Principal Software Development Engineer - AI… at Workday · Vancouver

Principal Software Development Engineer - AI Platform
Location: Canada, BC, Vancouver
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
Do you want to build impactful, AI features and solutions that will be used by millions of end-users? We are in the AI Platform organization at Workday and we solve meaningful problems that lie at the intersection of machine learning and enterprise-scale software! We build advanced AI solutions that power the core Workday software by modeling user behavior and providing intelligent automation. Come join us and make easier and balanced for millions of Workday users!
About the Role
As a Principal Software Development Engineer for Machine Learning, you will be a team leader, working closely with other engineers and ML researchers to build and deploy robust, scalable AI platforms. You will play a vital role in turning innovative ML concepts into production-ready solutions, with a focus on agentic AI capabilities such as planning, reasoning, and action execution frameworks.
Your Primary Focus:
Implement AI Platforms: Design and maintain sophisticated AI platform capabilities, focusing on patterns like tool calling, multi-agent architectures, and human-in-the-loop integrations. You will write clean, performant code that ensures these systems are resilient in production.
Build ML Infrastructure: Develop and deploy secure, RESTful web services using Python and Kubernetes. You will contribute to the development of multi-tenant runtime architectures that enable fast inference and scale to millions of users.
Collaborative Engineering: Participate in design reviews and code quality initiatives. You will apply software development best practices to ensure our codebase remains maintainable, testable, and efficient.
You Will Also:
Translate Requirements: Work with cross-functional teams to turn product requirements into functional technical designs.
Apply MLOps Standards: Utilize industry-standard practices, including automation, observability, and CI/CD, to deliver high-quality ML solutions.
Continuous Learning: Stay current with evolving AI/ML technologies and contribute to the team’s collective knowledge.
About You
Basic Qualification
8+ years experience in software development engineering including designing, developing, and deploying software solutions.
5+ years of experience in Python, with a consistent track record of shipping production code and systems.
5+ of experience building scalable data pipelines and working with large-scale datasets.
5+ years of validated experience deploying production services to cloud platforms (e.g., AWS, Azure, GCP) and using containerization technologies (e.g., Docker, Kubernetes) for MLOps.
Bachelor’s degree in a relevant field such as Computer Science, Engineering, or a related discipline, or equivalent practical experience.
Other Qualification
Solid ability in Algorithmic Thinking to design and implement efficient solutions for agentic system development.
Expertise in the engineering, deployment, and MLOps of advanced machine learning solutions (e.g., generative models, LLMs, RAG, and AI agents), coupled with a strong understanding of scalable distributed systems, performance optimization, database technologies (e.g., PostgreSQL, Redis), and robust API development.
Validated algorithmic thinking and a track proven history designing, implementing, and analyzing efficient algorithms for complex problems.
Demonstrated ability to build flexible, reusable, and well-documented software components, with comprehensive experience in code testing strategies (unit, integration, end-to-end) in a continuous deployment environment. Strong sense of ownership and a proven ability to deliver high-quality, finished products efficiently.
Excellent communication and collaboration skills, emphasizing team collaboration, knowledge-sharing, and delivering customer impact.

Workday Pay Transparency Statement
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. For more information regarding Workday’s comprehensive benefits, please click here.
Primary Location: CAN.BC.Vancouver
Primary CAN Base Pay Range: $168,000 - $252,000 CAD
Additional CAN Location(s) Base Pay Range: $168,000 - $252,000 CAD

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.

Workday is committed to providing reasonable accommodations for qualified individuals during our application process, in order to perform one or more essential functions of their job, as well as regarding the use of AI tools for employment decision-making to any degree. Please see below for more details including how to request an accommodation as a qualified veteran, due to a disability or for religious reasons, or as otherwise provided under applicable law.

Workday prohibits taking adverse action against any candidate or employee for reporting a possible violation of this policy, requesting one or more work accommodations, exercising a privacy right, or cooperating in an investigation in accordance with applicable law. Any employee who retaliates against a candidate or employee for doing so may be subject to disciplinary action, up to and including termination of employment, to the fullest extent allowable under applicable law.

If you require a reasonable accommodation, you may email accommodations@workday.com, as far in advance as possible.

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