About the role
For over 20 years, Smartsheet has empowered teams to manage work seamlessly and scale solutions smarter. Now, in our most ambitious chapter yet, we are uniting human teams with AI agents. By orchestrating the work agents do best, automating manual tasks and uncovering insights at scale, we create the space for people to focus on what truly matters: judgment, creativity, and big thinking. That is magic at work, and it’s what we show up for every day.
Corporate Systems Engineering builds and operates the software platforms, integrations, and automations that power Smartsheet’s core business functions across Finance, Sales/GTM, and People & Culture. Our team owns mission-critical systems and workflows that enable how the company hires, sells, bills, pays, reports, and scales. We operate at the intersection of software engineering, enterprise platforms, and business-critical data, treating internal systems with the same rigor, reliability, and product mindset as customer-facing software.
The People Systems team engineers and operates platforms that support the employee lifecycle, including HR, payroll, learning, and talent systems. We balance deep platform configuration with extensibility, integrations, and data integrity to deliver reliable, compliant systems that scale with the organization.
As a Sr. HR Systems Engineer on the People Systems team, you will operate as a technical leader within the People & Culture (P&C) domain, owning complex, high-impact engineering work that extends beyond traditional application configuration. This role focuses on building scalable, reliable, and extensible solutions across Workday, People data, integrations, and automation that support the full employee lifecycle and enable the business to operate with accuracy, speed, and insight. You will work at the intersection of enterprise platforms, custom engineering, and data, helping evolve People Systems from primarily UI-driven administration into a product-grade, engineering-led capability within Product Engineering.
This role is suited for a senior engineer who is comfortable working across configuration, code, integrations, and data - and who enjoys solving ambiguous, cross-functional problems in a regulated enterprise environment.
You Will:
- Act as a senior technical owner within the People Systems domain, responsible for designing and delivering complex solutions across Workday, integrations, and supporting platforms
- Lead engineering efforts related to People data flows, including hire-to-retire lifecycle events, data synchronization, and downstream consumption by Finance, Security, and Analytics
- Design and implement custom extensions and integrations using tools such as Workday Studio, APIs, middleware, or AWS-based services
- Partner with Integrations and Automation teams to build event-driven, automated People workflows (e.g., joiner/mover/leaver, access provisioning, data updates)
- Own the technical design and implementation of People-related integrations and data contracts, ensuring reliability, auditability, and clear ownership
- Contribute to People reporting and analytics initiatives by enabling high-quality, well-modeled People data for BI, compliance, and workforce insights
- Identify opportunities to reduce manual People operations through automation, configuration-as-code patterns, and reusable components
- Provide technical leadership and mentorship to other People Systems engineers, reviewing designs and code and setting quality standards
- Partner closely with Product Managers, HR stakeholders, Security, and Compliance to translate People domain needs into robust technical solutions
- Participate in on-call rotations and operational ownership for People Systems, ensuring reliability and rapid issue resolution
You Have:
- 6-8 years experience building and supporting enterprise systems, with deep exposure to HR/People platforms such as Workday
- Experience extending enterprise platforms through custom development, APIs, middleware, or platform-specific tooling (e.g., Workday Studio or similar)
- Strong understanding of system-to-system integrations, data modeling, and event-driven workflows
- Comfort working across both UI-driven configuration and code-based solutions
- Experience operating in environments with compliance, audit, and security requirements (SOX, ITGC, access controls)
- Ability to lead technical initiatives independently and make sound architectural decisions
- Strong communication skills and comfort collaborating with non-technical stakeholders
- Experience mentoring engineers and raising the technical bar of a team
- Experience with People data analytics, reporting pipelines, or workforce metrics
- Familiarity with identity lifecycle management and security integrations tied to HR systems
- Experience building internal tools or automations that support HR or People Operations teams
- Exposure to cloud platforms (AWS), scripting languages, or automation frameworks
- Experience working in Product Engineering organizations rather than traditional IT
Get to Know Us:
At Smartsheet, your ideas are heard, your potential is supported, and your contributions have real impact. You’ll have the freedom to explore, push boundaries, and grow beyond your role. We welcome diverse perspectives and nontraditional paths—because we know that impact comes from individuals who care deeply and challenge thoughtfully. When you’re doing work that stretches you, excites you, and connects you to something bigger, that’s magic at work. Let’s build what’s next, together.
Equal Opportunity Employer:
Smartsheet is an Equal Opportunity (EEO) employer committed to fostering an inclusive environment with the best employees. It is our policy to provide equal employment opportunities to all qualified applicants in accordance with applicable laws in the US, UK, Australia, Germany, Costa Rica, Japan, Bulgaria, and India. All qualified applicants will receive consideration without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, age, protected veteran or disabled status, or genetic information.
If there are preparations we can make to help ensure you have a comfortable and positive interview experience, please let us know.
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Aplyr's read
Smartsheet empowers diverse teams through its real-time collaborative work management platform, attracting professionals focused on enhancing productivity and innovation across industries.
What's promising
- •Smartsheet's platform is known for its flexibility and user-friendly interface, boosting team productivity.
- •The company is expanding globally, hiring roles in Europe, India, and the Americas.
- •Smartsheet integrates automation, a key feature for modernizing workflows and increasing efficiency.
What to watch
- •Smartsheet faces intense competition from other established collaborative tools like Asana and Trello.
- •The company's success depends heavily on continuous innovation to stay relevant in a fast-evolving market.
- •Limited public information about Smartsheet's long-term financial sustainability and growth projections.
Why Smartsheet
- •Smartsheet offers a real-time platform that combines project management with automation capabilities.
- •The company supports a wide range of remote and hybrid work roles, reflecting its flexible work culture.
- •Smartsheet's focus on diverse industries allows it to cater to various market needs effectively.
Aplyr’s read is generated by AI from public sources. Was it useful?
About Smartsheet
Smartsheet is a collaborative work management platform that enables teams to plan, track, automate, and report on work in real-time. By providing a flexible and user-friendly interface, Smartsheet enhances productivity and collaboration across various industries.
