Principal Engineer - Workforce Technology; UKG

8116 - Midtown Office - 2220 W. Broad Street, Richmond, Virginia, 23220 Car Max, the way your career should be!

Car Max is modernizing the workforce technology systems that serve thousands of associates nationwide. We're looking for a Principal Software Engineer to own the strategy, architecture, and evolution of our UKG Pro Workforce Management (WFM) platform — and the integrations that connect it to our broader HR ecosystem.

This is a high-impact, senior-level role. You'll drive architectural decisions, shape engineering practice, and build solutions that span systems, teams, and business functions. You should be comfortable operating at both a strategic and hands-on level — leading what's next, not just maintaining what exists.

• Lead enterprise-level solution design across UKG Pro WFM — with a focus on scalability, resiliency, and long-term sustainability.
• Design and implement solutions across core UKG modules:
  Timekeeping, Accruals, Attendance, Forecasting, and Advanced Scheduling.
• Drive the evolution of our integration strategy from Dell Boomi toward API-first, abstraction layer patterns — reducing platform dependency and improving maintainability across the HR ecosystem.
• Ability to define integration requirements for middleware, with enough cloud fluency (Azure preferred) to partner with Platform Engineering
• Ensure every solution is designed with the full HR ecosystem in mind — not scoped to a single platform.

• Serve as the technical authority for Workforce Technology — influencing platform direction and cross-team standards.
• Mentor engineers and elevate team capability through code review, documentation, and direct coaching.
• Champion SDLC discipline, change management rigor, and engineering best practices across the team.
• Lead evaluation and adoption of new tools, platform capabilities, and technologies.

• Partner closely with HR, business operations, and technology teams to translate requirements into scalable solutions.
• Create clear technical documentation that enables maintainability, knowledge sharing, and onboarding.
• Establish feedback loops with end users and frontline associates to continuously identify pain points, validate solutions, and drive iterative improvements that make day-to-day work faster and easier.

Basic Qualifications

• Bachelor’s Degree in Computer Science, Decision Science, Engineering, Statistics, or a related field, or equivalent alternative education, skills, and/or practical experience is required and 7+ years of relevant work experience or
• Master’s Degree in Computer Science, Decision Science, Engineering, Statistics, or a related field, or equivalent alternative education, skills, and/or practical experience is required and 5+ years of relevant work experience

Preferred Qualifications

• 7+ years of hands-on experience with UKG Pro WFM and/or Kronos platforms.
• Deep experience configuring and supporting:
  Timekeeping, Accruals, Attendance, Advanced Scheduling, and Forecasting.
• Experience designing or leading a migration toward API-first or abstraction layer integration patterns — decoupling systems from point-to-point dependencies.
• Strong understanding of enterprise integration architecture — including middleware, abstraction layers, event-driven APIs, and cloud infrastructure (Azure preferred).
• Experience integrating UKG with broader HR systems such as Workday and payroll platforms.
• Familiarity with data platforms such as Google Big Query or similar.

• Experience across multiple HR technology platforms — not just UKG.
• Background designing solutions in hybrid environments (cloud + enterprise systems).
• Experience evaluating or selecting technology platforms — not just implementing them.
• Familiarity with time clock or workforce hardware integrations.
• Strong documentation habits that scale knowledge across teams.

Work Location and Arrangement:
This role will be based out of the Richmond Midtown or Plano Tech hub and have a Hybrid work arrangement.

• Associates based in Richmond work on-site 4 days per week.
• Associates based in Plano work onsite 2 days per week

Wor…