Workday Global HCM Support Lead

WPP Media Limited; Greater London; On-site; GBP 75,000 - 95,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Hybrid work model

Job summary

WPP is seeking a Workday Global HCM Support Lead to manage a global technology support function within the People team. The role focuses on diagnosing issues, ensuring timely service requests, and delivering a roadmap of continuous improvements while maintaining strong stakeholder relationships.

You will lead incident management, release planning and end-to-end release lifecycles, coordinating across regional and global teams and delivering clear communications to business stakeholders.

Qualifications

• Strong experience in support service delivery, release planning and change coordination.
• Experience managing senior stakeholders and operating across cross-functional and regional teams.
• Experience in incident management, including coordination, escalation, stakeholder communication and follow-up actions.
• Strong judgement in prioritisation and decision support, especially with competing requirements.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills, adaptable for technical and non-technical audiences.
• Experience designing or delivering training, guidance or user enablement to support change adoption.

Responsibilities

• Lead or coordinate incident management related to system issues, ensuring timely assessment, escalation, communication and resolution.
• Provide clear communication to stakeholders during incidents, including business impact, status updates, actions, and next steps.
• Support post-incident reviews, root cause analysis and follow-up actions to improve release quality and reliability.
• Plan and coordinate monthly local changes and bi-annual global releases, ensuring priority, governance and delivery.
• Manage end-to-end release lifecycle including planning, readiness, risk, and post-release review.
• Drive cross-region prioritisation of changes balancing local and global needs.
• Build strong relationships with senior stakeholders with clear updates on scope, risks and decisions.
• Coordinate across regional and global teams to align on release activity and delivery plans.
• Own communications related to releases and changes; translate technical changes for business clarity.
• Lead and coordinate training and enablement activities for new functionality and user readiness.
• Identify opportunities to improve user engagement with the system through better guidance and training.
• Drive continuous improvement across release management, communications and incident response.

Skills

Support service delivery

Release planning

Change coordination

Incident management

Stakeholder management

Communication skills

Training design

Cross-functional collaboration

Prioritisation

Organisational skills

Job description

WPP is the trusted growth partner for the world’s leading brands.

We unite cutting-edge media intelligence and data solutions, world-class creativity, next-generation production, transformative enterprise solutions and expert strategic counsel in a single company – powered by exceptional talent and our agentic marketing platform, WPP Open, to help our clients navigate change, capture opportunity and deliver transformational growth.

We work with the world’s most valuable brands and have global reach across 100+ markets, with deep local expertise.

Our people are the key to our success. We’re committed to fostering a culture of creativity, belonging and continuous learning, attracting and developing the brightest talent, and providing exciting career opportunities that help our people grow.

For more information, visit WPP.com.

Why we’re hiring:

WPP is embarking on a major 3-year transformation to simplify, modernise, and unify its technology platforms across the group. This change is critical to:

• Enable cost-effective transformation and operational efficiency
• Accelerate adoption of AI, data, and digital platforms
• Ensure consistent delivery of value and benefits across all agencies and markets
• Minimise disruption and maximise engagement during large-scale change

Workday is a cornerstone of this transformation, providing a single, modern system of record for people data and for driving efficiency through our operations and finance functions. By standardising core processes, improving data quality and enabling better insights, Workday supports consistent ways of working, stronger governance and future‑ready capabilities, while creating the foundation for scalable change, automation and AI‑enabled decision making across WPP.

We are looking for a Workday Global HCM Support Lead with strong experience in leading a global technology support function. The purpose of the role is to deliver a high-quality support service to our key stakeholders within the WPP People team. This will include monitoring the diagnosis and resolution of issues, ensuring the timely completion of service requests and the delivery of a roadmap of continuous improvements. The role will be responsible for maintaining relationships with key stakeholders and managing a team of Workday specialists.

What you’ll be doing:

• Lead or coordinate incident management related to system issues, ensuring incidents are assessed, escalated, communicated, and resolved in a timely and controlled manner
• Provide clear communication to stakeholders during incidents, including business impact, status updates, actions being taken, and next steps
• Support post-incident review, root cause analysis, and follow-up actions to improve release quality, system reliability, and operational processes
• Lead the planning and coordination of monthly local changes and bi-annual global releases, ensuring activity is prioritised, governed, and delivered in line with business needs
• Manage the end-to-end release lifecycle, including planning, dependency management, readiness tracking, risk identification, stakeholder alignment, and post-release review
• Drive cross-region prioritisation of changes, balancing local requirements with global priorities to support clear decision-making and consistent delivery
• Build strong relationships with senior stakeholders, providing clear and timely updates on release scope, risks, progress, impacts, and decisions required
• Act as a central point of coordination across regional teams, global teams, technical teams, and business stakeholders to ensure alignment on release activity and delivery plans
• Own communications related to releases, updates, and change activity, ensuring they are clear, timely, audience-appropriate, and support understanding of business impact
• Translate technical or system changes into practical communications that help improve system understanding, adoption, and effective use
• Lead and coordinate training and enablement activity, including refresher training and training for new functionality, to support user readiness and ongoing capability development
• Identify opportunities to improve how users engage with the system by strengthening communications, guidance, and training approaches
• Drive continuous improvement across release management, communications, training, and incident response processes to improve user experience and operational effectiveness

What you’ll need:

• Strong experience in support service delivery, release planning, and change coordination, within a systems or technology environment
• Experience managing senior stakeholders and operating effectively across cross-functional and regional teams
• Experience in incident management, including coordination, escalation, stakeholder communication, and follow-up actions
• Strong judgement in prioritisation and decision support, particularly where there are competing business and regional requirements
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills, with the ability to adapt messaging for technical and non-technical audiences
• Experience designing or delivering training, guidance, or user enablement to support change adoption
• Strong organisational skills, with the ability to manage multiple workstreams, deadlines, and dependencies simultaneously
• A proactive and solution-oriented approach, with strong attention to detail and a focus on continuous improvement

Who you are:

You’re open_:_

We are inclusive and collaborative; we encourage the free exchange of ideas; we respect and celebrate diverse views. We are open-minded: to new ideas, new partnerships, new ways of working.

You’re optimistic_:_

We believe in the power of creativity, technology and talent to create brighter futures or our people, our clients and our communities. We approach all that we do with conviction: to try the new and to seek the unexpected.

You’re extraordinary:

we are stronger together: through collaboration we achieve the amazing. We are creative leaders and pioneers of our industry; we provide extraordinary every day.

What we’ll give you:

Passionate, inspired people – We aim to create a culture in which people can do extraordinary work.

Scale and opportunity – We offer the opportunity to create, influence and complete projects at a scale that is unparalleled in the industry.

Challenging and stimulating work – Unique work and the opportunity to join a group of creative problem solvers. Are you up for the challenge?

#LI-Hybrid

We believe the best work happens when we’re together, fostering creativity, collaboration, and connection. That’s why we’ve adopted a hybrid approach, with teams in the office around four days a week. If you require accommodations or flexibility, please discuss this with the hiring team during the interview process.

WPP is an equal opportunity employer and considers applicants for all positions without discrimination or regard to particular characteristics. We are committed to fostering a culture of respect in which everyone feels they belong and has the same opportunities to progress in their careers.

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