Principal Software Development Engineer

Your work days are brighter here.

At Workday, it all began with a conversation over breakfast. When our founders met at a sunny California diner, they came up with an idea to revolutionize the enterprise software market. And when we began to rise, one thing that really set us apart was our culture. A culture which was driven by our value of putting our people first. And ever since, the happiness, development, and contribution of every Workmate is central to who we are. Our Workmates believe a healthy employee-centric, collaborative culture is the essential mix of ingredients for success in business. That’s why we look after our people, communities and the planet while still being profitable. Feel encouraged to shine, however that manifests: you don’t need to hide who you are. You can feel the energy and the passion, it's what makes us unique. Inspired to make a brighter work day for all and transform with us to the next stage of our growth journey? Bring your brightest version of you and have a brighter work day here.

At Workday, we value our candidates’ privacy and data security.  Workday will never ask candidates to apply to jobs through websites that are not Workday Careers. 

  

Please be aware of sites that may ask for you to input your data in connection with a job posting that appears to be from Workday but is not.

  

In addition, Workday will never ask candidates to pay a recruiting fee, or pay for consulting or coaching services, in order to apply for a job at Workday.

About the Team

The Productivity Technology team primarily builds platform systems and components to support our Application pillars. We own and advocate for effective platforms, frameworks, and products. We use a wide range of technologies to achieve our objectives, and need to influence their direction, help our teams with effective adoption, and ultimately create great experiences for our users while also maintaining the pace of innovation with our development teams. Many of our platforms and frameworks are used extensively across Workday, and we continue to look for ways to break down technical barriers and strengthen our existing systems.

About the Role

As a principal engineer, you will operate across the Productivity Technology organization and partner with other organizations and product development teams. You will work with collaborators to ensure alignment between the organizations and our product teams, and contribute directly to key strategic efforts. You will model and mentor technical talent across Productivity Technology to ensure operational concerns are influential across our organization. You will have a chance to have a very broad strategic impact across engineers and make a difference to our business.

About You

Basic Qualifications

• 10+ years of experience in back-end software development.

• Experiencing architecting, designing, and developing distributed systems.

• Experience in technical leadership and setting technical direction for engineering projects.

• Experience operating complex systems in production.
   

Other Qualifications

• Experience collaborating effectively across organizational boundaries, building relationships, and importing and exporting ideas to achieve broad organizational goals.

• Excellent problem solving, negotiation, and organizational skills.

• Strong written and verbal communications skills that drive executional impact at scale.

• Strong understanding of alerting, monitoring, and analytics, and how to use these to drive business outcomes.

• Experience delivering complex services end to end with creativity in the face of ambiguity, imperfect data.

• Leads and delivers on the long-term vision by understanding the big picture context and owning the business outcome.

• Displays original, creative thinking when faced with technical roadblocks.

• Stays ahead of the industry technology and business trends. Actively drives product, technology and engineering process innovation to help us lead the market.

• Explores promising new technologies that could positively impact future products and business direction for the company.

• Proactively Identifies bottlenecks and improvements across the Workday platform to improve the customer experience.

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, please click here.

Primary Location: USA.CO.Boulder

 

Primary Location Base Pay Range: $179,200 USD - $268,800 USD

 

Additional US Location(s) Base Pay Range: $170,200 USD - $302,400 USD

If performed in Colorado, the pay range for this job is $179,200 - $268,800 USD based on min and max pay range for that role if performed in CO.

07/11/2025

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.

Are you being referred to one of our roles? If so, ask your connection at Workday about our Employee Referral process!