Sr. Principal Software Developer, AI Experience

Dayforce; Northern (KY); Hybrid; USD 180,000 - 240,000; Full time

Job summary

Dayforce is seeking a Sr. Principal Software Developer, AI Experience to lead and scale AI-enabled engineering practices. You will own reusable AI agent skills, contexts, and standards, collaborating with cross-functional teams to operationalize AI-assisted workflows in real codebases.

The role emphasizes architectural thinking, hands-on implementation, and production-grade patterns to enable engineers to ship reliable AI-powered features while maintaining quality and governance.

Qualifications

• Strong software engineering background with production systems.
• Hands-on with agentic coding tools and AI-assisted development.
• Experience with CI/CD pipelines and testing practices.
• Experience with prompts, retrieval strategies, memory/state patterns.
• Design reusable agent skills with defined contracts and safeguards.
• Ability to define engineering standards, guardrails, and evaluation frameworks.

Responsibilities

• Own and evolve reusable skill design patterns and coding artifact standards.
• Define how agent context is structured across repositories and pipelines.
• Design reusable context patterns including prompts and memory strategies.
• Establish guardrails and standards for responsible AI-assisted development.
• Build and maintain reusable AI agent skills, templates, and guides.
• Define production-readiness standards for reusable skills.
• Partner with development teams to operationalize AI-assisted workflows.
• Establish standards for AI engineering artifacts and workflow patterns.
• Define evaluation criteria for scalable AI engineering capabilities.
• Build data-driven visibility into AI-assisted development ROI.
• Define scalable implementation standards for AI engineering adoption.
• Partner with platform teams and vendors on tooling integration.
• Help evolve the AI Engineering enablement operating model.

Skills

Software engineering

AI/LLM tooling

CI/CD pipelines

Context engineering

Documentation

Team collaboration

Tools

LLM tooling

Agentic tools

Job description

Sr. Principal Software Developer, AI Experience

United States

Job Description

Posted Wednesday, August 19, 2026 at 5:00 AM | Expires Tuesday, October 20, 2026 at 4:59 AM

Dayforce is a global human capital management (HCM) company headquartered in Toronto, Ontario, and Minneapolis, Minnesota, with operations across North America, Europe, Middle East, Africa (EMEA), and the Asia Pacific Japan (APJ) region.

Our award-winning Cloud HCM platform offers a unified solution database and continuous calculation engine, driving efficiency, productivity and compliance for the global workforce.

Our brand prom ise - Makes Work Life Better ™ - Reflects our co mmitment to employees, customers, partners and communities globally.

About the Opportunity

Dayforce is building an AI Developer Experience team within Engineering to scale high-quality, agentic development practices across the organization. This team transforms early-stage experimentation into durable, reusable engineering capabilities that development teams can adopt in real codebases under real delivery pressure. The Staff Developer, AI Experience is a senior hands‑on engineering role and a key contributor to the broader AI Engineering strategy. This role focuses on building the systems, standards, workflows, and reusable development capabilities that enable engineers to work more effectively with AI-assisted and agentic coding tools. The role combines architectural thinking with hands‑on implementation, helping define scalable engineering patterns while working directly within repositories and delivery environments to operationalize modern AI‑driven development practices.

What You’ll Get to Do

• Own and evolve reusable skill design patterns and coding artifact standards that drive AI‑assisted development effectiveness across Engineering.
• Define how agent context is structured, scoped, and maintained across repositories, toolchains, and delivery pipelines.
• Design reusable context patterns including prompts, retrieval strategies, memory/state patterns, and tool exposure configurations.
• Establish practical guardrails and standards that reduce failure modes and support responsible AI‑assisted development adoption.
• Build and maintain reusable AI agent skills, workflows, templates, scaffolding, and implementation guides.
• Define production‑readiness standards for reusable skills including contracts, triggers, evaluation coverage, failure handling, and documentation.
• Partner directly with development teams to operationalize AI‑assisted workflows in repositories, testing practices, and engineering delivery processes.
• Establish standards for emerging engineering artifacts such as AI‑assisted specifications, implementation plans, and workflow patterns.
• Define evaluation and adoption criteria for scalable AI engineering capabilities including reliability, engineering value, and maintainability.
• Build data‑driven visibility into AI‑assisted development outcomes and ROI across Engineering.
• Define scalable implementation standards that support consistent and lightweight AI engineering adoption.
• Partner with internal platform teams and external vendors on tooling integration, feedback, and capability evolution.
• Help establish and evolve the AI Engineering enablement operating model including priorities, success metrics, and organizational scaling strategies.

Skills and Experience We Value

• Strong software engineering background with experience delivering and operating complex production systems.
• Hands‑on experience using agentic coding tools and AI‑assisted development workflows on real engineering problems.
• Experience implementing developer workflows across repositories, testing frameworks, CI/CD pipelines, and delivery processes.
• Experience with context engineering including prompts, retrieval strategies, memory/state patterns, and LLM tooling configurations.
• Experience designing reusable agent skills with defined contracts, evaluation coverage, and operational safeguards.
• Demonstrated ability to define engineering standards, guardrails, and evaluation frameworks that improve consistency and quality across teams.
• Experience partnering directly with development teams to implement shared engineering practices.
• Strong technical judgment distinguishing scalable engineering practices from experimental concepts.
• Experience working across organizational boundaries to improve engineering effectiveness and implementation consistency.
• Excellent written communication skills with the ability to translate emerging technical practices into actionable engineering guidance.

What Would Make You Stand Out

• Experience building AI engineering enablement programs at scale.
• Strong understanding of LLM evaluation methodologies and operational reliability patterns.
• Demonstrated ability to influence engineering standards and adoption across large organizations.
• Strong understanding of balancing experimentation, governance, scalability, and developer productivity in AI‑assisted engineering environments.

What’s in it for you

Dayforce is fueled by the diversity of our talented employees. We are an equal opportunity employer and consider and embrace ALL individuals and what makes them unique. We believe our employees should be happy and healthy, with peace of mind and a sense of fulfillment.

We encourage individuals to apply based on their passions.

Dayforce encourages personal and professional growth. We offer excellent time away from work programs, comprehensive wellness initiatives and recognition through competitive pay and benefits.

With a commitment to community impact, including volunteer days and our charity, Dayforce Cares we provide opportunities for you to thrive both in your career and personal life. Our focus is not just on your job but on supporting you to be the best version of yourself.

About the Salary Ranges

Please note that the salary range mentioned in this job description should serve simply as a guide. The final compensation offered may vary based on a variety of factors, including bonuses and/or incentives, or a candidate’s experience, skills, budget and location. Our company is committed to providing a fair, equitable, and competitive package that reflects the value an individual brings to the organization.