The role
From Workday's own posting.
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 Cloud organization is at the forefront of Workday’s next major wave of innovation, driven by a bold mandate to build the industry’s first true Platform for Agents.
We are a high-energy, ambitious team that balances Workday's deep foundational expertise with fresh, forward-thinking perspectives to accelerate our pace of delivery and unlock massive new commercial value. By leveraging Workday’s unique business context, trusted data, and identity guardrails, we are building the critical engine that will power the future of AI and agentic workflows across the enterprise.
Within this organization, the Context and Semantics Engineering team acts as the brain trust responsible for making our AI "enterprise-aware." We build the semantic layers, knowledge graphs, query federation engines, and dynamic context systems that ground generative AI in real-world HR and Finance data. By bridging the gap between raw enterprise data and large language models (LLMs), our team ensures that Workday’s autonomous agents can reason accurately, securely, and with deep contextual awareness at a global scale.
About the Role
As a Software Development Engineer in Context and Semantics, you will be a core backend builder helping to develop the data and context infrastructure powering Workday’s AI Agents. Working alongside senior engineers and technical leads, you will write clean, scalable code that connects large language models to complex enterprise data stores.
In this role, you will implement components for advanced RAG (Retrieval-Augmented Generation) pipelines, integrate vector databases, and help build query federation services (e.g., Trino/LDQ) that route requests between transactional and analytical systems. We are looking for an energetic, curious, and detail-oriented backend software engineer who is eager to solve complex data challenges and build cutting-edge AI platform features at scale.
Responsibilities:
Feature Development & Coding: Design, develop, and test scalable backend microservices, APIs, and data pipelines powering the context and semantic layer for AI Agents.
RAG & Vector Search Implementation : Help build and maintain enterprise RAG pipelines, including embedding workflows, document chunking strategies, and vector database integrations (e.g., Pinecone, Milvus, Elasticsearch).
Query & Semantic Integration: Support the development of distributed query execution features (leveraging technologies like Trino) to retrieve enterprise data securely for LLMs.
LLM & Agentic Workflows: Implement orchestration logic and context-management components using modern AI frameworks (e.g., LlamaIndex, LangChain) to support multi-turn agent interactions.
Data Security & Governance: Ensure all code adheres to strict enterprise standards around data privacy, tenant isolation, and Role-Based Access Control (RBAC).
Operational Excellence: Write thorough unit and integration tests, participate in code reviews, and help maintain high system reliability, low latency, and robust operational monitoring.
Collaborative Execution: Partner closely with Senior Engineers, Product Managers, and team leads to break down technical requirements into well-executed code deliverables.
About You
Basic Qualifications:
3+ years of professional software engineering experience focusing on backend development, microservices, or data systems.
2+ years of strong hands-on programming skills in Java, Python, Scala, or Go.
1+ year of demonstrated coursework, personal projects, or professional exposure to AI/ML concepts, LLM APIs, Vector Databases, or RAG architectures.
Other Qualifications:
Bachelor’s degree (Master’s preferred) in Computer Science, Software Engineering, or an equivalent technical field.
Solid foundation in computer science fundamentals: data structures, algorithms, distributed systems concepts, and API design (REST/gRPC).
Familiarity with SQL, relational databases, or distributed data processing engines (e.g., Trino, Presto, Spark).
Understanding of modern cloud infrastructure (AWS or GCP) and CI/CD development workflows.
Fast learner with strong problem-solving skills and a passion for staying up-to-date with emerging AI technologies.
Strong verbal and written communication skills with a team-first, collaborative mindset.
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: USA.CA.Pleasanton
Primary Location Base Pay Range: $148,000 USD - $222,000 USD
Additional US Location(s) Base Pay Range: $123,900 USD - $222,000 USD
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