Software Development Engineer, SRE (US Federal)
Workday is hiring a Software Development Engineer, SRE (US Federal). It pays $137k-$205k a year and Level rates it ; you can apply on Workday.
Level's read on this job
- Level rates this software engineer role Little AI ●○○○: aI is not part of the work.
- Tools and skills the posting cites include AI safety.
- Level classifies it as a mid-level role.
- Level lists 373 other open roles at Workday.
- The role was posted in the last few days.
AI in this role
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
Your work matters here. At Workday Government, we focus on outcomes that serve a larger mission. Our work supports U.S. federal agencies as they modernize and transform the full employee lifecycle experience and finance operations—so they can operate with greater clarity, accountability, and trust. As a Fortune 500 company and a proven enterprise cloud platform, Workday brings modern technology, responsible AI, and secure infrastructure to some of the most complex environments in the world. The work isn’t theoretical. It’s operational. It’s high-impact. And it demands rigor, integrity, and long-term thinking.From day one, you’ll be part of a team that values collaboration, follow-through, and doing the right thing—especially when the stakes are high. Our culture is grounded in integrity, respect, and shared responsibility. We challenge each other to think clearly, act thoughtfully, and build solutions that stand up to real-world demands. Here, curiosity is matched with accountability. Ambition is paired with trust. You’ll have the space to do your best work, the support to keep growing, and the backing of a company committed to long-term investment in both its people and the federal mission.
If you’re looking to apply your experience to meaningful, mission-driven work—alongside colleagues who take pride in building things that last—you’ll find that opportunity at Workday Government.
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).
This role will handle the operations of many of our team’s services, sitting in the intersection between our development teams and our partners in infrastructure. Your partnership with these teams will drive improvements to our architecture and operating practices with the goal of enabling the smooth operation of our services for our customers. It will also handle on-call support for these services in conjunction with our service and infrastructure teams.
This role will be most successful when addressing a given service’s challenges with a sense of ownership, while also driving the same sense of ownership with other teams which contribute to it.
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).
About You
This role may require a security clearance at the TS/SCI w/CI Poly level. Applicants must have the ability to obtain and maintain a U.S. government issued security clearance. An active TS/SCI w/CI Poly is preferred.
We need creative and dedicated Software Engineers, like you, who really want to move the needle. You should enjoy working on projects that can significantly improve developer satisfaction and save the company millions of dollars. By nature, you are inquisitive and ready to question the status quo. You have a passion for exploring and implementing innovative techniques and approaches to solve complex and challenging problems. Most importantly of all you are a superlative collaborator and teammate and bring out the very best in everyone. You feel happiest when working with a highly capable and motivated team of people passionate about software and technology.
Do you love troubleshooting complex systems? Working in partnership with others to brainstorm, identify, and complete improvements in our software and supporting systems?
Basic Qualifications
US Citizenship is required.
Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, a related field, or equivalent practical experience.
4 years of experience with software development in one or more programming languages.
Other Qualifications
Experience designing, analyzing, and troubleshooting large-scale distributed systems.
Hands-on operational experience with large-scale distributed systems.
Experience designing, analyzing, and troubleshooting public cloud infrastructure and applications.
Experience instrumenting applications for observability, including metrics collection, logging, and tracing.
Experience with capacity planning and performance optimization of distributed systems.
Knowledge of incident management processes and post-incident analysis.
Experience in automating operational tasks and infrastructure provisioning using IaC tools.
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
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 accommodations, exercising a privacy right, or cooperating in an investigation in accordance with applicable law. Any employee who retaliates against a candidate or employee for doing so may be subject to disciplinary action, up to and including termination of employment, to the fullest extent allowable under applicable law.
If you require a reasonable accommodation, you may email accommodations@workday.com, as far in advance as possible.
Are you being referred to one of our roles? If so, ask your connection at Workday about our Employee Referral process!
At Workday, we value our candidates’ privacy and data security. Workday will never ask candidates to apply to jobs through websites that are not Workday Careers.
Please be aware of sites that may ask for you to input your data in connection with a job posting that appears to be from Workday but is not.
In addition, Workday will never ask candidates to pay a recruiting fee, or pay for consulting or coaching services, in order to apply for a job at Workday.
How we rate this
Software Development Engineer, SRE (US Federal) at Workday rates 35 out of 100 for how much of the daily work is AI. That makes it Little AI (AI Level 1 of 4). The level is about AI in the job, not seniority.
Little AI. AI is not part of the work.
- ●●●● Builds AI80 to 100
- ●●●○ Works on AI60 to 79
- ●●○○ Uses AI40 to 59
- ●○○○ Little AI0 to 39
Levels come from how often the tools, models and workflows of the role are named in the posting itself. Read the description and count the AI tools, models and workflows it names.
Prepare for this job
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Also common in software engineer jobs at this level
Pay
- This job starts at
- $137k
- Typical software engineer job
- $168k
This posting starts 18% below the typical software engineer job. See software engineer jobs
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