Principal Cybersecurity Engineer

Workday•Reston, VA

2d•€104,000 - €156,000•Hybrid

About The Position

The Principal Cybersecurity Engineer is a key technical leader responsible for defining and driving the strategic direction and implementation of security controls across the organization's infrastructure. This role requires deep technical expertise in infrastructure security and strong coding/automation skills to industrialize compliance and security processes. The Principal Engineer is expected to lead complex projects, mentor junior staff, and significantly influence security governance decisions. Workday is paving the road forward with how we build, package, deploy and secure our tools and services. We're using the latest technologies to build platforms and services to support our growth while also ensuring the protection of Workday data and infrastructure is paramount. The Workday Cybersecurity Governance, Risk, Compliance & Trust team builds and sustains trust in Workday's cybersecurity commitments by embedding a cybersecurity-first mindset, delivering cybersecurity assurance and enabling business growth. We act as trusted advisors and change agents across Workday to protect the data of our fellow Workmates and 8000+ customers.

Requirements

10+ years of distinguished, progressive experience in security engineering and architecture, with a demonstrable track record of setting technical vision, leading security architecture for large-scale, complex systems, and driving enterprise-wide security transformations.
Highly proficient in architecting, implementing, evolving, and securing complex, mission-critical services and infrastructure across multiple major cloud service providers (e.g., AWS, GCP, Azure) and large-scale enterprise environments.
Pioneering understanding and application of cloud security principles, advanced architectural patterns, and emerging technologies, with a history of defining and implementing industry-leading security controls.
Strong proficiency in at least one scripting language (e.g., Python, Go, Bash, Ruby) with the ability to develop automation for security operations, configuration management, and compliance.
Unparalleled expertise and recognized authority in multiple core security domains (e.g., network security, platform hardening, application security, data protection, identity and access management, cryptography) and their strategic interplay in complex, distributed ecosystems.

Nice To Haves

Globally recognized industry certifications (e.g., AWS Certified Security - Specialty, Google Professional Cloud Security Engineer, Certified Kubernetes Administrator (CKA), Certified Kubernetes Security Specialist (CKS), CISSP, CISM, CCSP) and/or significant contributions to the security field (e.g., patents, influential open-source projects, published research).
Authoritative expertise in the secure-by-design architecture of Generative AI and Agentic systems. Proven ability to design secure Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) pipelines, govern multi-agent orchestrations, and establish robust identity, memory, and authorization boundaries for autonomous AI workloads.
Expertise in advanced threat modeling, designing intrinsically secure systems and building resilient architectures against nation-state level actors or equivalent advanced persistent threats.
Proven ability to set strategy, drive adoption, and govern sophisticated, secure-by-design automation and Infrastructure as Code (IaC) paradigms across an entire engineering organization.
Authoritative expertise in defining security strategy and architectural best practices for specialized, large-scale systems such as distributed databases, big data platforms, AI/ML pipelines, and high-performance computing environments.
Transformational leadership in embedding security deeply and pervasively into the engineering culture and practices (DevSecOps at scale) across a large, agile organization.
Exceptional ability to articulate a compelling vision, influence and align executive leadership (VPs, C-suite), and inspire large technical teams and entire organizations. Proven ability to represent the company and its security posture externally with authority and credibility.
Significant contributions to the security industry (e.g., influential publications, standards body participation, development of widely adopted security tools or frameworks).
Proven ability to innovate and create new security capabilities, services, or products that deliver substantial business value and risk reduction.
Exceptional communication, presentation, and interpersonal skills with the ability to influence and align senior leadership, diverse engineering teams, and non-technical stakeholders.
Proven ability to analyze complex technical security problems and propose pragmatic, business-enabling solutions.
Ability to lead technical security initiatives end-to-end, from conceptual design through successful implementation.
Exceptional ability to communicate highly technical security risks and compliance requirements into clear, quantitative business terms for executive leadership.

Responsibilities

Champion the principle of translating security policies directly into testable, automated code to ensure non-bypassable compliance.
Conceptualize, architect, and champion the adoption of groundbreaking, enterprise-wide security architectures and strategic initiatives that address current and future threats at massive scale.
Lead applied research and innovation in security, anticipating future threats, evaluating disruptive technologies, and pioneering novel solutions to maintain Workday's security posture.
Establish, govern, and evolve the highest-level security architectural standards, principles, and patterns across the organization, ensuring their rigorous application and measurable effectiveness.
Mentor, inspire, and cultivate other engineers and senior technical leaders across Workday; drive a culture of profound security understanding, innovation, and accountability.
Advise executive leadership (VPs, Directors, C-suite) on critical security risks, strategic investments, and the company's overall security posture. Lead and unify security efforts across disparate engineering organizations on high-impact initiatives.
Solve the most complex, ambiguous, and high-stakes security challenges that require novel approaches and deep, multi-disciplinary expertise, often with company-wide implications.
Drive transformative security improvements across Workday’s people, processes, and technology.