Sr Director, Software Development Engineering

Workday • Pleasanton, CA

82d • $268,000 - $402,000 • Hybrid

About The Position

As the Senior Director, Capacity and Cloud Analytics Engineering, you will be responsible for defining the global strategic vision for Workday's capacity engineering and cost optimization initiatives across private and public clouds. This critical leadership role sits within the Infrastructure and Production Engineering (IPE) organization and is tasked with establishing the long-term roadmap for production capacity optimization services as well as the Data Engineering and Analytics Platform powering Workday's infrastructure management strategy. You will operate at the intersection of infrastructure strategy, financial planning, and advanced data engineering, ensuring alignment across all major product lines and cloud infrastructure investments. You will lead the organization responsible for building scalable data systems, producing executive-grade analytics, and delivering automation crucial for optimizing cost and performance across Workday's entire public cloud footprint. This role requires a leader who can drive transformation, influence executive stakeholders (VPs/SVPs), and drive engineering rigor across a diverse, global organization.

Requirements

• 15+ years leading complex engineering organizations, with at least 5 years managing Directors or leading multi-disciplinary organizations responsible for global platform strategy.
• A consistent and verifiable record of building, scaling, and retaining top engineering talent for a high velocity team.
• 7+ years as a Software Engineer or hands-on technical contributor, demonstrating deep understanding of platform infrastructure.
• Extensive experience (5+ years) working with AWS/GCP public cloud services in a capacity/FinOps context.
• Demonstrated deep practical knowledge of FinOps principles and proven success in optimizing cloud usage and spend at a massive scale.
• Exceptional written and verbal communication skills, with experience presenting complex technical and financial strategy to executive and executive-level audiences.
• Master's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or a related field (or equivalent practical experience).

Nice To Haves

• Experience managing organizations with significant contribution to or management of open-source projects.
• Deep familiarity with modern data frameworks (dbt, Airflow, Spark) and data modeling/warehouse platforms.
• Extensive exposure to observability tools (Prometheus, Grafana, Datadog) and SQL query engines (Trino/Presto, Delta Lake, or Hive).
• Expertise in cloud deployment practices including GitOps, containerization (Docker/Kubernetes), and CI/CD.

Responsibilities

• Define, execute, and champion the global strategy and multi-year roadmap for cloud cost governance, infrastructure optimization, and capacity engineering, ensuring maximum value extraction from Workday's cloud investments.
• Drive alignment and accountability as a key strategic partner and advisor to Workday's Executive Leadership (VPs, SVPs) in technical and business functions to define cloud investment priorities and drive enterprise-wide financial accountability for cloud spend.
• Provide executive leadership and mentorship to a global organization of Directors, Senior Managers, Data Engineers, FinOps Data Analysts, and DevOps professionals, ensuring the delivery of high-impact optimization solutions at scale.
• Drive transformational Change leading cross-functional initiatives to integrate FinOps principles across Workday, utilizing our data platform capabilities to drive large-scale behavioral and architectural changes related to cloud usage.
• Elevate engineering excellence overseeing the advancement of host, pod, container and JVM runtime optimization initiatives globally.
• Foster a strong culture of ownership, innovation, and open-source collaboration within the organization and across technical partners.
• Represent the organization's vision and strategic progress clearly to audiences at all levels, including executive steering committees and financial leadership.

Benefits

• Workday Bonus Plan or a role-specific commission/bonus.
• Annual refresh stock grants.
• Flexible work schedule allowing for a combination of in-person and remote work.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Senior
• Industry: Professional, Scientific, and Technical Services
• Education Level: Master's degree