Workiva, Inc

Principal Software Engineer

Workiva, Inc$177K — $284K *
US-AnywhereRemote in United States
Information Technology
8 - 10 years of experience
Job Overview by Ladders

Qualifications

  • 8+ years of experience building and scaling complex software systems.
  • Bachelor's degree in Computer Science or related field; or equivalent experience with advanced degrees.
  • Demonstrated experience using AI as a primary development collaborator.
  • Proven success leading large, cross-pillar technical initiatives.
  • Strong architectural judgment across distributed systems and APIs.

Responsibilities

  • Partner with engineering teams to co-deliver complex work across various initiatives.
  • Adapt technical approaches and delivery strategies to project needs.
  • Lead technical strategy across large, multi-team initiatives with long-term impact.
  • Design AI-driven systems that support autonomous engineering workflows.
  • Mentor and challenge engineers to expand their scope and impact.

Benefits

  • Comprehensive employee benefits package.
  • 401(k) match.
  • Discretionary annual bonus.
  • Restricted Stock Units granted at hire.
  • Flexible work arrangement options between office and remote.
Full Job Description
N/A

We are hiring a Principal Software Engineer who can operate across multiple modes of work: platform modernization, iterative product development, and high-ambition greenfield exploration. This is a hands-on role for someone who can define strategy, deliver complex systems, and raise the technical bar for the teams around them.

What You'll Do

Deliver outcomes
  • Partner with engineering teams to co-deliver complex work across platform modernization, product evolution, and new product bets.
  • Adapt your technical approach, planning style, and delivery strategy to match the needs of the work.
  • Use AI-native development methods to build automation, validation, and engineering harnesses that improve speed, quality, and leverage.

Define and drive technical strategy
  • Lead technical strategy across large, multi-team initiatives with long-term impact.
  • Define and evolve system boundaries across complex domains, with a focus on clean interfaces and scalability.
  • Identify and remove bottlenecks in performance, data flow, reliability, and architecture.
  • Lead exploration, prototyping, and validation for ambiguous technical problems.
  • Partner with cross-functional peers on disaster recovery planning, testing, and optimization.

Design AI-driven systems
  • Design systems that enable autonomous or semi-autonomous engineering workflows.
  • Build context-aware infrastructure that connects code, documentation, and systems to AI tooling.
  • Develop guardrails such as validation layers, static analysis, and automation hooks to ensure safe and reliable AI-assisted development.
  • Improve how AI is used across the organization for both effectiveness and efficiency.

Influence and lead
  • Raise the technical bar by helping teams think bigger and execute better.
  • Mentor and challenge Staff+ engineers to expand their scope, judgment, and impact.
  • Partner with engineering and product leadership to align technical decisions with business outcomes.
  • Create durable artifacts such as runbooks, decision logs, and tests that can be handed off and evolved by others.
  • Contribute across product domains, bringing context from one area to solve problems in another.


What You'll Need

Minimum Qualifications
  • 8+ years of experience building and scaling complex software systems.
  • Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Information Security, or a related field; or 6+ years and a Master's degree; or a PhD with 4+ years of experience; or equivalent practical experience
  • Demonstrated experience using AI as a primary development collaborator, with a strong quality bar for AI-generated output.


Preferred Qualifications
  • Proven success leading large, cross-pillar technical initiatives.
  • Track record of working effectively across platform modernization, iterative product development, and greenfield delivery.
  • Strong architectural judgment across distributed systems, APIs, and platform design
  • Ability to operate as a force multiplier for other engineers.
  • Experience improving engineering testing standards through approaches such as TDD, BDD, load testing, stress testing, chaos testing, invariant testing, or mutation testing.
  • Experience building infrastructure that improves engineering velocity and quality at scale.
  • Strong background in distributed systems and platform architecture.
  • Experience inferring behavioral specifications from existing systems through code, tests, logs, and subject-matter experts.
  • Ability to deliver production-quality outcomes in a small, time-boxed team setting.
  • Strong written communication skills and a habit of creating durable, useful artifacts.
  • A leadership style that empowers others rather than creating dependency.


How You'll Be Rewarded
• Salary range in the US: $177,000.00 - $284,000.00
• A discretionary bonus typically paid annually
• Restricted Stock Units granted at time of hire
• 401(k) match and comprehensive employee benefits package

The salary range represents the low and high end of the salary range for this job in the US. Minimums and maximums may vary based on location. The actual salary offer will carefully consider a wide range of factors, including your skills, qualifications, experience and other relevant factors.

Workiva supports employees in working where they work best - either from an office or remotely from any location within their country of employment.
#LI-KP1

About Workiva, Inc

Workiva Inc. is a global software company headquartered in Ames, Iowa. The company provides cloud-based solutions for connected reporting and compliance, enabling collaboration and data integration for enterprises. Workiva's platform offers a suite of tools for data management, reporting, and compliance, including SOX, SEC, and XBRL reporting. The company's customers include more than 75% of the Fortune 500 and over 2,800 enterprises worldwide. Workiva was founded in 2008 and went public in 2014.
Learn more about Workiva, Inc
Size
2,106 employees
Market Cap
$4.3 billion
Industry
Net Income
-$48.4 million
Founded
2008
5 Year Trend
+19.9%
Revenue
$351.5 million
NASDAQ

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