Software Developer - Identity & Authentication Team

Workday Workday · Enterprise · Dublin, Ireland

Workday is seeking a Senior Software Developer for their Identity & Authentication Security team. This role involves designing and building resilient identity and authentication systems, bridging Identity Lifecycle Management (SCIM) and Authentication standards (OIDC, SAML, FIDO). The developer will focus on architecting SCIM endpoints, modernizing authentication services, defining platform strategy, ensuring data consistency, engineering for resilience, and championing best practices. The role requires expertise in Java, Scala, or Kotlin, deep knowledge of SCIM 2.0, and strong command of OIDC, OAuth 2.0, and SAML 2.0.

What you'd actually do

  1. Architect Identity Lifecycle Management: Design and implement robust SCIM (System for Cross-domain Identity Management) endpoints to automate the provisioning, updating, and de-provisioning of users across the Workday ecosystem.
  2. Modernize Authentication Services: Build and maintain high-performance services and APIs for secure, seamless access using OIDC, OAuth 2.0, SAML, and FIDO standards.
  3. Define Platform Strategy: Partner with engineering and product leadership to bridge the gap between security requirements and a concrete roadmap for our identity and access management (IAM) platform.
  4. Ensure Data Consistency: Solve complex synchronization challenges, ensuring user identity attributes remain consistent and secure across distributed microservices and external identity providers.
  5. Engineer for Resilience: Leverage design patterns like circuit-breaking, idempotency, and backpressure to ensure our identity services remain available under heavy load and during partial system failures.

Skills

Required

  • 5+ years of software development experience
  • designing, building, and maintaining scalable distributed systems in Java, Scala, or Kotlin
  • Deep expertise in Identity Lifecycle Management (ILM), specifically implementing and scaling SCIM 2.0 for automated user provisioning and de-provisioning.
  • Strong command of Authentication protocols, including hands-on experience with OIDC, OAuth 2.0, and SAML 2.0.
  • Architectural Maturity: Demonstrated experience applying patterns for resilient services, such as circuit-breaking, backpressure, and ensuring idempotency in distributed state changes.
  • API-First Mindset: Expertise in RESTful API design and managing complex data schemas for user attributes and group memberships.
  • Bachelor's degree in a computer-related field or equivalent work experience.

Nice to have

  • modern security threats and mitigation strategies (e.g., token theft, session hijacking, or MFA via FIDO2/WebAuthn).
  • relational databases (MySQL, PostgreSQL) and caching layers (Redis) to manage high-concurrency identity lookups.
  • Docker, Kubernetes, and CI/CD pipelines (Jenkins/GitLab) in a microservices environment.
  • Prometheus, Grafana, or OpenTelemetry to monitor the health and latency of critical path authentication flows.
  • Lead complex technical initiatives, write clear design documents, and mentor peers through code reviews and architectural discussions.

What the JD emphasized

  • highly resilient identity and authentication systems
  • scalable, distributed security infrastructure
  • highly resilient identity and authentication systems
  • scalable, distributed security infrastructure
  • architectural maturity
  • resilient services
  • heavy load
  • partial system failures
  • critical path authentication flows