Blog: Engineering Workday for Scale: Lessons From Coinbase’s Head of HR Tech

I sat down with Praveen Hari, Head of HR Engineering at Coinbase, to talk about where Workday is heading, what leaders should prioritize, and how professionals can thrive in the evolving ecosystem.

Praveen began as a Workday integrations consultant, helped build the Workday Extend product at Workday, and then led HR tech teams at Amazon Twitch, Meta, and now Coinbase. His experience offers a rare end-to-end perspective: platform strategy, engineering execution, and enterprise adoption at massive scale.

A core theme: technology only matters when it delivers business value. Integrations? Always think beyond the build—design for scale and reuse. Middleware? Use it to publish once and serve many systems. Studio vs orchestration? Evaluate performance and event patterns, not just familiarity.

AI wasn’t a side topic—it was central. From resume parsing and avatar-driven screening to conversational Workday access via MCP and low-code automation platforms, AI is shifting how HR tech functions deliver value. “AI isn’t optional anymore,” Praveen shared. “It’s part of everyday work.”

And for anyone building their Workday career? Stay curious. Set aside time to learn weekly. Be an early adopter. Speak at Rising and DevCon. Build a network. Your future value comes from learning faster than the world changes.

Want the full conversation? Listen to the episode and hear Praveen’s playbook for where Workday—and your career—is heading next.