Workday

Principal Cybersecurity Engineer

Workday$176K — $264K *
Information Technology
8 - 10 years of experience
Job Overview by Ladders

Qualifications

  • 10+ years of experience in cybersecurity or related fields, with 2+ years in a technical leadership role.
  • Bachelor's Degree in a relevant field.
  • Certifications in Offensive Security, SANS, CISSP, or related are advantageous.
  • Proficiency in deploying scalable, cloud-native security solutions and experience in software development for rapid prototyping.
  • Deep understanding of scripting languages and artificial intelligence.
  • Proven project management skills across complex security initiatives with multiple stakeholders.
  • Intellectual curiosity to explore and integrate emerging technologies.

Responsibilities

  • Lead the security tooling architecture and operations, ensuring continuous development.
  • Develop and implement a world-class security response program.
  • Enhance response platforms for precision, automation, and innovation in Cyber Defense.
  • Direct and support security incident response efforts across the organization.
  • Mentor and develop both new and existing security team members.
  • Drive a security-centric culture throughout the organization.
  • Participate in the integration of AI into security processes.

Benefits

  • Hybrid/flexible work schedule that balances remote and in-office time.
  • A highly visible role influencing major cybersecurity events.
  • Opportunity to work in a fun, collaborative environment recognized as a top company.
  • Access to innovative tools and resources in every cloud, including proprietary systems.
Full Job Description
About the Team
We are growing our cybersecurity response program to continue to deliver world class capabilities. Our team is building the Security Center of the future to further our customer's confidence in our platform. This means we are continually innovating our investigative capabilities in the areas of incident response, digital forensics (DFIR), threat hunting, security automation, and data loss prevention. We respond quickly, efficiently and regain control by minimizing the threat of damage caused by malicious activities. We are a highly visible global security function that collaborates closely with multiple Workday teams. We work hard and push each other to constantly improve, but in an environment that is fun and considered the best company to work for.

About the Role

Workday is seeking a dedicated and proficient security professional possessing extensive security engineering and response expertise with knowledge on how to apply AI to security response processes. This is an opportunity to contribute to a highly visible team involved in all major cybersecurity events, where your skills and experience will be used to inspire confidence and trust in Workday.

This is a highly technical principal role with the understanding that you are already conversant in incident response, security automation, system security, network security, threat hunting, forensics, data loss prevention and artificial intelligence. Furthermore, this role leads the development and lifecycle support of the organization's response tooling infrastructure and associated environments. This role will push you to understand the inner workings of our SaaS platform and couple that with traditional security practices on premise. We have resources in every cloud, including our own. We offer a hybrid/flexible schedule for employees.

What you will do:
  • Strong leadership presence with the ability to set direction, motivate teams, and drive the security mindset across every aspect of the company.
  • Spearhead the architecture, daily operations, and continuous development of all security response tooling and environments (i.e. SOAR, SIEM, Incident Response, Forensics, Agentic AI).
  • Contribute to the program vision and implementation of a world class Response program at Workday.
  • Evolve the response platforms that enable Cyber Defense to operate with precision, automation and innovation.
  • Lead and support security incident response across the organization.
  • Help drive team development by mentoring new and existing staff.


About You

Basic Qualifications
  • 10+ years of experience in cybersecurity or information security roles, including 2+ years with hands-on technical leadership experience
  • Bachelor's Degree.


Other Qualifications
  • Other relevant certification/s and training are beneficial (e.g. Offensive Security, SANS, CISSP, Specific Security Tooling, etc.).
  • Extensive expertise in architecting and deploying scalable cloud-native security solutions, complemented by a background in software development to facilitate implementation, with a particular focus on rapid prototyping and iterative methodologies.
  • Experience with security monitoring and incident response is important, as this knowledge will inform decisions on how to implement the solutions.
  • Deep knowledge of scripting languages, artificial intelligence (conversational AI, Generative AI and AI Agents) are essential.
  • Proven ability to manage multiple complex projects with various stakeholders outside of their organization, competing priorities, and core operations effectively.
  • High ownership and accountability, with comfort leading high-severity incidents.
  • A strong intellectual curiosity to rapidly acquire proficiency in emerging technologies and platforms.
  • Experience in some or all of the following:
    • Security alert triage, investigation, incident response, and incident management
    • Threat hunting and digital forensics
    • SIEM and SOAR security technologies and solutions
    • Leveraging artificial intelligence to enhance security processes
    • Secure Software Development Lifecycle (SSDLC)


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

Additional Considerations:

If performed in Colorado, the pay range for this job is $176,000 - $264,000 USD based on min and max pay range for that role if performed in CO.

The application deadline for this role is the same as the posting end date stated as below:

08/16/2026

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.

About Workday

Workday, Inc. is a provider of enterprise cloud applications for finance and human resources. The Company delivers financial management, human capital management and analytics applications designed for various companies, educational institutions and government agencies. As part of its applications, the Company provides embedded analytics that capture the content and context of everyday business events, facilitating informed decision-making from wherever users are working. Its applications include Workday Financial Management, Workday Human Capital Management (HCM) and Other Applications. It also provides open, standards-based Web-services application programming interfaces, and pre-built packaged integrations and connectors. Workday, Inc. is headquartered in Pleasanton, California.
Learn more about Workday
Size
15,932 employees
Market Cap
$42.2 billion
Industry
Net Income
-$282.4 million
Founded
2005
5 Year Trend
+26.7%
Revenue
$4.3 billion
NASDAQ

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