Principal Analytics Engineer
Workday
Your work days are brighter here.
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
Workday has launched an Enterprise Data and Analytics (ED&A) Team to Transform and optimize the way Workday creates and shares trusted data to drive actionable insights and data led innovation across the enterprise. To enable this strategy, the ED&A team has worked with the business to identify critical business areas in which data and analytics can make a material difference in the execution of Workday’s strategic goals. Each of these goals is being organized as a data product with a dedicated multi-functional team to drive a diverse set of data management, governance, and data analytics to realize relevant, measurable business change.As part of ED&A and enabling this strategy, the Analytics Engineering team is at the forefront of transforming data into reliable and insightful assets. We are responsible for building scalable data products, ensuring data quality and governance through version control, and creating best practices for the organization. The team also operates at the intersection of Product, Engineering, and Business Operation, owning the transformation layer of our modern data stack (Snowflake, dbt).
About the Role
We are seeking a Principal Analytics Engineer with skills in data product development, pipeline management, data modeling, data transformation, and data analytics to support enterprise analytics and AI initiatives. The Principal Analytics Engineer's role moves beyond execution to focus on architectural governance, acting as the dbt expert to define and enforce data product development best practices for scalability and cost-efficiency. This role requires a passion for coaching junior engineers, providing deep technical mentorship to foster a culture of engineering rigor and elevate team performance. You will need to master the complex organizational dynamics inherent in cross-functional projects, acting as the key technical liaison to build consensus and drive the adoption of unified enterprise metrics. Ultimately, you will be responsible for defining the strategy for foundational data projects, ensuring all business teams have access to optimized, efficient and trusted data products.
Job Responsibilities:
Architect, design, and lead the build-out of end-to-end performant, reliable, and scalable data pipelines and the transformation layer.
Act as the subject matter expert, defining and championing data modeling standards and best practices across the organization while managing the full lifecycle of complex dimensional models and metrics from prototyping to production.
Partner cross-functionally with Product Owners, Data Analysts, and business leaders (Sales, Marketing, Finance) to scope and deliver high-impact analytics initiatives, ensuring analytics requirements are clearly understood and effectively implemented.
Operate as a highly independent individual contributor, solving complex, ambiguous problems and delivering high-quality, architecturally sound solutions with minimal oversight and a high degree of ownership over critical data domains.
Mentor, guide, and coach junior and mid-level engineers to deliver complex and next-generation features, actively instilling a culture of software engineering rigor, code quality, best practice, standards, and technical excellence within the team.
Master the dynamics of high-stakes projects, expertly navigating stakeholder and internal complexities to align business needs with technical feasibility and secure consensus on enterprise-wide metric definitions.
Design and build database architectures to handle massive and complex data volumes, skillfully balancing computational load, query latency, and data warehouse cost efficiency, integrating strong data quality audits and testing frameworks at scale to ensure resilience.
Boost overall data team productivity by proactively identifying technical debt, improving tooling, automating complex workflows, and streamlining processes for transformation and deployment.
Bring a customer-centric, product-oriented mindset to the table, collaborating with external and internal stakeholders to resolve ambiguities and ensure shipped data features are impactful, reliable, and align with business outcomes.
Build and maintain user friendly documentation for data models, data processes, workflows, and systems for transparency and knowledge sharing.
About You
The ideal candidate is passionate about continuous improvement, constantly identifying ways to enhance data, processes, and systems. They are comfortable navigating and bringing clarity to ambiguous situations, proactively seeking solutions and charting a path forward even when faced with incomplete information.
Basic Qualifications:
8+ years of professional experience in an Analytics Engineering or Data Engineering role, preferably within a SaaS or high-tech environment.
8+ years of proficiency in SQL and strong production experience with a major cloud data warehouse (Snowflake, BigQuery, Redshift).
Mastery of dbt, including advanced features (macros, packages, source freshness, custom tests).
Strong familiarity with version control (GitHub), CI/CD, and modern development workflows.
Strong understanding of data warehousing concepts and dimensional modeling.
Other Qualifications:
Demonstrated ability to manage requirements and expectations across multiple, competing business units.
Strong communicator who can build trusted partnerships across GTM, Finance, and Exec stakeholders.
Experience with a major orchestration tool and defining complex data dependencies.
Deep functional knowledge of core SaaS business domains (e.g., Salesforce/CRM data, Product telemetry, Financial modeling).
Proficiency in Python for scripting, data manipulation, and pipeline orchestration.
Comfortable working through ambiguity in fast-moving, cross-functional environments.
Familiarity with data governance tools, data catalogs, and data observability solutions.
Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or a quantitative/technical field. Master's or Ph.D. degree in Computer Science or Data Science preferred.
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.GA.Atlanta
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.
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