Principal AI Researcher

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.

As a Principal AI Researcher, you will be a technical founder and visionary for the Workday AI Research Team. This is a role for a scientist-leader who thrives on defining the frontier rather than just following a roadmap. You will move the needle on how LLMs and autonomous agents function within the complex, high-trust environment of global enterprise data.

You will bridge the gap between groundbreaking theory and massive-scale application. Your work will involve defining research roadmaps for agentic reasoning, long-horizon planning, and model alignment, ensuring that Workday remains the world leader in responsible, intelligent enterprise agents.

Key Responsibilities:

• Define research direction in Agentic AI and LLMs.

• Advance the state of the art in agentic systems, including retrieval, grounding, memory, context, personalization, etc.

• Foundational Model Research: Advance Workday’s proprietary capabilities in pre-training, post-training (RLHF, DPO), and domain-specific alignment for HR and Finance workflows.

• Publish & Open Source: Lead Workday’s contribution to the global AI community through publications at top-tier venues (NeurIPS, ICLR, ICML, ACL, etc.) and strategic open-source releases.

• Research-to-Production Bridge: Partner with Agent Factory engineering pods to integrate SOTA research into production-ready services that scale to the world's largest organizations.

• Mentorship & Culture: Act as a force multiplier for the newly formed research team, fostering a culture of scientific rigor, curiosity, and high-velocity experimentation.

• 8+ years of experience in AI/ML research or applied science, with a proven history of taking products from applied research to global-scale production.

• Ph.D. or Master’s degree in Computer Science, Artificial Intelligence, Math, Physics, or equivalent technical field.

• 4+ years of professional experience using deep learning frameworks such as PyTorch, JAX, or TensorFlow.

• 2+ years of deep expertise in LLMs or VLMs, specifically in training, alignment (RLHF/DPO), or agentic reasoning frameworks.

• SOTA Publication Record: A strong history of lead-researcher publications in top AI venues OR a proven track record of shipping industry-defining AI innovations to millions of users.

• Agentic AI Pioneer: Strong background in reinforcement learning, tool-use, or multi-agent systems.

• Systems Thinking: Ability to conduct research under real-world constraints, such as latency, cost-to-serve, and enterprise data privacy.

• Leadership in Ambiguity: Proven experience in building a research agenda from the ground up and leading technical strike teams through open-ended problems.

• Communication: Exceptional ability to translate complex research breakthroughs into strategic value for product leaders and executive stakeholders.

• Ethics & Trust: A deep commitment to developing AI that is explainable, fair, and safe for the world’s largest workforces.

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.

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