Software Development Engineer

Workday, Inc.; Pleasanton, Northern (CA, KY); Hybrid; USD 148,000 - 222,000; Full time

Job summary

Workday, Inc. in Pleasanton, CA, is seeking a seasoned backend engineer for the UI and Tooling Server team. You will design, build, and operate core backend services at the heart of Workday's Developer Platform, spanning JVM stack, Java/Kotlin, Spring Boot, AWS, and Kubernetes.

You will own features end to end—from API contract to production health—while collaborating with PMs, designers, and engineers to break down work and drive reliable, scalable results for thousands of developers.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or equivalent practical experience.
• 5+ years of software engineering with a focus on backend microservice architectures and distributed systems.
• 5+ years of experience with Java or Kotlin, Spring Boot, and cloud platforms (AWS preferred).
• 3+ years operating production services with observability, SLO-based alerting, and on-call.

Responsibilities

• Design and deliver backend microservices and developer-facing UI features end to end.
• Build and evolve well-governed public/internal APIs with versioning and security.
• Operate services in a cloud-native environment with metrics, logging, and alerting.

Skills

Backend microservices

Java

Kotlin

Spring Boot

AWS

Kubernetes

Observability

AI-augmented dev

Frontend basics

Education

Bachelor's degree in CS/Engineering

Tools

Docker

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

Developer Platform is on a mission to provide the tools and services that make the Workday platform open, extensible, and AI-native giving our customers and a growing ecosystem of external developers the freedom to build whatever their business needs on top of Workday. Within the Developer Platform, the UI and Tooling server team is the backend engineering team behind that platform. We own both sides of the developer journey: the build-time authoring experience, where developers design, validate, preview, and ship applications, and the runtime UI experience those applications deliver to their users. Our micro-services serve massive traffic across a global, multi-region Kubernetes fleet under the availability, latency, and compliance bar that enterprise customers demand. Stability, reliability, and resiliency are not a project we run here — they are in our DNA, and they shape how we design, build, and operate every service we own. We care deeply about developer experience, operational excellence, and using AI to remove friction in the products we ship and in the way we build them. You will own services end to end, work on distributed systems problems that are genuinely hard, and help shape how thousands of developers build on Workday's open platform.

About the Role

As an Engineer on the UI and Tooling Server team, you will design, build, and operate the backend services at the core of Workday's Developer Platform. You will work primarily across a JVM stack Java and Kotlin, Spring Boot running on AWS and Kubernetes owning features end to end — from API contract, to modern agentic user interface like A2UI, to production health.

In this role, you will:

• Design and deliver backend microservices and developer-facing UI features end to end, taking ownership from technical design through production rollout and ongoing operational health.
• Build and evolve well-governed public and internal APIs, applying versioning, backward compatibility, and security standards to surfaces that external developers depend on.
• Operate what you build in a cloud-native environment — instrumenting services with metrics, logging, and SLO-based alerting, and participating in on-call to keep a multi-cluster fleet healthy.
• Integrate AI and agentic capabilities into the platform, including large language model integrations, real-time streaming interfaces, and Model Context Protocol (MCP) based tooling.
• Use AI-augmented development tools as a daily part of your workflow, and help establish team practices for directing, reviewing, and validating agent-generated code.
• Partner with product managers, designers, and engineers across teams to break ambiguous requirements into well‑scoped, executable work, and clearly articulate technical tradeoffs to both technical and non‑technical stakeholders.
• Raise the technical bar through code review, design feedback, pairing, and strong test automation, and write clear technical documentation for the features you own.

About You Required Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or equivalent practical experience.
• 5+ years of software engineering with a strong focus on backend microservice architectures and distributed systems.
• 5+ years of experience in each of the following: Programming: Java or Kotlin, with production Spring Boot experience. Go is a plus. Cloud platforms: AWS (preferred), GCP, or Azure. Containerization and orchestration: Docker and Kubernetes. 3+ years operating production services you own — including observability (metrics, logging, tracing), SLO-based alerting, and on-call. Hands‑on experience with AI-augmented development (e.g., Cursor, Claude Code, GitHub Copilot), including the ability to direct, review, and validate agent-generated code.
• Other Qualification Deep backend proficiency in Java or Kotlin, with strong command of design patterns, distributed systems, and high‑availability architecture. A reliability mindset: you have designed for failure, capacity, and graceful degradation on services that carry real production traffic. Expert API development and contract management, including versioning, backward compatibility, and familiarity with modern protocols (e.g., MCP) to support a spec‑driven development approach. Service ownership: end‑to‑end accountability for operational health, test automation, CI/CD pipelines, and cloud-native observability. Hands‑on experience integrating AI capabilities into software products, not only using AI tools to write code. 1+ years of experience building modern frontend UIs (e.g., React, Angular, or Vue), sufficient to own a feature from API through UI. Strong collaborator and communicator — able to partner with PMs, designers, and engineers to break work down and clearly articulate technical tradeoffs to both technical and non‑technical stakeholders. Experience with developer platforms, DevTools, language servers, or other core engineering platforms is a plus.

Workday Pay Transparency Statement

Primary Location: USA.CA.Pleasanton

Primary Location Base Pay Range: $148,000 USD - $222,000 USD

Additional US Location(s) Base Pay Range: $123,900 USD - $222,000 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.

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