Principal Cybersecurity Engineer - US Federal

Workday is a Fortune 500 company and a leading AI platform for managing people, money, and agents. As a member of the Platform Security Engineering team, you will be responsible for the architecture, engineering, and maintenance of the systems that protect the Workday product. Operating entirely within AWS, you will treat "Security as Code," ensuring Vulnerability Management, SIEM, and SOAR tools are robust, scalable, and automated. You are the primary engineering partner to our SOC, building the high-fidelity tools they rely on to keep our customers safe.

Responsibilities

As a member of the Platform Security Engineering team, responsible for the architecture, engineering, and maintenance of the systems that protect the Workday product; Design and maintain the lifecycle of our core security stack (Vulnerability Management, SIEM, and SOAR) in a native AWS environment; Secure, manage, and monitor Kubernetes clusters and containerized workloads; Use tools like Terraform, CloudFormation, or CDK to deploy and manage security infrastructure, ensuring environments are version-controlled and immutable; Leverage Python to bridge the gaps between commercial tools; Actively use AI tools and LLMs as a force multiplier to accelerate development, optimize code, and automate repetitive tasks; Transform complex security telemetry into actionable, visual insights; Work to integrate security tooling into the developer workflow

Requirements

United States citizenship (naturalized or native) due to federal government security requirements; Ability to obtain and maintain a U.S. government issued security clearance; may require TS/SCI w/CI Poly level; Highly organized, technically fluent program leader who thrives in complex, fast-paced environments, managing ambiguity, aligning stakeholders, and driving execution; Pragmatic Engineering: avoid complexity for complexity's sake, prioritize reliable, scalable paths, and have a natural allergy to manual, repetitive tasks; Radical Ownership: don't wait for a ticket to address a critical gap, investigate problems from first principles and proactively drive the solution; High-Agency Problem Solving: thrive in the gray area and possess the intellectual agility to dive in, learn, and deliver; Customer-Centric Infrastructure: treat internal teams as customers and go deep to understand their goals before building; AWS Mastery: Deep experience architecting and engineering across Compute, Storage, Networking, and Security; Container Orchestration: Heavy hands-on experience with Kubernetes (K8s) and Docker, specifically regarding lifecycle management and security hardening; Software Engineering: Advanced proficiency in Python; Infrastructure as Code: Proven track record using Terraform (or equivalent IaC) to manage complex environments; AI-Augmented Workflow: proficient at leveraging AI tools to accelerate daily output and problem-solving; Data Synthesis: ability to distill complex technical data into clear, visual narratives for stakeholders; CI/CD Expertise: Experience building or maintaining robust pipelines in GitLab CI, GitHub Actions, or Jenkins; EKS Specialization: Specific experience managing production workloads on Amazon Elastic Kubernetes Service; SaaS at Scale: Background in securing large-scale, high-traffic, customer-facing SaaS platforms; May be required to be on site at client locations in the DC, MD, and VA (DMV) area

Nice to have

Active TS/SCI w/CI Poly preferred; Preferred DoD 8570/8140 compliant with at least IAT Level II certification, including a current Computing Environment (CE) credential and one approved specialty certification (e.g., CompTIA CySA+, GICSP, CASP+)

Benefits

Eligible for Workday Bonus Plan or role-specific commission/bonus; Annual refresh stock grants; Flexible work schedule with Flex Work (in-person and remote; at least half of time each quarter in office or in field)