Workday Systems Engineer - Absence & Time Tracking

Leadout Capital; Dublin; On-site; EUR 90,000 - 120,000; Full time

Job summary

Digital Enterprise Technology is seeking an experienced Workday techno-functional Systems Engineer to design and deliver scalable solutions for Absence and Time Tracking. You will join a product and techno-functional team supporting Salesforce’s Global Employee Success organization, translating business needs into detailed requirements, configurations, test strategies, and reliable production solutions.

The role is hands-on, focused on accurate and compliant delivery, and requires leading

Qualifications

• 5+ years hands-on experience configuring Workday Absence and Time Tracking.
• Strong understanding of absence plans, accruals, eligibility, leave administration, time entry, and related processes.
• Practical payroll experience and understanding of how time/absence data affects gross-to-net processing.
• Experience translating business requirements into scalable Workday configurations and acceptance criteria.
• Experience leading testing, UAT, production deployments, and post-production validation.
• Understanding of Workday security, reporting, data structures, and integration dependencies.

Responsibilities

• Serve as a technical owner for Workday Absence and Time Tracking.
• Lead requirements elaboration with Product Management, Payroll, HR Operations, Benefits, and Compliance.
• Translate business use cases into detailed functional and technical requirements and configurations.
• Design, configure, test, and maintain time-off plans, leave rules, accruals, and related processes.
• Partner with Product Management on prioritization and delivery sequencing.
• Identify dependencies and provide estimates and risk surfaces before development.
• Evaluate options and maintain design decisions, SOPs, and support docs.
• Assess how configurations impact payroll calculations and downstream processing.
• Validate time-calculation outputs with Payroll for accuracy.
• Define and execute functional, regression, integration, and payroll testing.
• Coordinate release-impact assessments, deployments, and post-deployment validation.
• Lead triage and root-cause analysis for production issues and payroll incidents.
• Execute SOX, auditing, access, and change-management controls.
• Coordinate with integration engineers for changes requiring custom integrations.
• Identify opportunities to automate testing, reconciliation, and monitoring.
• Leverage AI-assisted tools to improve analysis and design while maintaining security and quality.

Skills

Workday Absence

Time Tracking

Payroll knowledge

HCM processes

Stakeholder leadership

Requirements translation

Job description

Digital Enterprise Technology is looking for an experienced Workday techno-functional Systems Engineer to design and deliver scalable solutions across Workday Absence and Time Tracking. This role will join a product and techno-functional team supporting Salesforce’s Global Employee Success organization. The ideal candidate thrives in a dynamic, high-growth environment and brings deep expertise in business analysis, Workday Absence and Time Tracking, and key touchpoints with Payroll, HCM, Benefits, and Financials. As the techno-functional owner for this domain, the Systems Engineer translates business needs into detailed requirements, configuration designs, test strategies, and reliable production solutions, independently leading complex features and releases through post-production validation. This is a hands‑on configuration and delivery role focused on accurate and compliant.

Responsibilities

• Serve as a technical owner for Workday Absence and Time Tracking.
• Lead requirements‑elaboration sessions with Product Management, Payroll, HR Operations, Employee Relations, Benefits, Compliance, and other stakeholders.
• Translate business use cases into detailed functional and technical requirements, including user stories, acceptance criteria, edge cases, validation rules, and configuration specifications.
• Design, configure, test, and maintain time‑off plans, leave rules, accruals, eligibility rules, time‑entry processes, work schedules, validations, calculations, and related business processes.
• Partner with Product Management on prioritization, backlog refinement, sequencing, and delivery tradeoffs.
• Identify policy, process, security, integration, reporting, and payroll dependencies; provide estimates and surface delivery risks before development begins.
• Evaluate solution options, make documented configuration tradeoffs, and maintain design decisions, operating procedures, and support documentation.
• Assess how absence and time configurations affect payroll calculations, payroll inputs, retroactivity, pay periods, cutoffs, and downstream processing.
• Partner with Payroll to validate time‑calculation outputs, paid and unpaid leave treatment, eligibility, balances, reconciliation, and payroll‑impacting changes.
• Define and execute functional, regression, integration, end‑to‑end and payroll‑impact testing.
• Coordinate Workday release‑impact assessments, production deployments, smoke testing, and post‑deployment validation.
• Lead technical triage and root‑cause analysis for complex production issues and time‑sensitive payroll incidents.
• Execute applicable SOX, audit, access, security, segregation‑of‑duties, and change‑management controls.
• Coordinate with integration and software engineers when changes require custom integrations, services, or coded solutions.
• Identify and implement opportunities to automate testing, reconciliation, monitoring, and repetitive support activities.
• Leverage approved AI‑assisted tools to improve requirements analysis, solution design, configuration, testing, documentation, and troubleshooting while maintaining security, privacy, and quality standards.

Required skill

• 5+ years of hands‑on experience configuring Workday Absence and Time Tracking.
• Strong understanding of absence plans, accruals, eligibility, leave administration, time entry, work schedules, time calculations, validations, and business processes.
• Practical payroll experience, including understanding how time and absence data affect gross‑to‑net processing, retroactivity, payroll calendars, cutoffs, reconciliation, and controls.
• Experience translating business requirements into scalable Workday configurations and detailed acceptance criteria.
• Experience leading testing, UAT, production deployments, and post‑production validation.
• Understanding of Workday security, reporting, calculated fields, data structures, and integration dependencies.
• Demonstrated ability to diagnose complex production issues and perform structured root‑cause analysis.
• Strong communication skills and the ability to lead work independently across multiple stakeholders and competing priorities.
• Ability to manage multiple customers, projects, and tasks simultaneously while meeting deadlines in a fast‑paced environment.
• Ability to present complex ideas clearly and concisely to non‑technical audiences.
• Demonstrated success collaborating as a team player across virtual, global, and cross‑functional teams.
• Excellent interpersonal, influencing, and negotiation skills when working with cross‑functional stakeholders.

Desired skills:

• Workday certification, Workday Pro accreditation, or advanced training in Absence, Time Tracking, Payroll, or related HCM areas.
• Experience with multiple countries, complex leave policies, hourly populations, shift workers, or varied payroll schedules.
• Familiarity with Workday integrations, EIBs, APIs, Studio, Extend, or middleware platforms.
• Experience with SOX controls, audits, payroll compliance, and sensitive employee data.
• Experience automating regression testing, operational monitoring, reconciliation, or support processes.