Principal Cybersecurity Engineer – Infrastructure Security

Job Description

Principal Cybersecurity Engineer | Workday

The Tone:
This is a full-time role at Workday, located in Ireland (hybrid). Workday is a Fortune 500 company and a leading AI platform for managing people, money, and agents, shaping the future of work. This role contributes to building and sustaining trust in Workday’s cybersecurity commitments by embedding a cybersecurity-first mindset, delivering cybersecurity assurance, and enabling business growth. The company fosters a culture rooted in integrity, empathy, and shared enthusiasm, tackling challenges with bold ideas and genuine care, and investing in its employees for the long haul.

The TL;DR
• Role: Full Time
• Location: Hybrid – Dublin, Ireland
• Pay: €104000–€156000 EUR yearly
• Team: Workday Cybersecurity Governance, Risk, Compliance & Trust team
• Mission: Define and drive the strategic direction and implementation of security controls across Workday’s infrastructure to protect data and ensure trust.
• Tech Stack: Python, Go, Bash, Ruby, AWS, GCP, Azure

What You’ll Actually Do
• Champion automated compliance: Champion the principle of translating security policies directly into testable, automated code to ensure non-bypassable compliance.
• Architect enterprise security: Conceptualize, architect, and champion the adoption of groundbreaking, enterprise-wide security architectures and strategic initiatives that address current and future threats at massive scale.
• Lead security research: Lead applied research and innovation in security, anticipating future threats, evaluating disruptive technologies, and pioneering novel solutions to maintain Workday’s security posture.
• Govern security standards: Establish, govern, and evolve the highest-level security architectural standards, principles, and patterns across the organization, ensuring their rigorous application and measurable effectiveness.
• Mentor and advise leadership: Mentor, inspire, and cultivate other engineers and senior technical leaders, and advise executive leadership on critical security risks, strategic investments, and overall security posture.

The Must-Haves
• Background: Principal-level security engineer with deep technical expertise in infrastructure security and strong coding/automation skills.
• Experience: 10+ years of distinguished, progressive experience in security engineering and architecture, with a demonstrable track record of setting technical vision, leading security architecture for large-scale, complex systems, and driving enterprise-wide security transformations.
• Skills: Highly proficient in architecting, implementing, evolving, and securing complex, mission-critical services and infrastructure across multiple major cloud service providers (AWS, GCP, Azure) and large-scale enterprise environments; pioneering understanding and application of cloud security principles, advanced architectural patterns, and emerging technologies; strong proficiency in at least one scripting language (Python, Go, Bash, Ruby); unparalleled expertise and recognized authority in multiple core security domains (e.g., network security, platform hardening, application security, data protection, identity and access management, cryptography).
• Bonus: Globally recognized industry certifications (e.g., AWS Certified Security – Specialty, Google Professional Cloud Security Engineer, CKA, CKS, CISSP, CISM, CCSP) or significant contributions to the security field; authoritative expertise in secure-by-design architecture of Generative AI and Agentic systems; expertise in advanced threat modeling and building resilient architectures against nation-state level threats; proven ability to set strategy and drive adoption of secure-by-design automation and Infrastructure as Code (IaC); transformational leadership in embedding security into engineering culture (DevSecOps at scale); exceptional ability to articulate vision, influence executive leadership, and inspire technical teams.