Who Is Derek Mobley?

He's the person who put an AI hiring system on trial - a job seeker who says he was turned down over 100 times, and whose story became the basis for a case now asking whether software, not a person, can be blamed for discrimination.

Derek Mobley is the main person suing Workday in this case, which started on February 21, 2023 in a federal court in California. According to his own court filing, Mobley is an African American man over the age of forty. He also says he has anxiety and depression, which he describes as disabilities. Those three things - his race, his age, and his disability - line up with the three kinds of discrimination he says Workday's screening software used against him. (source: his court filing, as quoted by the judge)

His education and work history

Court papers describe Mobley as someone with real qualifications, not a borderline applicant: a bachelor's degree in finance from Morehouse College (a historically Black college), and an honors graduate of ITT Technical Institute with a technical certification (CompTIA Server+). His past jobs, according to the same filing, include Advanced Solutions Engineer at Hewlett Packard Enterprise, Customer Service Representative at the Internal Revenue Service, and a support/manager role at AT&T Digital Life. (source: his court filing)

What he says happened to him

Mobley says that starting in 2017, he applied to more than 100 jobs at companies that use Workday's screening software - and was turned down every single time. (source: court order, May 16, 2025, page 4)

One detail that drew a lot of attention: some rejections came back within about an hour of him applying. In one example from his court filing, he applied at 12:55 a.m. and was rejected by 1:50 a.m. His lawyers say this timing suggests no human ever looked at his application before it was turned down. (source: his court filing)

From one person's complaint to a nationwide case

Mobley's lawsuit didn't stay just about him. On May 16, 2025, the judge allowed the age-discrimination part of his case to grow into a nationwide case that other people could join - specifically, anyone 40 or older who applied for a job through Workday's system since September 24, 2020 and was turned down. About 14,000 people ended up joining before the March 7, 2026 deadline. Mobley is now one of five people whose personal stories anchor that larger group. (source: court order, May 16, 2025)

For everything that's happened since, see the case timeline.