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Principal – Software Engineer – Distributed Systems
| Company | Workday |
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| Location | Pleasanton, CA, USA |
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| Salary | $183800 – $326600 |
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| Type | Full-Time |
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| Degrees | |
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| Experience Level | Expert or higher |
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Requirements
- 10+ years of experience in software engineering, with significant hands-on experience in system-level architecture, performance, resiliency, and scalability for complex distributed systems.
- Deep understanding, knowledge, and hands-on experience with Kubernetes in production environments, including advanced concepts like custom resource definitions, operators, and cluster optimization.
- Expertise in distributed computing principles, microservices architectures, and cloud-native patterns, specifically on leading public cloud platforms (AWS and GCP).
- Profound understanding of JVM internals (e.g., garbage collection, memory management, threading) and their impact on application performance and scalability.
- Proven ability to design and implement robust, scalable technical architectures and translate broad business requirements into clear, executable design specifications.
- Exceptional analytical and problem-solving skills, with a track record of identifying root causes, proposing innovative solutions, and making data-driven architectural decisions.
- Demonstrated experience in technical leadership, including mentoring senior engineers, leading critical technical initiatives, and influencing architectural direction within an engineering organization.
Responsibilities
- Architecting Scalable Frameworks: Design and implement architectural frameworks and tooling for proactive capacity planning, modeling, and management for critical Workday services.
- Technical Leadership & Guidance: Provide senior technical leadership, mentoring engineers, and guiding the team on best practices for building scalable, resilient, and performant distributed systems.
- System Analysis & Optimization: Conduct in-depth analysis of system performance, resource utilization, and growth patterns to identify optimization opportunities and predict future capacity needs.
- Cross-Functional Collaboration: Partner closely with engineering teams, product management, and SREs to integrate capacity insights into the development lifecycle and influence product architecture.
- Innovation & Research: Stay ahead of industry trends and emerging technologies, evaluating and recommending new approaches to continuously enhance Workday’s scalability and operational efficiency.
Preferred Qualifications
- Excellent communication and interpersonal skills, with a proven ability to articulate complex technical concepts to both technical and non-technical audiences.
- Strong collaborative spirit, enjoying cross-functional teamwork, driving consensus, and fostering a shared understanding of technical goals.
- A continuous learning mindset, staying current with industry trends, emerging technologies, and best practices in cloud architecture, performance engineering, and system design.
- Experience with capacity planning, performance modeling, or cost optimization frameworks in a large-scale cloud environment.
