Distinguished Engineer

Workday•Pleasanton, CA

4d•$247,000 - $434,800•Hybrid

About The Position

The Office of CTO sits at the cross-cutting layer of Workday's engineering organization. Our mission is to extend the reach of architectural direction by turning it into working code. We build steel-thread prototypes, reference implementations, and proof-of-concept systems that explore early ideas, shape technical decisions, and inform standards adoption across the Workday technology stack, with a growing focus on agentic systems. If you are energized by the opportunity to explore what is possible with Workday's platform and the agent stack on top of it — writing code, shipping prototypes, and leaving behind patterns that other teams pick up and run with — this is the team for you. Everything we do is in service of driving Workday's platform forward. As a Distinguished Engineer in the Office of CTO, you will be the engineer who turns architectural direction into working artifacts. This role exists to extend the reach of Workday's Chief Architect and CTO organization by producing the code, prototypes, and reference implementations that keep cross-cutting technical conversations grounded in what actually runs. You will report to a people leader in the Office of CTO and take technical direction from Workday's Chief Architect. You will collaborate closely with the CTO's Senior Principal Product Strategist and with the Area Tech Lead network across the platform engineering organization. You will join standing forums with Workday's CTO, Chief Architect, and CTO Office team where direction is set and progress is reviewed.

Requirements

18+ years of software engineering experience, with extensive time spent as a hands-on individual contributor designing, building, and operating production systems at enterprise scale across multiple technology domains
Deep and broad expertise in distributed systems, API design, data modeling, and multi-tenant SaaS architecture, with a demonstrated ability to shape the architectural direction of an engineering organization — not just follow it
Security-first mindset — you treat authentication, authorization, tenant isolation, and data protection as foundational design constraints, and you have a history of embedding these principles into the systems and standards that other engineers adopt
Sustained ability to take highly ambiguous, organization-level technical challenges and independently drive them to resolution through working code — scoping steel threads, shipping them, and establishing the patterns that inform broader adoption
A well-established record of producing reference implementations, platform tooling, and architectural patterns that have been adopted at scale across multiple teams or organizations, shaping how other engineers build
Exceptional written and verbal communication — you set the standard for technical documentation, and your patterns, HOWTOs, and reference materials are used as exemplars across the engineering organization
Mastery of the full software development lifecycle — from conception and design through programming, testing, and long-term maintenance — with the ability to set engineering standards, define best practices, and elevate the quality of software development across the organization
Expert-level algorithmic thinking, with the ability to design, implement, and critically analyze complex solutions, and to guide other engineers in applying efficient, well-reasoned approaches to novel and ambiguous problems
Extensive experience in API development, including architecting interfaces that serve as organizational standards, defining API governance practices, and ensuring security, scalability, and long-term maintainability across a broad portfolio of systems
Mastery of code testing strategy — unit, integration, functional, and regression — with the ability to define and champion testing standards that improve software quality, reliability, and engineering confidence across teams
Expert proficiency in object-oriented design principles, with a history of establishing reusable, well-structured component architectures that other teams adopt as models for their own work
Extensive experience with source control management at organizational scale, including defining branching strategies, establishing contribution workflows, and maintaining codebase integrity across large, distributed engineering teams
A natural collaborator and connector who operates effectively across organizational boundaries, builds trusted relationships with senior technical and executive leaders, and fosters an inclusive, high-trust environment where engineers at all levels contribute their best work
Expert-level technical writing and documentation skills, with the ability to create comprehensive architectural guides, pattern libraries, and reference materials that establish organizational standards and enable broad adoption without direct involvement

Nice To Haves

Deep, hands-on experience with agent architectures, LLM integration, and AI-native application patterns, including fluency with protocols such as MCP, A2A, and equivalent emerging standards (preferred)
Deep, hands-on experience with public cloud platforms (AWS and/or GCP), including the ability to design cloud-native infrastructure, evaluate platform capabilities, and ship production-quality prototypes across multi-cloud environments (preferred)
Deep familiarity with Workday's internal stack: OMS, XO, Business Process framework, Domain Security Policies (expected for internal candidates)
Demonstrated ability to rapidly evaluate and integrate unfamiliar technologies — reading specifications, spinning up tooling, and delivering a working integration in days — with a reputation for being the person the organization turns to when speed and technical judgment are both essential (preferred)

Responsibilities

Taking ambiguous, one-line problem statements and turning them into working MVPs. You will receive asks like "show whether X is feasible" or "demonstrate what an agent-native version of Y looks like," and the work of scoping, resolving technical conflicts, and shipping a working artifact is yours to own.
Building steel-thread prototypes and proof-of-concept systems that validate cross-cutting architectural decisions and inform standards adoption before product teams commit resources.
Producing reference implementations for paved paths defined by the Workday Technical Council — converting architectural guidance into adoptable artifacts such as working code, runnable HOWTOs, and pattern libraries.
Developing and demonstrating AI-native development practices for Workday engineering, showing what is possible with current tooling and where the boundaries are.
Running parallel engineering efforts on cross-organization initiatives that no single product team owns, carrying prototypes from concept to working system fast enough to keep architectural conversations grounded.
Partnering with product teams adopting paved paths. When teams encounter friction, you help debug it alongside them.
Contributing to the Chief Architect's priority stack as a hands-on engineer: technical diligence on candidate platforms, deep evaluations of vendor or M&A targets, and fast turnaround on questions that need code to answer.
Mentoring IC engineers across Workday on the patterns and practices you develop, multiplying your impact through the work others build on top of yours.