About the Team

The Data Cloud organization is at the forefront of Workday’s next major wave of innovation, driven by a bold mandate to build the industry’s first true Platform for Agents.

We are a high-energy, ambitious team that balances Workday's deep foundational expertise with fresh, forward-thinking perspectives to accelerate our pace of delivery and unlock massive new commercial value. By leveraging Workday’s unique business context, trusted data, and identity guardrails, we are building the critical engine that will power the future of AI and agentic workflows across the enterprise.

Within this organization, the Context and Semantics Engineering team acts as the brain trust responsible for making our AI "enterprise-aware." We build the semantic layers, knowledge graphs, query federation engines, and dynamic context systems that ground generative AI in real-world HR and Finance data. By bridging the gap between raw enterprise data and large language models (LLMs), our team ensures that Workday’s autonomous agents can reason accurately, securely, and with deep contextual awareness at a global scale.

About the Role

As a Software Development Engineer in Context and Semantics, you will be a core backend builder helping to develop the data and context infrastructure powering Workday’s AI Agents. Working alongside senior engineers and technical leads, you will write clean, scalable code that connects large language models to complex enterprise data stores.

In this role, you will implement components for advanced RAG (Retrieval-Augmented Generation) pipelines, integrate vector databases, and help build query federation services (e.g., Trino/LDQ) that route requests between transactional and analytical systems. We are looking for an energetic, curious, and detail-oriented backend software engineer who is eager to solve complex data challenges and build cutting-edge AI platform features at scale.

Responsibilities:

• Feature Development & Coding: Design, develop, and test scalable backend microservices, APIs, and data pipelines powering the context and semantic layer for AI Agents.

• RAG & Vector Search Implementation: Help build and maintain enterprise RAG pipelines, including embedding workflows, document chunking strategies, and vector database integrations (e.g., Pinecone, Milvus, Elasticsearch).

• Query & Semantic Integration: Support the development of distributed query execution features (leveraging technologies like Trino) to retrieve enterprise data securely for LLMs.

• LLM & Agentic Workflows: Implement orchestration logic and context-management components using modern AI frameworks (e.g., LlamaIndex, LangChain) to support multi-turn agent interactions.

• Data Security & Governance: Ensure all code adheres to strict enterprise standards around data privacy, tenant isolation, and Role-Based Access Control (RBAC).

• Operational Excellence: Write thorough unit and integration tests, participate in code reviews, and help maintain high system reliability, low latency, and robust operational monitoring.

• Collaborative Execution: Partner closely with Senior Engineers, Product Managers, and team leads to break down technical requirements into well-executed code deliverables.

About You

Basic Qualificatio​ns:

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 .

Primary Location: USA.CA.Pleasanton

Primary Location Base Pay Range: $148,000 USD - $222,000 USD

Additional US Location(s) Base Pay Range: $123,900 USD - $222,000 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.