gateways, MCP registries, abstraction APIs, and shared infrastructure that teams across Workday build on
• Architect and implement AI agents and automation that improve the developer workflow – code review, documentation, testing, and beyond
• Drive the evaluation and integration of AI model providers, keeping a strong eye on cost, safety, and performance tradeoffs
• Serve as a scout for emerging AI capabilities – track new models, tools, and frameworks, and make recommendations to engineering leadership on when to adopt, evaluate, or pass
• Lead technical design on complex, cross‑cutting projects in partnership with Security, DevEx, and infrastructure teams
• Build observability and governance tooling that gives the organization visibility into how AI tools are being used
• Operationalize AI policy and compliance requirements into our platform

About You

• 5+ years of software engineering experience
• 3+ years building and operating backend services or platform infrastructure in production
• Strong proficiency in Python and/or TypeScript
• Hands‑on experience building or integrating with LLM APIs (OpenAI, Anthropic, etc.) and familiarity with prompt engineering, evaluation pipelines, and model selection tradeoffs
• Robust understanding of AI security principles and responsible AI practices – including prompt injection, model misuse, data leakage risks, output validation, and operationalizing policy guardrails in production AI systems
• Genuine excitement about being on the leading edge of AI – you follow new model releases, tooling shifts, and emerging frameworks closely, and you bring that energy into what the team builds

• Hands‑on experience designing and building AI agents, including fluency with agentic frameworks and patterns such as ReAct – and practical experience shipping agents that are reliable in production
• Experience building MCP servers, Claude skills, or similar tool‑use integrations that extend AI capabilities to real workflows
• Comfort designing REST APIs and service‑oriented architectures
• Experience with container orchestration (Kubernetes, Docker) and deploying services to cloud environments; experience with workflow orchestration tools and infrastructure‑as‑code is a plus
• Understanding of enterprise security patterns: authentication, authorization, SSO, and secrets management
• Exposure to observability tooling – logging, metrics, tracing – and a habit of building systems that are easy to monitor
• Comfort partnering directly with the engineers who use your tools – you see user feedback, support channels, and adoption work as part of the job, not a distraction from it
• Strong written and verbal communication skills; able to drive alignment across engineering, security, and product stakeholders

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. For more information regarding Workday’s comprehensive benefits in Canada, please click here. For more information regarding Workday’s comprehensive benefits in the US, please click here. Primary Location: USA.CA.Pleasanton Primary Location Base Pay Range: $190,100 USD - $285,100 USD Additional CAN Location(s) Base Pay Range: $151,200 - $226,800 CAD

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.

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. 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…