Senior Software Development Engineer - Developer Platform

Workday, Inc.; Boulder (CO); Hybrid; USD 169,000 - 253,000; Full time

Job summary

Workday seeks a Senior Development Engineer for the Developer Platform in Boulder, leading core platform capabilities and a developer-friendly ecosystem. You will architect, implement, and ship scalable services used by internal and external developers.

You will mentor peers, drive API governance, and collaborate across product and engineering teams to improve DX and platform reliability.

Qualifications

• 8+ years in software engineering, with senior ownership of web or platform services in production.
• 4+ years designing, developing, and deploying distributed systems.
• Experience building developer-facing surfaces or portals for external use.
• Hands-on with cloud-native infrastructure on GCP/AWS/Azure; observability basics.

Responsibilities

• Shape technical strategy for the Developer Portal and adjacent services.
• Lead design and implementation of APIs, SDKs, and agentic integrations.
• Collaborate with principal engineers, PMs, and cross-functional teams.
• Uphold API governance, versioning, backward compatibility and security.
• Mentor junior engineers through code reviews and design feedback.
• Participate in architecture discussions for scale and maintainability.
• Improve developer-facing docs, onboarding flows, and tooling.

Skills

Senior Engineering

Distributed Systems

Cloud-native

APIs

DX

Kubernetes

REST/GraphQL

Mentoring

Education

Bachelor's degree in CS/Engineering

Tools

GCP

AWS

Azure

Kubernetes

Helm

Git

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

The Developer Platform team is building the foundation for Workday's open developer ecosystem. We design and deliver the platform capabilities, APIs, SDKs, and developer-facing services that enable external developers and partners to build on Workday products—including Peakon, HiredScore, VNDLY, and more. Our mission is to make the platform reliable, extensible, and straightforward for developers to adopt and extend. We work closely with principal engineers, product managers, and cross-functional teams to turn platform growth goals into well-scoped, high-quality engineering work. We care deeply about technical craft, give direct and constructive feedback, and celebrate shipping capabilities that developers actually want to use. If you are energized by hands-on platform implementation, contributing to architecture decisions, and helping other engineers grow, you will find a collaborative team that values thoughtful execution and makes the work enjoyable along the way.

About the Role

As a Senior Development Engineer on the Developer Platform team, you will design and build core platform capabilities that advance Workday toward a more extensible, developer-friendly ecosystem. You will deliver high-impact technical work, contribute to architecture and API/SDK design, and collaborate across product and engineering teams to ship reliable, scalable services consumed by internal and external developers.

In this role, you will:

• Contribute to and execute on the technical strategy for the Workday Developer Portal and adjacent services, implementing platform capabilities that enable external developers and partners to build across Workday products.
• Lead design and implementation of key platform components—including APIs, SDKs, and agentic service integrations, with a strong emphasis on scalability, reliability, and developer experience.
• Collaborate closely with principal engineers, product managers, and cross-functional teams to translate platform growth goals into well-scoped, executable engineering work.
• Uphold API governance and engineering best practices within your team, including versioning, backward compatibility, and security standards for public-facing surfaces.
• Mentor junior and mid-level engineers through code review, design feedback, and pairing, and help raise the technical bar on the team.
• Participate in architectural discussions and contribute to build-vs-integrate decisions for platform components, with grounding in real-world tradeoffs of scale and maintainability.
• Support developer-facing documentation, onboarding flows, and tooling improvements that make the platform easier to adopt and extend.

About You

Basic Qualifications

• 8+ years of software engineering experience, including senior-level ownership of web or platform services in production.
• 4+ years experience designing, developing, and deploying distributed systems.
• Experience designing and building capabilities for developer platforms, developer portals, or other external-facing surfaces used by third-party developers or partners.
• Hands-on experience building and operating cloud-native services (for example on GCP, AWS, or Azure), including responsibility for availability, performance, and basic observability (logging, metrics, and alerting).
• Experience working with modern web technologies and APIs (for example, TypeScript/JavaScript, React, and REST/GraphQL) in a production environment.
• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or a related field, or equivalent practical experience.

Other Qualifications

• Clear understanding of developer experience (DX) as a quality bar, with the ability to apply that lens when making design and implementation decisions for platform capabilities.
• Hands-on expertise with cloud-native infrastructure and Kubernetes, including the ability to deploy, operate, and troubleshoot production services on GCP, AWS, or Azure.
• Strong API design fundamentals, including REST, GraphQL, OAuth 2.0/OIDC, and versioning best practices, with the ability to apply these to build reliable, well-documented public APIs.
• Demonstrated ability to lead technical work end-to-end within a team—from design through delivery, with minimal oversight and sound judgment on scope, tradeoffs, and quality.
• Experience building software consumed by external developers or partners in an enterprise SaaS environment, with an understanding of the reliability and compatibility expectations that public platform surfaces require.
• Experience mentoring engineers through code review, design feedback, and pairing, with the ability to raise the technical bar on a team through example and constructive guidance.
• AI & Agentic competency: You are an expert user of AI coding agents and modern AI developer tools, and you use them as a core part of your daily workflow to explore solutions, generate code, and refactor safely and follow emerging trends in AI developer tooling with clear, informed opinions about what works and why.
• Excellent communication skills, both verbal and written, with the ability to adapt style to different audiences and collaborate effectively across product, engineering, and developer-facing teams.

The following are advantageous but not required:

• Familiarity with enterprise HCM, talent, or workforce management domains.
• Experience working with developer portals, API catalogs, or self-serve onboarding tooling.
• Background in multi-product or multi-tenant SaaS environments.
• Interest in developer relations or technical writing, including contributing to docs, guides, or developer-facing content.
• Cloud certifications (GKE, AWS Solutions Architect, etc.).
• Hands-on experience with cloud development technologies and platforms (AWS, Kubernetes, Helm) is a plus.

Workday Pay Transparency Statement

Workday Pay Transparency Statement

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.

Primary Location: USA.CO.Boulder

Primary Location Base Pay Range: $168,500 USD - $252,700 USD

Additional US Location(s) Base Pay Range: $160,100 USD - $285,100 USD

Additional Considerations: The application deadline for this role is the same as the posting end date stated as below: 08/30/2026

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

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.

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