Principal Software Engineer, Operations Engineering

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.

Role Overview

We are seeking a Principal Engineer with strong experience in infrastructure automation, configuration management, and CI/CD pipelines. In this leadership role, you will help define and execute the technology roadmap for configuration management across bare metal servers and virtual machines. You will guide pull request review processes, establish CI/CD best practices, and scale and maintain automation workflows that support high availability and reliable operations.

Core Focus: Chef Automation, Bare Metal and VM Orchestration, CI/CD Design and Maintenance

Work Pattern: Multi-Cloud and Bare Metal Infrastructure at Global Scale

Governance: Effective PR Reviews, Code Quality, and CI/CD Pipeline Automation

Key Responsibilities

Configuration Management and Provisioning

Scale, maintain, and support enterprise Chef cookbooks, custom resources, and environments across bare metal and VM infrastructures.

Standardize system configurations and automate bare metal provisioning and virtual machine lifecycles to promote high consistency across fleets.

Support infrastructure testing best practices, including tools such as Test Kitchen, within Chef development cycles.

CI/CD Automation and Jenkins Pipelines

Scale, maintain, and optimize Jenkins automation pipelines for continuous integration and continuous deployment of infrastructure code.

Automate testing, validation, and deployment workflows to reduce manual intervention in server configuration updates.

Integrate security scanning, automated linting, and rollback strategies into core CI/CD pipelines.

Code Review and Engineering Governance

Lead consistent Pull Request review processes that support code quality, security compliance, and alignment with engineering standards.

Establish operational guidelines, code styling standards, and testing frameworks for team infrastructure repositories.

Mentor engineers at different career stages on infrastructure-as-code principles, effective PR contributions, and automation workflows.

Bare Metal and VM Operations

Drive lifecycle management, hardware integration, and OS configuration across large-scale physical bare metal nodes and hypervisors.

Troubleshoot complex hardware, virtualization layer, network, and OS-level issues in high-density production environments.

Help keep the infrastructure fleet secure by supporting regular OS upgrades, applying critical security patches, and contributing to priority security programs.

Participate in a shared on-call rotation, with appropriate support and escalation processes, to help resolve critical operational issues and support site reliability.

12+ years of hands-on experience with infrastructure automation and configuration management, including Chef or similar tools for cookbook development, custom resources, and automated server orchestration.

8+ years of experience managing, provisioning, and maintaining bare metal and/or enterprise virtualized infrastructure.

8+ years of experience building and maintaining CI/CD pipelines for infrastructure deployment and automated testing, preferably with Jenkins.

8+ years of experience establishing Git workflows, managing repository standards, and conducting thorough Pull Request code reviews.

8+ years of strong track record of automating complex workflows and scaling multi-cloud or hybrid compute environments.

8+ years of experience setting technical direction and driving engineering excellence across cross-functional engineering teams.

Degree in Computer Science, Engineering, a related technical field, or equivalent practical experience.

Advanced proficiency in one or more scripting or programming languages, such as Ruby, Python, Bash, or Go.

In-depth understanding of enterprise server hardware, PXE boot, IPMI, DNS, DHCP, and core network protocols.

Familiarity with Docker, Kubernetes, OpenStack, Terraform, and enterprise monitoring frameworks.

Strong written and verbal communication skills, with experience collaborating across distributed teams, time zones, and communication styles.

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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