Software Development Engineer - AI Infrastructure Development Platform

Workday; Colorado; On-site; USD 120,000 - 190,000; Full time

Job summary

Workday in Colorado is seeking a Software Development Engineer to join the AI Infrastructure Platform team. You will design backend services in Python, run distributed systems on Kubernetes, and help scale AI-powered workflows across the SDLC.

You’ll collaborate with data scientists, platform engineers, product managers, and other developers to deliver production-ready tooling, observability, and developer experiences that accelerate delivery for millions of users.

Qualifications

• 3+ years of software development experience building backend systems or services.
• Strong proficiency in Python (or similar languages such as Go or Java).
• Experience designing and building distributed systems and scalable services.
• Experience running and operating services in Kubernetes-based environments.
• Familiarity with machine learning or LLM-powered applications and the challenges of running them in production, especially related to their deployment and operational tooling.
• Experience designing systems with a focus on reliability, scalability, observability, and maintainability.
• Strong understanding of APIs, asynchronous processing, and service-oriented architecture.

Responsibilities

• Build and maintain services and tooling that support agent deployment, testing, and lifecycle management within the CI/CD pipeline.
• Develop systems for workflow coordination, state management, and tool integration in the context of development and operations.
• Write high-quality, maintainable code in Python to power platform capabilities and APIs.
• Deploy and operate services on Kubernetes, ensuring reliability and scalability.
• Contribute to systems for observability, logging, tracing, and debugging of distributed workflows in development and production.
• Improve system performance across latency, throughput, and fault tolerance.
• Build internal tools and APIs that improve the developer experience for teams using the platform.
• Collaborate with engineers, product managers, and AI teams to deliver production-ready solutions and development infrastructure.
• Participate in design discussions and contribute to system architecture and technical decisions.

Skills

Python

Distributed systems

Kubernetes

APIs

ML familiarity

Education

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

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

Do you want to build impactful, AI features and solutions that will be used by millions of end-users? We are in the AI Platform organization at Workday and we solve meaningful problems that lie at the intersection of machine learning and enterprise-scale software! We build advanced AI solutions that power the core Workday software by modeling user behavior and providing intelligent automation. Come join us and make it easier and balanced for millions of Workday users!

About the Role

We are looking for Software Development Engineers to help build the AI Infrastructure Development Platform: the platform that enables teams to develop, deploy, and operate AI agents in production. In this role, you will design and implement backend services, systems, and tooling that support the Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC) for AI applications. You’ll work on problems spanning distributed systems, orchestration, and developer experience, helping teams reliably build, test, and scale AI-powered workflows. This is a great opportunity for an engineer who enjoys building production systems, solving complex technical problems, and working at the intersection of platform engineering and AI.

Key Responsibilities:

• Build and maintain services and tooling that support agent deployment, testing, and lifecycle management within the CI/CD pipeline.
• Develop systems for workflow coordination, state management, and tool integration in the context of development and operations.
• Write high-quality, maintainable code in Python to power platform capabilities and APIs.
• Deploy and operate services on Kubernetes, ensuring reliability and scalability.
• Contribute to systems for observability, logging, tracing, and debugging of distributed workflows in development and production.
• Improve system performance across latency, throughput, and fault tolerance.
• Build internal tools and APIs that improve the developer experience for teams using the platform.
• Collaborate with engineers, product managers, and AI teams to deliver production-ready solutions and development infrastructure.
• Participate in design discussions and contribute to system architecture and technical decisions.

About You

Basic Qualifications:

• 3+ years of software development experience building backend systems or services.
• Strong proficiency in Python (or similar languages such as Go or Java).
• Experience designing and building distributed systems and scalable services.
• Experience running and operating services in Kubernetes-based environments.
• Familiarity with machine learning or LLM-powered applications and the challenges of running them in production, especially related to their deployment and operational tooling.
• Experience designing systems with a focus on reliability, scalability, observability, and maintainability.
• Strong understanding of APIs, asynchronous processing, and service-oriented architecture.
• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or related discipline, or equivalent practical experience.

Other Qualifications:

• Ability to navigate ambiguity, make sound technical decisions, and drive projects end-to-end.
• Strong collaboration and communication skills.
• Experience working on platforms, infrastructure, or developer tooling.
• Familiarity with workflow orchestration or multi-step processing systems.
• Experience with monitoring, logging, and observability tools.
• Familiarity with cloud platforms and modern deployment practices (CI/CD).
• Experience building or supporting platforms, developer infrastructure, or internal tooling.
• Experience with agent-based systems, workflow orchestration, or complex multi-step pipelines from an infrastructure or SDLC perspective.
• Exposure to LLM-based applications or agent-style architectures.
• Familiarity with LLM application patterns, such as: Tool integration, Retrieval-augmented generation (RAG), Context and memory management and/or Multi-step workflows.
• Experience with observability stacks, tracing systems, and debugging distributed workflows.
• Familiarity with model serving, vector databases, or evaluation frameworks in the context of MLOps.
• Experience mentoring engineers and contributing to technical direction.

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 compre