Principal Developer Relations Engineer

Workday•Pleasanton, CA

7d•$150,500 - $267,400•Hybrid

About The Position

The Developer Relations Engineering (DRE) team is one of the driving forces behind a productive, well-enabled developer ecosystem at Workday. Working within the Outbound Developer Platform organization alongside Outbound Product Management and Developer Relations, DRE brings a specialized, hands-on technical expertise rooted in building and developing on the platform itself — creating samples, frameworks, and demos, and translating complex capabilities into practical guidance that developers and internal teams depend on. This depth of engineering experience ensures that the platform's capabilities are not just understood, but actively put to use in the real world. The DRE team sits at the forefront of one of the most significant shifts in Workday's history. As the developer ecosystem evolves from building traditional apps and integrations to building agents, agentic apps, and integrations designed for the agentic landscape, DRE is leading the way in helping developers embrace new AI tooling like Developer Agent and Agent Ready Tools, bring these capabilities together to build solutions faster, and champion responsible AI usage. DRE serves as a critical part of the feedback loop with Workday's product and engineering teams through programs like Early Adopter engagements, and is the engine that enables front-line resources, most notably the Forward Deployed Engineers, to lead the field in the AI shift with Workday's most strategic customers. At the same time, Workday is opening the developer experience more than ever before, and DRE plays a central role in making the platform an enticing place for developers to grow their careers and deepen their skills. What makes this team special is its deeply hands-on culture. Every member comes from an implementer or developer background, which means the team does not just understand what the product is capable of, they know how to build with it. The team embraces every challenge thrown its way, takes tremendous pride in their work, and has a genuine sense of unity. Team members reprioritize to help one another and ensure everyone succeeds, whether they are directly involved in each other's initiatives or not.

Requirements

10+ years of related work experience in developer relations, developer enablement, technical consulting, platform engineering, or a related technical field.
Hands-on experience applying AI-powered tools within developer workflows to accelerate development and improve outcomes.
Skilled communicator, with the ability to exchange complex technical information clearly across a range of audiences from developers and engineers to product leaders and customer-facing teams.
Experienced in managing relationships across multiple groups, with a demonstrated ability to identify the needs and expectations of diverse partners including product, engineering, sales, services, and customer teams, and to develop communication approaches that build alignment and facilitate engagement in cross-organizational programs.
Forward-looking and analytical, with the ability to generate and apply unique insights about the developer ecosystem and platform landscape to identify opportunities, anticipate challenges, and develop plans that align with Workday's long-term goals.
Creative, resourceful, and willing to explore beyond familiar tools and processes, with the ability to develop and implement new ideas, approaches, and solutions that create value for the developer community.
Deeply empathetic toward the developer experience, with a natural ability to understand the perspective, needs, and challenges of developers and customers.
Highly organized and adaptable, with a demonstrated ability to manage multiple projects, priorities, and responsibilities at the same time.
Excellent written and verbal communication skills, with the ability to create compelling technical content including samples, demos, guided activities, and documentation.

Responsibilities

Enabling Forward Deployed Engineers and other front-line roles on both existing and emerging Developer Platform capabilities, with a particular focus on the newest AI features so they can position and solution the platform appropriately with Workday's most strategic customers.
Running and supporting Early Adopter programs for emerging product features. This includes coordinating across Developer Platform, AI Platform, and Product Development Engineering to ensure EA programs are run effectively, products are thoroughly tested in real-world customer environments, and constructive feedback is curated for product teams prior to general availability.
Ensuring that EA participants receive the enablement and support necessary to use and test EA products, driving positive outcomes that include successful testing, actionable product feedback, and customer success stories for marketing use at launch.
Helping the developer community understand how to bring together agents, agentic apps, integrations, and AI tooling to build solutions faster — guiding them through the shift from a closed-wall approach to an open, flexible development model while championing responsible AI usage.
Building and curating high-quality technical samples, frameworks, and demos that showcase Workday's platform capabilities, including Extend, Orchestrate, Data Cloud, custom agents, agentic apps, and AI-powered tooling such as Developer Agent, Workday MCP, and Agent Ready Tools. You will maintain these assets over time, keeping them current with the latest best practices and technical capabilities.
Creating guided activities and hands-on technical content for Express Labs, Very Live Demos, and conference sessions at DevCon and Rising, as well as supporting Hackathon events with relevant technical samples, guidance, and expertise.
Presenting on Developer Deep Dive calls, contributing to Developer Forums, and leading enablement sessions for sales, services, Forward Deployed Engineers (FDEs), and other customer-facing teams.