Senior Site Reliability Engineer - US Federal (VDI & Infrastructure)

About The Team

Your work matters here. At Workday Government, we focus on outcomes that serve a larger mission. Our work supports U.S. federal agencies as they modernize and transform the full employee lifecycle experience and finance operations—so they can operate with greater clarity, accountability, and trust. As a Fortune 500 company and a proven enterprise cloud platform, Workday brings modern technology, responsible AI, and secure infrastructure to some of the most complex environments in the world.

The work isn’t theoretical. It’s operational. It’s high-impact. And it demands rigor, integrity, and long-term thinking. From day one, you’ll be part of a team that values collaboration, follow-through, and doing the right thing—especially when the stakes are high. Our culture is grounded in integrity, respect, and shared responsibility. We challenge each other to think clearly, act thoughtfully, and build solutions that stand up to real-world demands. Here, curiosity is matched with accountability. Ambition is paired with trust. You’ll have the space to do your best work, the support to keep growing, and the backing of a company committed to long-term investment in both its people and the federal mission.

If you’re looking to apply your experience to meaningful, mission-driven work—alongside colleagues who take pride in building things that last—you’ll find that opportunity at Workday.

About The Role

This role will support one or more direct or indirect contracts with the U.S. Federal Government which, due to federal government security requirements, mandates that all Workday personnel working on the contracts be United States citizens (naturalized or native). At Workday Government, we support U.S. federal agencies as they modernize their mission-critical operations. You will join the Infrastructure and Federal Platform Engineering team, a high-stakes operational group responsible for the reliability, security, and automation of our IL5-compliant cloud environments. This hybrid role bridges the gap between core Kubernetes-based platform engineering and the specialized operation of our Azure VDI environment. You will be part of a 24/7 on-call rotation where VDI is a first-class citizen of our infrastructure stack.

As a Senior SRE with VDI expertise, you will ensure our platforms are scalable, secure, and resilient. You will balance traditional SRE automation tasks with the day-to-day operational rigor required to maintain a high-security Windows 365/AVD environment.

Responsibilities

Core SRE Responsibilities

• Platform Reliability: Maintain the health and high availability of our Kubernetes-based platform through infrastructure automation and observability.
• Infrastructure as Code: Automate provisioning and configuration management using Terraform and Argo CD.
• On-Call & Incident Response: Participate in a 24/7 rotation, serving as a Tier 2/3 escalation point for both platform and VDI-specific incidents.
• Security & Compliance: Implement industry standard methodologies and maintain STIG compliance across all endpoints and cloud resources.

VDI & Identity Operations

• VDI Management: Lead VDI endpoints using Microsoft Intune and perform monthly patching/security updates for custom golden images.
• VDI Expertise: Experience with Windows 365 or Azure Virtual Desktop (AVD) in a production setting.
• Identity Governance: Manage Microsoft Entra ID (formerly Azure AD) features, including Conditional Access policies, Access Packages, and MFA registration (Passkeys/TAP).
• Security Monitoring: Monitor and respond to alerts from Microsoft Sentinel, Defender for Endpoint, and Defender for Cloud Apps.
• Lifecycle Automation: Troubleshoot automated user provisioning and manage pool-specific access controls to segregate user populations (Engineering vs. Efficiency).

Requirements

You are a "builder-operator" who thrives in high-security, supervised environments. You understand that reliability in a government context means zero-trust security and rigorous adherence to compliance frameworks.

Basic Qualifications

• Experience: Minimum of 5 years of experience in SRE, DevOps, or Cloud Operations.
• Environment: At least 3 years of experience operating in high-security environments (DoD IL5, FedRAMP High, or GCC-High).
• Clearance: Ability to obtain and maintain a U.S. Government TS/SCI w/CI Poly. (Active clearance preferred).
• Citizenship: Must be a U.S. Citizen (naturalized or native) per federal contract requirements.

Technical Skills & Other Qualifications

• Cloud & Infrastructure: Proficiency with Terraform and CI/CD tools (Argo CD).
• Microsoft Stack: Deep hands-on expertise with Microsoft Entra ID (Conditional Access, Identity Governance) and Microsoft Intune.
• VDI Expertise: Experience with Windows 365 or Azure Virtual Desktop (AVD) in a production setting.
• Security Tools: Familiarity with Microsoft Sentinel and Defender for Endpoint.
• Documentation: Strong technical writing skills for creating SOPs, architecture diagrams, and reliability practices.

Preferred Qualifications

• Kubernetes: Strong understanding of K8s orchestration and container security.
• Programming: Proficiency in at least one language (Python, Go, or Ruby) to automate toil.
• Networking: Familiarity with Azure networking (VNets, NSGs, Azure Firewall) and ExpressRoute.
• Air Gap: Experience working in air-gapped cloud regions.

Pay

The annualized base salary ranges for the primary location and any additional locations are listed below. Workday pay ranges vary based on work location. 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.

• Primary Location: USA.VA.Reston Primary Location Base Pay Range: $147,400 USD - $221,200 USD
• Additional US Location(s) Base Pay Range: $133,400 USD - $237,600 USD

Schedule

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.