Principal Software Development Engineer - Data Cloud

Workday•Pleasanton, CA

1d•Hybrid

About The Position

As part of Workday’s Data Platform Engineering organization, the Principal Software Development Engineer will build and enhance Workday’s Data Cloud. The role leads an engineering team in architecting and building features across distributed ingestion, query processing, transaction processing, and storage engines. It focuses on data management and distributed data-processing frameworks and algorithms, with attention to performance, scalability, and reliability. The engineer will build infrastructure for high-performance processing of large data volumes while keeping the product simple and easy to use, and will turn ideas into high-quality implementations that help customers succeed. The Data Cloud organization is working to build a platform for agents by using Workday’s business context, trusted data, and identity guardrails to support AI and agentic workflows across the enterprise.

Requirements

10+ years of experience using Java, Scala, C++, Go, or Rust.
5+ years of development experience in relevant areas such as database internals, distributed-system applications, JVM performance tuning, or Cloud/SaaS services.
Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science or a relevant field, or a master’s degree in Computer Science or a relevant field.
Strong understanding of SQL.
Passion for software development and use of well-defined abstractions.
Ability to clearly articulate the value of solutions to stakeholders.
Interest in leading an engineering team.

Nice To Haves

Background in data warehousing, database system internals, and/or distributed systems.
Expertise in distributed data-processing engines or data-management systems.
Expertise in cloud computing services such as GCP or AWS, Kubernetes, and/or Linux.
Expertise in one or more of Apache Spark and Spark SQL internals, Apache Iceberg and zero-copy architectures, Apache Polaris, Trino, MySQL, PostgreSQL, or DuckDB.
Interest in learning and teaching data-management and distributed data-processing systems and algorithms.
Ability to learn quickly and explore new technical areas, languages, and frameworks.

Responsibilities

Build and enhance Workday’s Data Cloud.
Lead an engineering team in architecting and building features for distributed ingestion, query processing, transaction processing, and storage engines.
Develop infrastructure for high-performance processing of large volumes of data.
Address performance, scalability, and reliability in data-management and distributed-processing algorithms.
Keep the overall product simple and easy to use.
Articulate ideas and their value to partners and stakeholders, and deliver them as high-quality implementations that help customers succeed.
Learn, teach, and develop data-management and distributed data-processing systems and algorithms.