Distinguished Architect

Workday•Pleasanton, CA

5d•Hybrid

About The Position

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 Workday is the enterprise AI platform for managing people, money, and agents, developing and deploying a wide range of business applications powered by our core architecture. The Core Services Architecture team performs deep research, completes cutting-edge proofs of concept, and provides technical oversight and mentorship, all with the goal of defining the future of Workday’s core platform and Agentic AI ecosystem. If you appreciate the challenge of transforming a proven, production-hardened architecture to: - Integrate and scale intelligent agents across the platform (e.g., for recruiting, learning, financial close, and contract intelligence). Improve resilience, availability, and efficiency by orders of magnitude in support of our Enterprise customers. - Empower an organization of 1,000s of application developers to build agent-enabled experiences. - Unlock new business growth opportunities by leveraging newly acquired capabilities (e.g., from Sana, Paradox, and Evisort), then this role could be a great fit. About the Role As a member of the Core Services Architecture team, the Distinguished Architect will work with innovative and experienced engineers to design the projects that will help define the future of the core Workday architecture—transforming it from a system of record into an intelligent system of action. You will take on the challenge of architecting the underlying infrastructure to support massive scale, zero downtime, and the operationalization of a multi-agent environment, all while optimizing operational costs.

Requirements

The ideal candidate is an experienced technologist who can work both independently and across teams.
Skilled or has potential to excel in advanced implementations including distributed systems, application platforms, and persistence and operations at scale, with an added focus on AI infrastructure.
Experienced in enterprise scale production rollout and support.
20+ years of software engineering and architecture experience with a proven track record of delivering enterprise class, mission-critical products.
10+ years of distributed system architecture and design, including leadership positions within high profile, large scale, mission critical projects.
Proven ability to communicate and influence at the highest executive levels (C-Suite and SVP/GM), distilling complex technical concepts into clear, strategic business language.
Critical thinker. Able to analyze others’ ideas and provide constructive feedback including alternative approaches.
Be comfortable driving innovation and change while also taking responsibility for the continued success of our Production system and customers.
Proven ability to take a leadership role in complex, multi-team projects that have direct impact on Workday's long-term platform strategy.
Superb written and verbal communication and presentation skills required for engaging with both engineering teams and executive leadership.
Expert in areas of enterprise software including highly available distributed systems, public cloud platforms, open standards, best practices, implementing at scale, and data integrity and regulatory issues.
Advanced knowledge of in-memory databases, metadata driven development, and metadata oriented architecture.
BS in Computer Science or related fields.

Nice To Haves

Graduate degree is a bonus.
Demonstrated experience in designing and scaling platforms for Agentic AI, GenAI, or LLM-based applications in an enterprise environment.
Deep understanding of conversational AI, retrieval-augmented generation (RAG), and the architecture required for autonomous or semi-autonomous software agents.
Experience in database design and/or implementation.
Experience using or building distributed systems with an understanding of scalability, data integrity, and performance.
Experience with Java.
Ability to mentor/teach others and champion new technologies like agentic frameworks across the engineering organization.

Responsibilities

Serve as a primary technical advisor and subject matter expert on core platform architecture and Agentic AI strategies for the CEO, the President of Product & Technology, and the Senior Vice President/General Manager Platform.
Articulate and defend highly complex architectural visions and technical roadmaps to the most senior executive leaders, linking technical investment to clear business outcomes and competitive advantage.
Drive and influence executive-level decisions regarding large-scale architectural transformations, strategic acquisitions, and the long-term direction of Workday's technology platform.
Participate in and help drive the design of Workday’s future architecture, with a significant focus on the Agentic AI Platform (Workday Illuminate).
Provide complete architectural oversight for how we design, implement, and integrate the infrastructure required to host and scale Intelligent Agents (e.g., conversational AI, workflow automation agents).
Define the architecture for integrating and standardizing technology from key acquisitions (such as Sana's enterprise knowledge tools, Paradox's conversational recruiting agent, and Evisort's contract intelligence) into the Workday core platform.
Collaborate with product and engineering teams to define the architecture for governed, explainable, and trustworthy AI that operates on Workday's proprietary data.
Produce high-quality design documents and architecture drawings for distributed systems, emphasizing high availability, performance, and the security of AI workflows.
Be responsible for system performance and stability, with a focus on optimizing the latency and cost associated with large-scale, agent-mediated workflows and LLM interactions.
Provide technical guidance and mentorship to senior and junior developers on modern architectural patterns, including agentic design and workflow orchestration.
Lead and participate in design reviews across the entire engineering organization, ensuring alignment with executive strategic intent.