Sr Software Engineer (Distributed Systems)
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 The Data Warehouse Core team is part of Workday's Data Platform Engineering organization, where our mission is to bring together Workday's data products and technologies to build the next-generation secure and at-scale data platform — enabling customers to build AI-native applications and agents. Our team's focus is on enabling and supporting bi-directional zero copy of data, efficient storage, processing, and querying over tens of billions of rows within a tenant. We bring deep expertise in distributed systems, data processing frameworks, and database internals — the foundational building blocks that power Workday's data cloud. More specifically, the areas we work on include: • Storage and management of structured Tables • Table DML (e.g. batch updates) and DDL operations • Data types, query languages and operators for data transformation • Materialization of complex query plans (Views/Materialized Views) over large base data • Scheduling and orchestration of long running batch jobs What makes this team exciting is the scale and impact of the problems we solve. In the year ahead, we will be focused on Workday's data cloud projects, building the infrastructure that underpins how customers access, move, and analyze their data. If you are energized by designing systems that operate at massive scale and shaping the future of enterprise data, this is the team for you. About the Role As part of Workday’s Data Platform Engineering org, you will be responsible for building and enhancing Workday's data cloud features. You will work with a top-notch team to architect and build features in our distributed ingestion, transaction and query processing engines. You will be responsible for developing algorithms and techniques for supporting fast, efficient transactions and queries over large scale data, in a multi-tenanted cloud environment. About You You are an engineer who is passionate about software development and takes pride in your work. You think and code in terms of well defined abstractions. You enjoy coming up with novel solutions and can clearly articulate the value to stakeholders. You are excited about working as part of a team of engineers. You understand the importance of doing what is right for the customer. You have a strong interest in learning about and developing data management and distributed data processing frameworks and algorithms. You are a fast learner and enjoy learning new technical areas such as languages and frameworks. You can make all of this happen using Scala and Java, while getting exposure to Apache Spark and other related distributed computing frameworks. Basic Qualifications 7+ years using any of the following programming languages: Java, Scala, C++, Go, or Rust 3+ years development experience in relevant domain areas (e.g. database internals, distributed system application, JVM performance tuning, Cloud/SaaS Services, etc.) Other Qualifications Background in data warehousing, database system internals and/or distributed systems Expertise in distributed data processing engines or data management systems A strong understanding of SQL Knowledge of Apache Spark and Spark SQL internals Expertise in one or more of: Kubernetes, Apache Iceberg, Trino 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. Are you being referred to one of our roles? If so, ask your connection at Workday about our Employee Referral process!