Principal Cybersecurity Engineer - US Federal at Workday

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

We aren’t looking for someone to monitor dashboards or hunt for alerts—we need the engineer who builds the "observatory" itself. As a member of our Platform Security Engineering team, you will be responsible for the architecture, engineering, and maintenance of the systems that protect the Workday product.

Operating entirely within AWS, you will treat "Security as Code," ensuring our Vulnerability Management, SIEM, and SOAR tools are robust, scalable, and automated. You are the primary engineering partner to our SOC, building the high-fidelity tools they rely on to keep our customers safe.

About the Role This role will support one or more direct or indirect contracts with the U.S. Federal Government which, due to federal government security requirements, mandates that all Workday personnel working on the contracts be United States citizens (naturalized or native).

What You’ll Do:

• Design and maintain the lifecycle of our core security stack (Vulnerability Management, SIEM, and SOAR) in a native AWS environment.

• Secure, manage, and monitor Kubernetes clusters and containerized workloads. You’ll ensure our tooling scales alongside our containerized infrastructure.

• Use tools like Terraform, CloudFormation, or CDK to deploy and manage security infrastructure, ensuring our environments are version-controlled and immutable.

• Leverage Python to bridge the gaps between commercial tools. When a tool hits its limit, you build the integration or custom logic to fix it.

• Actively use AI tools and LLMs as a "force multiplier" to accelerate development, optimize code, and automate repetitive tasks.

• Transform complex security telemetry into actionable, visual insights. You’ll build dashboards that show our partners exactly where we stand and where the gaps remain.

• Work to integrate security tooling into the developer workflow, ensuring our engineering is as agile as the product it protects.

About You The Mindset

• Pragmatic Engineering:

You avoid "complexity for complexity’s sake." You prioritize reliable, scalable paths and have a natural allergy to manual, repetitive tasks.

• Radical Ownership:

You don’t wait for a ticket to address a critical gap. You investigate problems from first principles and proactively drive the solution.

• High-Agency Problem Solving:

You thrive in the "gray area." Whether it’s a zero-day K8s vulnerability or an undocumented API, you possess the intellectual agility to dive in, learn, and deliver.

• Customer-Centric Infrastructure:

You treat internal teams as your customers. Your success is measured by how effectively your tools empower them, and you go deep to understand their goals before building.

Basic Requirements

• AWS Mastery:

Deep experience architecting and engineering across Compute, Storage, Networking, and Security.

• Container Orchestration:

Heavy hands-on experience with **Kubernetes (K8s)**and Docker, specifically regarding lifecycle management and security hardening.

• Software Engineering:

Advanced proficiency in Python. We value a developer-first approach to infrastructure; if you’ve mastered Python, we trust your ability to navigate any scripting environment.

• Infrastructure as Code:

Proven track record using Terraform (or equivalent IaC) to manage complex environments.

• AI-Augmented Workflow:

You are proficient at leveraging AI tools to accelerate your daily output and problem-solving.

• Data Synthesis:

Ability to distill complex technical data into clear, visual narratives for stakeholders.

Other Requirements

• CI/CD Expertise:

Experience building or maintaining robust pipelines in GitLab CI, GitHub Actions, or Jenkins.

• EKS Specialization:

Specific experience managing production workloads on Amazon Elastic Kubernetes Service.

• SaaS at Scale:

A background in securing large-scale, high-traffic, customer-facing SaaS platforms.

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.VA.Reston

Primary Location Base Pay Range: $184,800 USD - $277,200 USD

Additional US Location(s) Base Pay Range: $167,200 USD - $300,000 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.

At Workday, we are committed to providing an accessible and inclusive hiring experience where all candidates can fully demonstrate their skills. If you require assistance or an accommodation at any point, please email accommodations@workday.com.

Are you being referred to one of our roles? If so, ask your connection at Workday about our Employee Referral process!

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