Consultant

JOB OVERVIEW

The Workday Engineer serves as a technical expert for Payroll (U.S. and Canada), Absence, and Time Tracking. This role is responsible for designing, configuring, and optimizing the Workday platform while ensuring payroll accuracy, compliance, and efficient workforce processes. The position collaborates with Human Resources (HR), Payroll, Finance, Operations, and Information Technology (IT) to translate requirements into scalable Workday solutions.

RESPONSIBILITIES

Workday Payroll (US and Canada)

• Configure and support Payroll, including earnings, deductions, pay component calculations, taxes, balances, and payroll processing rules.
• Manage pay groups, period schedules, run categories, payroll calculations, retro processing, wage attachments, audits, and payroll result validation.
• Serve as a subject matter expert (SME) and escalation point for payroll issues, compliance, and production troubleshooting.
• Manage quarterly/year-end activities and tax configuration reviews.

Time Tracking and Absence

• Configure Time Tracking: time entry codes, time calculations, schedules, meal/rest rules, validations, and overtime/compliance rules.
• Configure Absence: plans, accruals, time off, eligibility, carryover rules, and balance calculations.
• Ensure policies comply with organizational, state/provincial, and federal regulations (e.g., FMLA, sick leave, overtime).
• Troubleshoot issues related to time entry, accruals, balances, and schedules.

Business Processes and Operations

• Design and maintain Payroll, Absence, and Time Tracking business processes with routing, conditions, validations, and security.
• Build and maintain data quality audits, exception handling workflows, and operational monitoring.
• Provide functional operations support for payroll runs, retro events, schedule changes, and time/absence processing cycles.

Integrations and Data Loads

• Build and maintain inbound/outbound Enterprise Interface Builder (EIB) integrations for mass updates (time corrections, retro loads, balance loads, and job changes).
• Partner with integration developers on Studio, Cloud Connect, and vendor interfaces (tax agencies, benefit providers, payroll vendors, and time devices).
• Troubleshoot integration errors impacting payroll, time, or absence.

Cross-Functional Design and Collaboration

• Gather requirements from Payroll, HR, Benefits, Finance, and IT and convert them into scalable Workday configurations.
• Recommend best practices to improve compliance, minimize risk, and streamline processes.
• Participate in design reviews, regression assessments, and configuration governance.

Testing, Documentation, and Release Management

• Lead testing activities: scenario creation, execution support, and User Acceptance Testing (UAT) coordination.
• Analyze Workday release notes; identify relevant changes for Payroll, Absence, and Time Tracking and propose adoption.
• Document configuration decisions, workflows, year-end processes, payroll calendars, and operational procedures.

Training and Enablement

• Provide knowledge transfer to Payroll, HR, and Operations teams.
• Develop job aids, runbooks, troubleshooting guides, and self-service documentation.
• Maintain compliance with all required training applicable to this role.

CORE COMPETENCIES

• Deep expertise in Workday configuration across Human Capital Management (HCM), Payroll, Talent, and Compensation, with strong understanding of cross-module dependencies and downstream impacts.
• Proven experience configuring Workday Business Process Framework, including condition rules, validations, approvals, notifications, and security-driven workflow design.
• Strong capability in calculated fields, custom reports, and dashboards to support eligibility rules, analytics, and operational reporting.
• Hands-on experience managing tenant configuration and governance, including tenant setup, feature enablement, release readiness, and sandbox-to-production migration.
• Effective communicator and stakeholder partner, translating business requirements into scalable, Workday-native configuration solutions.

EXPERIENCE AND QUALIFICATIONS

Required Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in Information Systems, Business Administration, or a related field.
• 5+ years of Workday configuration experience, including 3+ years with Workday Payroll, Absence, and Time Tracking.
• Hands-on expertise in:
• Payroll configuration and processing
• Time calculation rules
• Absence plans and accruals
• Troubleshooting payroll results, retro calculations, time entry issues, and absence balances
• Broad understanding of Workday business processes, eligibility rules, security, and integrations.
• Strong analytical and communication skills with the ability to convert requirements into technical solutions.

Preferred Qualifications

• Workday Pro or Partner Certification in Payroll, Absence, or Time Tracking.
• Experience with Workday Studio, Cloud Connect, or Workday Extend.
• Experience with Agile delivery and sprint-based work.
• Ability to build dashboards, audits, and custom reports for payroll/time/absence compliance and operations.
• Experience with multi-jurisdictional payroll or union-specific rules.