Software Development Engineer, SRE (US Federal)

Workday • Reston, VA

4d • $123,900 - $222,000 • Hybrid

About The Position

The Software Development Engineer will help build, deploy, and scale Workday’s Kubernetes platform in AWS GovCloud. The role leads infrastructure automation, improves CI/CD pipelines, builds observability tools, and develops air-gapped deployment methods. It requires close partnership across engineering, security, and other teams to deliver reliable systems for U.S. federal customers and to meet applicable security and compliance standards.

The role supports one or more direct or indirect U.S. Federal Government contracts. Federal security requirements require personnel working on those contracts to be U.S. citizens, naturalized or native-born. The position may require on-site work at client locations in the DC, Maryland, and Virginia area. Workday’s flexible-work approach requires at least 50% of time each quarter in an office or in the field, depending on the role.

The position may be hired at either the mid-level (P3) or senior (P4) level. Candidates must be able to obtain and maintain a U.S. Government TS/SCI security clearance with CI Polygraph; an active TS/SCI with CI Polygraph is strongly preferred. The primary location is Reston, Virginia. The primary-location annual base salary range is $137,000–$205,400; additional U.S. locations have a base salary range of $123,900–$222,000. The role may also be eligible for the Workday Bonus Plan or a role-specific commission or bonus, as well as annual refresh stock grants.

Requirements

• U.S. citizenship (naturalized or native-born) is required for work on the federal contracts.
• Ability to obtain and maintain a U.S. Government TS/SCI security clearance with CI Polygraph.
• Mid-level (P3): 3+ years of hands-on experience building, scaling, and maintaining production cloud infrastructure, DevOps pipelines, or platform engineering systems.
• Mid-level (P3): 2+ years of experience with infrastructure automation tools such as Terraform or Terragrunt.
• Mid-level (P3): 2+ years managing continuous delivery pipelines using tools such as Argo CD, Jenkins, or GitLab CI.
• Mid-level (P3): 2+ years of proficiency in modern scripting or programming languages.
• Mid-level (P3): 1+ year independently leading technical initiatives, troubleshooting distributed systems, and mentoring junior engineers.
• Senior (P4): 5+ years of hands-on experience building, scaling, and maintaining production cloud infrastructure, DevOps pipelines, or platform engineering systems.
• Senior (P4): 3+ years of experience with infrastructure automation tools such as Terraform or Terragrunt.
• Senior (P4): 3+ years managing continuous delivery pipelines using tools such as Argo CD, Jenkins, or GitLab CI.
• Senior (P4): 3+ years of proficiency in modern scripting or programming languages.
• Senior (P4): 3+ years independently leading technical initiatives, troubleshooting distributed systems, and mentoring junior engineers.

Nice To Haves

• An active TS/SCI security clearance with CI Polygraph.
• Go or Python programming or scripting experience.
• Deep production experience managing containerized workloads in AWS, ideally AWS GovCloud, using Kubernetes and Docker.
• Practical experience implementing or managing air-gapped deployment methodologies and isolated cloud architectures.
• Experience building monitoring, logging, and alerting systems for distributed platforms, such as Prometheus, Grafana, or Splunk.
• Familiarity with federal security frameworks such as FedRAMP, NIST 800-53, and Zero Trust architecture.
• DoD 8570/8140 compliance at IAT Level II or higher, such as CompTIA Security+, CySA+, or CASP+, along with a current Computing Environment credential.
• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, or a related technical field, or equivalent military or practical engineering experience in lieu of a degree.

Responsibilities

• Run, manage, and scale complex containerized workloads on Kubernetes clusters in AWS GovCloud.
• Provision and automate infrastructure, configurations, and deployment pipelines using Terraform, Terragrunt, Docker, AWS, and Argo CD.
• Design, implement, and maintain air-gapped deployment methodologies for strict security, compliance, and isolation requirements.
• Build, maintain, and optimize monitoring, logging, and alerting systems to support high availability and visibility into managed services.
• Troubleshoot distributed systems and resolve complex platform, infrastructure, and network issues.
• Collaborate with peer development teams, security leaders, and cross-functional partners across multiple locations.
• Implement and maintain enterprise platform security standards and comply with federal industry standards.
• Author technical documentation, participate in architectural reviews, and mentor team members.

Benefits

• May be eligible for the Workday Bonus Plan or a role-specific commission/bonus.
• May be eligible for annual refresh stock grants.
• Flexible work schedule with at least 50% of time each quarter in an office or in the field, depending on role. The posting refers candidates to Workday’s benefits information but does not specify individual benefits.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Mid Level
• Education Level: No Education Listed