Staff Workday Integration Engineer, Tech Foundations

Airbnb was born in 2007 when two hosts welcomed three guests to their San Francisco home, and has since grown to over 5 million hosts who have welcomed over 2 billion guest arrivals in almost every country across the globe. Every day, hosts offer unique stays and experiences that make it possible for guests to connect with communities in a more authentic way. About The Team The Talent Systems team within BizTech is the trusted technology partner to Employee Experience, Recruiting, Payroll, Procurement, Legal, and Privacy teams across Airbnb’s global operations. Driven by the philosophy of “High Tech, Human Touch,” we design and implement technology that meets both business objectives and employee needs: building robust frameworks that support the full employee journey, delivering AI-enabled self-service tools, and playing a key role in payroll management and benefits enrollment. We own and operate a portfolio of 300+ production integrations and custom applications spanning payroll processors, benefits carriers, identity providers, compliance vendors, and internal platforms, with Workday at the center. We are also building the agentic layer on top of that portfolio: an Airbnb-owned Workday MCP server and AI assistant plugins that let employees and managers act on HR data directly from the tools they already use. You will partner closely with our Systems Architect, HR Centers of Excellence, IT Security, Finance, and external vendors to deliver enterprise-grade integrations and AI-enabled tooling that power Airbnb’s global HR technology ecosystem. The Difference You Will Make As a Staff Workday Integration Engineer, you are the technical authority for the integration initiatives that BizTech and Airbnb depend on. You will define our integration strategy and technical roadmap, set the architectural standards other engineers build against, and own the engineering of the Workday MCP and agentic integrations that are reshaping how employees interact with HR processes. This is a hands-on builder role. You will personally write integration logic, own production reliability, and make the architectural decisions that keep HR data flowing correctly across our global employee population. You will drive touchless automation, reduce manual intervention, and ensure compliance across multiple jurisdictions. Your work directly impacts how thousands of Airbnb employees experience their payroll, benefits, time tracking, and HR processes. You work alongside a Systems Architect who owns Talent Systems business process architecture, functional design, and the capability roadmap. You need enough functional fluency to build integrations and AI tools that are correct, and the engineering depth to make them reliable. As a Staff-level engineer, you will think 12+ months ahead, proactively surface systemic gaps, mentor the engineers around you, and establish patterns adopted across the Talent Systems team. What You’ll Own Integration Architecture & Technical Strategy Define and own Airbnb’s Workday integration architecture standards, patterns, and governance frameworksLead architectural decisions for complex, high-risk integration initiatives, including global rollouts, payroll runs, benefits open enrollment, and system migrationsEvaluate and advise on build-vs-buy decisions, Workday-native-vs-middleware trade-offs, and long-term integration platform strategyEstablish reusable integration design patterns, error handling and retry frameworks, and observability standards adopted team-wideAnticipate platform evolution and architect integrations that accommodate Workday’s semi-annual releases with minimal reworkIdentify and remediate technical debt across the integration landscape: functionality, performance, error handling, and scalability Core Workday Integration Development Architect, design, build, and maintain complex inbound and outbound integrations using Workday Studio, Core Connectors, EIBs, Document Transforms, and RaaS API endpointsDevelop integrations against Workday Web Services (WWS): WSDL interpretation, web service versioning, request/response handling for SOAP and RESTOwn design and delivery of high-volume integration scenarios: payroll runs, benefits open enrollment, global workforce changes, and multi-country rolloutsOwn Workday payroll interfaces (PECI, PICOF) and their interaction with third-party payroll providersBuild and maintain advanced Custom Reports and Calculated Fields for integration and AI-tool consumptionWork within the Business Process Framework, understanding how process events trigger integration flowsBuild and maintain Workday Extend applications (data models, business logic, UI pages, Extend REST APIs) when Extend is the right tool versus Studio, EIB, or middleware; Extend adoption strategy and SME ownership sit with the Systems ArchitectApply Workday Orchestrate for multi-system workflow coordination where it fitsManage the integration portfolio across Workday’s semi-annual release cycle: assess release notes, lead sandbox testing, deploy to production with rigorous change controls AI & Agentic Integration Own the engineering of Airbnb’s Workday MCP server and its tool surface: tool design, per-user OAuth 2.0 authorization, human-in-the-loop gates on write actions, idempotent write contracts, rate and volume guardrails, and audit loggingDesign and build agentic integrations that let AI assistant plugins and other enterprise LLM tooling read from and act on Workday safely, with permissions resolved as the authenticated user and no shared service-account fallback for user-attributable actionsCo-own the Talent Systems AI architecture and governance framework with the Systems Architect: how agentic tools, Workday-native AI, and enterprise LLM capabilities interconnect, and the guardrails that govern their adoptionEvaluate Workday-native agentic capabilities (Agent Ready Tools, MCP Explorer, Workday Agents) and emerging HR AI platforms; provide structured build-vs-buy-vs-configure analysisTranslate business use cases into AI tool architectures that are operationally feasible, permission-safe, and measurableInstrument AI tooling for usage and cost (per-tool call metrics) to inform Workday platform entitlement and licensing decisions Production Reliability, Security & Platform Governance Drive operational excellence across the integration portfolio: SLAs, prioritization, and escalation handlingOwn SLAs for the most critical integrations and AI tools; establish monitoring, alerting, reconciliation, and runbook standards that raise the bar across the teamDrive root cause analysis on integration failures and implement preventative controlsOwn security, compliance, and governance from the integration and engineering perspective: PII handling, audit controls, and data reconciliation strategies that meet GDPR, SOC 2, SOX, and applicable data privacy requirements for HR data flowsEnforce authentication and transport security across all integration surfaces: OAuth 2.0 (including user-context flows), SAML, and secure file transfer (PGP, SFTP)Assess system impacts and risks when introducing new integrations, AI tools, or platform changes, and communicate them clearly before promotion to productionOwn tenant deployment strategy: sandbox-to-production promotion, Git-based version control of integration and Extend artifacts, CI-friendly testing, and rollback planning HR Technology & Functional Fluency Maintain a strong working understanding of core HR and payroll processes (hire-to-retire, compensation cycles, benefits enrollment, time and absence, compliance reporting) sufficient to design integrations and AI tools that reflect real business requirementsUnderstand how HR data flows across the enterprise: from Workday as the system of record through downstream payroll processors, benefits carriers, identity providers, and compliance platformsProactively surface configuration and upstream data issues that affect integration reliability, and partner with the Systems Architect and functional owners to resolve themBring an employee-centric lens to integration and AI tool design so the technology we build translates to seamless experiences for the people it serves Technical Leadership & Cross-Functional Influence Act as the technical authority for Workday integrations and HR agentic tooling across BizTech; influence architectural decisions in adjacent teams including Enterprise Integrations, Identity, Data Platform, and AI ProductsMentor and upskill senior and mid-level engineers through design reviews, code reviews, pair development, and documented standardsPartner with Employee Experience, Recruiting, Payroll, Total Rewards, Legal/Privacy, IT Security, and enterprise architecture to translate ambiguous requirements into sound technical architectures; communicate constraints, trade-offs, and risks at all levelsWrite authoritative Integration Design Documents, MCP tool specifications, and operational runbooks maintainable by the broader teamProactively identify systemic risks and portfolio health issues; drive resolution and communicate transparently with leadershipRepresent Talent Systems in enterprise architecture forums, AI tooling quality reviews, and vendor technical discussions; maintain active knowledge of the Workday roadmap and HR technology trends Your Expertise Required Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Information Technology, Engineering, or a related field (or equivalent experience)9+ years of experience in enterprise technology, software development, or systems integration, with at least 5–6 years of hands-on Workday integration development covering the full lifecycle: requirements, design, build, testing, go-live, and post-production supportWorkday Integration Proficiency (personally written code required):Workday Studio: complex multi-step integrations, sub-integrations, custom error handling and fault frameworks, XSLT transformationsCore Connectors and EIBs: worker data, business process events, payroll and benefits outbound connectors; clear judgment on EIB use cases and limitations versus Studio; Document Transform payload mappingPayroll interfaces: PECI and PICOF, and their interaction with third-party payroll providersRaaS (Report-as-a-Service): advanced report design, calculated fields, and API endpoint exposureWorkday Web Services (WWS): WSDL reading, SOAP/REST calls, versioning, and error response handlingWorkday-Native & Functional Fluency:Expert proficiency in XSLT, XML, and JSON; comfortable with Java sufficient for Workday Studio custom stepsWorking knowledge of the Business Process Framework and how events trigger integration flowsFamiliarity with Workday functional configuration across HCM, Benefits, Payroll, Security, and Time & Absence, sufficient to independently diagnose upstream data and process issues (deep functional configuration expertise is not required)Foundational understanding of HR and payroll processes and how they generate the data that integrations carryModern Engineering & AI:REST API design and OAuth 2.0, including user-context (authorization code) flows and token lifecycle handlingExperience building or integrating LLM-based tools, AI agents, or MCP servers with enterprise business systems, including permission-safe access patterns and human-in-the-loop controlsExperience integrating Workday with middleware or iPaaS platforms (MuleSoft, Boomi, Workato) and the judgment to know when middleware fits versus Workday-native integrationGit-based version control and structured deployment and change management practicesSecurity, Compliance & Engineering Practices:Strong knowledge of data security for HR data: OAuth 2.0, SAML, secure file transfer (PGP, SFTP), PII handling, and audit requirementsProven experience managing integrations across Workday’s semi-annual release cycle, including impact assessment and sandbox testingDemonstrated record as a technical leader who has shaped architecture decisions and raised engineering quality across a teamExceptional written and verbal communication skills; able to write clear design documents and runbooks, and present technical trade-offs to non-technical stakeholdersAbility to operate effectively in unstructured, fast-moving environments and drive toward outcomes under ambiguityExperience working in an Agile/Scrum environment Preferred Workday Pro Certification in Integrations (highly valued)Hands-on experience with Workday Extend (data models, UI pages, Extend REST APIs, orchestrations); accelerates ramp into Extend build workWorkday Pro Certification in ExtendHands-on experience with Workday OrchestrateProficiency in TypeScript/Node and Python for services, tooling, and test harnesses outside the Workday tenantFamiliarity with Workday’s native agentic capabilities (Agent Ready Tools, MCP Explorer, Workday Agents) and their trade-offs versus custom MCP toolingExperience shipping LLM plugins or agents to an enterprise employee population, including evaluation and quality reviewExperience supporting global, multi-country HR technology environmentsKnowledge of GDPR, India DPDP, SOC 2, or SOX requirements in the context of HR data flowsSQL and data-warehouse fluency for reconciliation, analytics, and People Analytics partnership Your Location: This position is US - Remote Eligible. The role may include occasional work at an Airbnb office or attendance at offsites, as agreed to with your manager. While the position is Remote Eligible, you must live in a state where Airbnb, Inc. has a registered entity. Click here for the up-to-date list of excluded states. This list is continuously evolving, so please check back with us if the state you live in is on the exclusion list. If your position is employed by another Airbnb entity, your recruiter will inform you what states you are eligible to work from. Our Commitment To Inclusion & Belonging Airbnb is committed to working with the broadest talent pool possible. We believe diverse ideas foster innovation and engagement, and allow us to attract creatively-led people, and to develop the best products, services and solutions. All qualified individuals are encouraged to apply. We strive to also provide a disability inclusive application and interview process. If you are a candidate with a disability and require reasonable accommodation in order to submit an application, please contact us at: reasonableaccommodations@airbnb.com. Please include your full name, the role you’re applying for and the accommodation necessary to assist you with the recruiting process. We ask that you only reach out to us if you are a candidate whose disability prevents you from being able to complete our online application. Equal Employment Opportunity Airbnb values diversity & belonging and is proud to be an Equal Employment Opportunity employer. All individuals seeking employment at Airbnb are considered without regard to race, color, religion, national origin, age, gender, sex, marital status, ancestry, physical or mental disability, veteran status, gender identity, gender expression, sexual orientation, or any other legally protected characteristic. How We'll Take Care Of You Our job titles may span more than one career level. The actual base pay is dependent upon many factors, such as: training, transferable skills, work experience, business needs and market demands. The base pay range is subject to change and may be modified in the future. This role may also be eligible for bonus, equity, benefits, and Employee Travel Credits. Pay Range $180,000—$225,000 USD Reasonable Accommodations: We are committed to providing reasonable accommodations throughout the recruitment process for applicants with disabilities. If you need assistance, or an accommodation, please let your recruiter know once you are contacted about a role. A Note on Recruiting Scams: Scammers sometimes pose as Airbnb recruiters to get money or personal information from candidates. A few things that will always be true for Airbnb’s hiring process: our open roles are posted on Airbnb’s Career’s Page at careers.airbnb.com, and our recruiters correspond only from @airbnb.com or @ext.airbnb.com email addresses. Our recruiters will never ask for your Social Security number, bank account details, passport, or payment app information while you are interviewing. We’ll also never ask you to pay a fee, send money, deposit or cash a check, or purchase work-related equipment (such as a company laptop) during the interview process. We encourage candidates to remain vigilant of these recruiting scams and not share sensitive information if you do not believe an individual is actually affiliated with Airbnb.