Workday Compensation – Product Owner / Lead Consultant
We are seeking an experienced Workday Compensation Lead Consultant / Product Owner to lead the Advanced Compensation workstream and serve as a trusted advisor to clients on compensation strategy, system design, and Workday best practices. This role will focus on designing scalable, compliant, and business-aligned compensation solutions within the Workday ecosystem.
The ideal candidate will have strong expertise in Workday Advanced Compensation, excellent stakeholder management skills, and the ability to lead end-to-end solution delivery from discovery through deployment and post-production support.
Key Responsibilities
- Serve as the lead consultant and primary advisor for the Workday Advanced Compensation workstream.
- Partner with HR, Compensation, and business leaders to understand organizational compensation strategies and translate them into scalable Workday solutions.
- Configure and optimize Workday Advanced Compensation, including:
- Compensation plans
- Merit and bonus planning
- Incentive programs
- Stock and equity compensation
- Allowances and awards
- Eligibility rules
- Budgets and guidelines
- Proration logic
- Compensation review cycles
- Lead client workshops, discovery sessions, solution design discussions, playbacks, and design sign-offs.
- Provide strategic guidance on Workday best practices, delivered functionality, and release-driven enhancements.
- Ensure alignment and integration across:
- Core HCM
- Security
- Business Process Framework
- Payroll
- Reporting & Analytics
- Downstream systems and integrations
- Review and govern configuration quality across the compensation pod, ensuring scalable and compliant solutions.
- Troubleshoot and resolve complex compensation scenarios, configuration challenges, and business process issues.
- Support testing activities including unit testing, regression testing, UAT, and deployment validation.
- Stay current with Workday releases and proactively recommend process improvements and feature adoption opportunities.
- Mentor junior consultants and support knowledge sharing within the team.
Required Qualifications
- 5+ years of hands-on Workday experience with strong focus on Advanced Compensation.
- Proven experience leading Workday Compensation implementations or enhancement projects.
- Deep understanding of:
- Merit planning
- Bonus planning
- Compensation cycles
- Eligibility rules
- Budgeting and guidelines
- Security impacts
- Compensation business processes
- Strong knowledge of Workday Core HCM and cross-functional dependencies.
- Experience conducting client-facing workshops and managing stakeholder expectations.
- Ability to translate complex compensation strategies into delivered Workday functionality.
- Strong analytical, problem-solving, and communication skills.
- Experience supporting Workday releases and feature adoption initiatives.
Preferred Qualifications
- Workday Compensation certification preferred.
- Experience with global compensation programs and enterprise-scale implementations.
- Knowledge of Workday Reporting, EIBs, and integrations is a plus.
- Prior experience in a consulting or client-facing environment preferred.
