Principal Cybersecurity Engineer - Application Security AI Architect

Your work days are brighter here.

At Workday, it all began with a conversation over breakfast. When our founders met at a sunny California diner, they came up with an idea to revolutionize the enterprise software market. And when we began to rise, one thing that really set us apart was our culture. A culture which was driven by our value of putting our people first. And ever since, the happiness, development, and contribution of every Workmate is central to who we are. Our Workmates believe a healthy employee-centric, collaborative culture is the essential mix of ingredients for success in business. That’s why we look after our people, communities and the planet while still being profitable. Feel encouraged to shine, however that manifests: you don’t need to hide who you are. You can feel the energy and the passion, it's what makes us unique. Inspired to make a brighter work day for all and transform with us to the next stage of our growth journey? Bring your brightest version of you and have a brighter work day here.

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About the Team

Workday’s Cybersecurity & Trust organization exists to inspire confidence and trust in Workday. We safeguard the personal information of 60+ million people and the financial information of some of the largest companies in the world. Cybersecurity is woven into the fabric of Workday and is core to everything we do. We cultivate a security-first mentality and believe that moving with speed and velocity is enabled by building security into the foundation.
The Workday Information Security Organization supports Workday’s critical Business Technology team by providing security risk review and partnership into enterprise efforts around infrastructure, data & analytics, and core enterprise applications. Through this work, the team delivers security architecture assessments, technical recommendations, security tool configuration management, policy and standard support, and overall security partnership to the CIO office.

About the Role

Do you have a passion for application security and artificial intelligence?

Workday is seeking an experienced principal application security architect to lead the design and innovation of application and AI security architectures, integrating advanced technologies to protect against evolving threats while enabling business agility and growth. This role involves collaborating with cross-functional teams to design and drive the secure architecture of cloud-based application and AI services models including generative and agentic AI, addressing potential threats+mitigations, and maintaining compliance with regulatory standards where applicable. The ideal candidate will have a strong background in enterprise-focused application security, AI technologies and cloud platforms, in addition to secure architecture, security principles and cybersecurity best practices. The architect will report to the Director of Security Engineering, and maintain strong working relationships across security, Business Technology and application development leadership.
 

What You'll Do:

• Secure Application Architecture: Define and maintain enterprise-wide application security architecture standards and blueprints across infrastructure, cloud, application and AI layers. Ensure solutions are securely designed and aligned with business goals, regulatory requirements, and the CISO’s strategic objectives.

• Solution Reviews and Advisory: Provide expert guidance during solution design and implementation. Lead threat modeling, architecture reviews, and risk assessments as part of technical intake and governance processes.

• Cross-Functional Engagement: Serve as the security subject matter expert within project and development teams. Partner with Security, Infrastructure, Application Development, and Business Technology teams to ensure secure integration and alignment of technical requirements.

• Innovation and Strategic Foresight: Stay ahead of evolving threats and technology trends. Contribute to the long-term security architecture roadmap by identifying opportunities to improve the organization’s security posture.

• Security Standards and Frameworks: Develop and maintain reference architectures, secure configuration standards, and solution patterns. Ensure consistency with frameworks such as NIST, FedRAMP, and GDPR.

• Collaborate with DevOps teams to drive security requirements, threat modeling practices and embedded security principles, standards and architecture blueprints into CI/CD pipelines

• Recommend strategies, requirements and security best practices across applications, API, cloud platform and data security.

About You

Basic Qualifications:

• 10-plus years enterprise security program experience with a combination of technical architecture and engineering roles within cybersecurity, cloud security and AI.

• Proven experience with AI model training, inferencing, and implementing security controls

• Experience with designing secure AI guardrails, prompt engineering, and RAG (Retrieval-Augmented Generation)

Other Qualifications:

• Familiarity with cloud platforms (AWS, Azure, GCP) and automation tools (Terraform, Ansible, Kubernetes, Docker)

• Proven use with zero trust architecture patterns, secure access controls, enterprise application security, data protection, vulnerability management, API security.

• Knowledgeable in Amazon Bedrock, OpenAI APIs, Langchain, or similar AI model platforms

• Experience in software development or automation with languages such as Python, Java, React, C++, or JavaScript/Typescript

• Strong understanding of compliance standards and regulatory frameworks incl. but not limited to: NIST and FedRAMP frameworks.

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

 

Primary Location Base Pay Range: $173,600 USD - $260,400 USD

 

Additional US Location(s) Base Pay Range: $164,900 USD - $288,000 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.

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.

Are you being referred to one of our roles? If so, ask your connection at Workday about our Employee Referral process!