Senior Software Engineer

Your work days are brighter here.

We’re obsessed with making hard work pay off, for our people, our customers, and the world around us. As a Fortune 500 company and a leading AI platform for managing people, money, and agents, we’re shaping the future of work so teams can reach their potential and focus on what matters most. The minute you join, you’ll feel it. Not just in the products we build, but in how we show up for each other. Our culture is rooted in integrity, empathy, and shared enthusiasm. We’re in this together, tackling big challenges with bold ideas and genuine care. We look for curious minds and courageous collaborators who bring sun-drenched optimism and drive. Whether you're building smarter solutions, supporting customers, or creating a space where everyone belongs, you’ll do meaningful work with Workmates who’ve got your back. In return, we’ll give you the trust to take risks, the tools to grow, the skills to develop and the support of a company invested in you for the long haul. So, if you want to inspire a brighter work day for everyone, including yourself, you’ve found a match in Workday, and we hope to be a match for you too.

About the Team

We’re the infrastructure team behind Workday's data analytics platform, responsible for building and operating the distributed systems that power analytics at scale across both public and private clouds. Our work supports a rapidly growing customer base, expanding global regions, and increasingly complex data workloads. As we evolve the platform, our focus is on delivering highly available, performant, and cost-efficient infrastructure that can scale intelligently and operate reliably under pressure. We work closely with product, SRE, and engineering partners to solve real-world problems—from enabling on-demand compute for Spark workloads to improving system efficiency and observability. We value clear strategy, long-term thinking, and a culture where engineers are empowered to own problems end to end.

About the Role

We’re building a scalable, multi-tenant data platform that supports Apache Spark on both Kubernetes and YARN, serving diverse workloads across private and public clouds. As part of this team, you’ll help shape the next generation of compute infrastructure for Workday analytics. You’ll work on distributed systems that support massively parallel data processing, with a focus on performance, reliability, and simplicity at scale. In this role, you will: 

• Design, build, and debug distributed software systems that run across multiple platforms and environments 

• Develop tools and services that support efficient resource management, scheduling, and concurrency 

• Work with technologies like Apache Spark, Kubernetes, and container-native infrastructure

• Balance system design trade-offs and collaborate across teams to deliver infrastructure that’s resilient, observable, and easy to operate. 

• Support large-scale data workloads with strong focus on performance, cost, and customer experience.

About You

Basic Qualifications

• 8+ years of professional software engineering experience, with a proven track record of delivering production-grade systems.

• 4+ years of hands-on experience designing, building, and operating large-scale distributed systems across public or private clouds.

• Deep foundational knowledge of distributed computing principles, including consistency models, concurrency, high availability, and fault tolerance.

• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or a related technical discipline, or equivalent practical experience.

Preferred Qualifications

• Data Compute & Orchestration: Strong experience working with large-scale data processing frameworks (specifically Apache Spark) and container-native infrastructure or resource schedulers (e.g., Kubernetes, YARN).

• Algorithmic & System Design: Demonstrated ability to apply advanced algorithmic thinking and data structures to solve complex scalability, scheduling, and resource management problems.

• API & Architecture: Solid experience designing and implementing robust, scalable APIs (e.g., REST, gRPC) and microservices that support multi-tenant architectures.

• Software Craftsmanship: Deep understanding of Object-Oriented or Functional design principles, with proficiency in languages commonly used in data infrastructure (e.g., Java, Scala, Go, or C++).

• Resiliency & Observability: Practical knowledge of building highly available systems, including implementing load balancing, redundancy, observability, and cost-efficient scaling strategies.

• Quality & Testing: Strong testing discipline, including unit, integration, and contract testing within a distributed environment to ensure system reliability under heavy workloads.

• Security Best Practices: Solid understanding of system security principles relevant to cloud and distributed environments, including authentication, authorization, and secure data access.

• Collaboration & Leadership: Proven ability to own problems end-to-end, collaborate cross-functionally (with SRE, Product, and other engineering teams), and mentor peers.

• Technical Communication: Excellent technical writing skills, with the ability to author clear, comprehensive architecture designs, system documentation, and runbooks.

Workday Pay Transparency Statement (For EU Locations Only)

Listed below is the base salary range applicable to this position. Workday pay ranges (and the precise pay offered to the successful candidate) are based on a number of objective criteria such as relevant experience and skills, and educational qualifications, level of responsibility, demands of the role, work location and business need. As a part of the total compensation package, this role may be eligible for the Workday Bonus Plan or a role-specific commission/bonus, as well as annual refresh stock grants awarded by Workday Inc. For more information regarding Workday’s comprehensive benefits, please click here.

 

Primary Location Base Pay Range: €96,000 EUR - €144,000 EUR Ireland

 

 

Our Approach to Flexible Work
 

With Flex Work, we’re combining the best of both worlds: in-person time and remote. Our approach enables our teams to deepen connections, maintain a strong community, and do their best work. We know that flexibility can take shape in many ways, so rather than a number of required days in-office each week, we simply spend at least half (50%) of our time each quarter in the office or in the field with our customers, prospects, and partners (depending on role). This means you'll have the freedom to create a flexible schedule that caters to your business, team, and personal needs, while being intentional to make the most of time spent together. Those in our remote "home office" roles also have the opportunity to come together in our offices for important moments that matter.

Pursuant to applicable Fair Chance law, Workday will consider for employment qualified applicants with arrest and conviction records.

Workday is an Equal Opportunity Employer including individuals with disabilities and protected veterans.

At Workday, we are committed to providing an accessible and inclusive hiring experience where all candidates can fully demonstrate their skills. If you require assistance or an accommodation at any point, please email accommodations@workday.com.

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