Senior Software Engineer - Data Platform (Spark & Trino)

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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 Platform services team is responsible for enabling various teams that use Apache Spark and Trino as open-source data processing engines. This team enables Workday's analytics products to leverage these distributed engines to process large volumes of data for mission-critical processing, interactive analysis, and reporting.
As the core owners of this infrastructure, our team is deeply committed to the engineering excellence of the platform. We are responsible for the design and development of new features in Spark and Trino, with a continuous focus on enhancing the serviceability of the platform in a multi-tenant cloud environment.

About the Role

As part of Workday’s Data platform team, you will be responsible for building, enhancing, and extending our Spark and Trino-based large-scale distributed data processing platform in the cloud. You will work alongside a top-notch team to architect and build features representing our:

• High-velocity hybrid transactional/analytical engine

• Low-latency interactive engine

• Large scale cube builder engine
   

In this role, you will be a key driver in ensuring the platform is hardened for production at massive scale. This includes designing fault-tolerant architectures, building robust self-healing mechanisms, and implementing comprehensive telemetry to make the internal state of our distributed query engines completely transparent.

Key Responsibilities Include:

• Developing data processing algorithms and techniques that work on large datasets, facilitating an interactive querying experience over large volumes of data.

• Resiliency: Designing and implementing strategies for high availability, fault isolation, and graceful degradation of Spark and Trino clusters.

• Observability: Building end-to-end tracing, deep metrics, and advanced alerting frameworks to proactively identify performance bottlenecks and system anomalies.

• Scalability: Optimizing resource allocation, cluster auto-scaling, and multi-tenant isolation to support highly elastic and unpredictable workloads.

About You

Basic Qualification 

- 8+ years of software development experience in Java and/or Scala in Linux/Unix environment.
- Experience operating large-scale distributed systems natively within public cloud environments (AWS or GCP)

- 3+ years in database internals, query processing, or distributed systems

Other Qualifications

• You have a BS in Computer Science or a related field with 5 years of experience, or an MS/PhD in Computer Science, or a relevant area, with 3 years of experience.

• A strong grasp of SQL and distributed data processing engines (e.g., Apache Spark).

• Hands-on experience with Trino (formerly PrestoSQL) or Presto for executing fast, distributed SQL queries across large, heterogeneous data sources.

• Proven experience architecting and tuning distributed systems for high availability, fault tolerance, and massive horizontal scale.

• Experience implementing observability and telemetry frameworks (e.g., Prometheus, Grafana, OpenTelemetry, JMX metrics) to monitor complex distributed workloads.

• Industry experience building and delivering high-performance data processing engines.

• Familiarity with AI coding tools like Cursor etc

• Experience leading or mentoring a team of engineers.

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: CAN.BC.Vancouver

Primary CAN Base Pay Range: $151,200 - $226,800 CAD

Additional CAN Location(s) Base Pay Range: $151,200 - $226,800 CAD

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 [email protected].

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