Sr Software Engineer – API Platform & Agentic AI (Python/Typescript)

About the role

As a Senior Software Development Engineer in Product Engineering, you will be a technical leader in designing and delivering high-throughput, low-latency APIs and frameworks that support Workday's next generation of products and agents. You will shape API design, drive performance and observability improvements, and coach and grow future senior engineers across the team.

• You will lead end-to-end design and development of complex backend services and APIs.
• You will drive consensus with product managers, architects, and partner teams to define clear, evolvable API contracts and data models, using OpenAPI and internal standards.
• You will drive performance and scalability improvements, including latency optimization, capacity planning, and resiliency strategies for mission-critical product flows.
• You will design and implement observability for product APIs (metrics, tracing, structured logging), and use data to drive technical decisions and Service Level Objectives (SLOs).
• You will collaborate on frameworks, tools, and patterns that make it simpler for other Product Engineering teams to define, publish, and maintain APIs.
• You will work with data platform teams to define patterns for exposing data safely and efficiently to API and agent workflows.
• You will provide technical leadership through design reviews, RFCs, spike investigations, and coaching junior engineers.
• You will participate in and improve on-call and incident response processes; own root cause analysis and long-term remediation for significant issues.
• You will act as a trusted technical partner to teams across Product Engineering, helping them make API and integration decisions.

Requirements

• 8+ years experience in software development engineering, architecting, building, and scaling robust and efficient software systems.
• 5+ years of hands-on experience with TypeScript or Python and strong OO/functional design skills.
• 4+ years of experience building and operating web service APIs (ex: REST/SOAP/GraphQL) at scale.
• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or related discipline, or equivalent practical experience.

Other Qualifications

• Strong ability in Algorithmic Thinking, including advanced data structures and algorithms such as graphs, concurrent data structures, and caching/eviction strategies, to design and optimize solutions for complex API orchestration, request routing, and high-throughput workloads.
• Solid experience with API Development, including REST, SOAP, and GraphQL, OpenAPI/Swagger-driven design, and experience in designing and building scalable, secure APIs and API integration patterns.
• Strong understanding of Code Testing methodologies, such as contract testing, performance testing, and system/integration testing, and experience with advanced testing tools or frameworks (e.g., JUnit, ScalaTest, Postman, Mockito, and coverage tools such as Jacoco or Scoverage).
• Strong understanding of Object-Oriented Design (OOD) principles like SOLID, domain-driven design concepts, and common architectural patterns (e.g., layered architecture, hexagonal architecture) and their application in designing scalable software architectures.
• Solid experience with Software Development principles and advanced development methodologies such as continuous delivery, trunk-based development, and test-driven or behavior-driven development.
• Solid experience with Source Control Management (SCM) tools such as Git and advanced branching and merging strategies across multiple teams or services.
• Prominent ability to lead Team Collaboration within a software development team and mentor junior and mid-level engineers through design reviews, technical guidance, and knowledge sharing.
• Proven ability to create Technical Writing Documentation for comprehensive technical specifications, design documents, RFCs, and API and integration best-practice guides.
• Experience leveraging AI-assisted code generation and review tools (e.g., Cursor, Claude Code, GitHub Copilot) to improve development speed and quality.
• Exposure to MCP or similar models is a strong plus.

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. Recruiters can share more detail during the hiring process. Each candidate’s compensation offer will be based on multiple factors including, but not limited to, geography, experience, skills, job duties, and business need, among other things.

Schedule

We combine 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).

Benefits

Our comprehensive benefits include:

• Flexible Work
• Employee Referral Program
• Workday Bonus Plan or Commission/Bonus
• Annual Refresh Stock Grants
• Equal Opportunity Employer
• Comprehensive Benefits Package