HR Systems, Data & Automation, Team Lead

OpenKrill; United States; On-site; USD 140,000 - 190,000; Full time

Job summary

Pennylane is seeking an HR Systems, Data & Automation Lead to drive our People tech with Workday at the core. You will shape the HRIS roadmap, lead two Workday HRIS Experts and one HR Data Analyst, and partner with IT, Finance and business teams to deliver scalable solutions.

This role champions data quality, GDPR compliance, and governance while accelerating AI and automation initiatives across HR processes and reporting.

Responsibilities

• Own the People systems roadmap, balancing user needs, business impact, risk, and team capacity
• Lead discovery, solution design, user testing, and adoption; measure success through user satisfaction, adoption, time saved, and reduced manual work
• Identify and prioritize practical AI and automation opportunities across HR processes, reporting, knowledge access, and employee and manager support
• Translate stakeholder questions into actionable dashboards, KPIs, and reporting capabilities covering headcount, attrition, workforce planning, and other People priorities
• Oversee secure, scalable integrations between Workday and third-party tools, including Ashby for recruitment, Silae for payroll, and other HR and Finance systems
• Partner with IT to ensure integration architecture, monitoring, incident ownership, and recovery processes are robust and maintainable
• Own the post-go-live performance and evolution of Workday as our core HCM platform, ensuring reliability, scalability, and adoption
• Stakeholder collaboration & prioritization to understand needs and align on priorities

Job description

Are you looking to have an impact on the daily life of millions of entrepreneurs in France (and tomorrow in Europe)?

Are you looking for a work environment that values trust, proactivity, and autonomy?

Then Pennylane is the right place for you !

OUR VISION

We aim to become the most beloved financial Operating System of French SMEs and Accounting Firms (and soon, European ones).

We help entrepreneurs rid themselves of time-consuming tasks related to accounting and finance while providing them with access to key financial information to assist in making the best decisions for their business.

ABOUT US

Pennylane is one of the fastest growing Fintechs in France (and soon to be in Europe!)

In 6 years of existence, we’ve managed to :

Make ourselves known as a groundbreaking accounting and financial software for small businesses and their accountants

Raise a total of €400 millions, including from Sequoia, the famous fund from the Silicon Valley who invested early in companies like Google, Facebook, Airbnb, Stripe, Paypal and much more...

Grow from 7 cofounders to 1000 happy Pennylaners : we’re now recognized as one of the greatest places to work in France (and also remotely), with a 4.6/5 rating on Glassdoor https://www.glassdoor.fr/Avis/Pennylane-France-Avis-E4171708.htm.

Build an international environment with more than 25 nationalities, with a strong remote-friendly culture, where 30% of the employees are already working from all parts of Europe

Earn the trust of thousands of customers and accounting firms and obtain outstanding ratings https://www.google.com/search?q=pennylane…

Already more than 1 500,000 small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and over 8000 accounting firms use Pennylane in France!

ABOUT THE ROLE

Drive AI-powered HR transformation and better employee experiences, with HRIS Workday at the core.

We are a fast-growing scale-up in the midst of an exciting international expansion. We are looking for an HR Systems, Data & Automation Lead to shape the next chapter of our People technology ecosystem.

Your mission is to make HR processes simpler, smarter, and more scalable, improving employee, manager, and People team experiences through reliable systems, actionable data, AI, and automation.

With Workday as our core HCM platform, you will lead two Workday HRIS Experts and one HR Data Analyst. Working closely with IT, Finance, and business teams, you will combine product thinking, team leadership, and hands-on delivery to turn business needs into intuitive, secure, and effective solutions.

You will own the roadmap, prioritization, and quality of our HR systems and data solutions, building on the configuration expertise of our Workday specialists. Deep Workday configuration expertise is a plus, not a prerequisite. We welcome experienced HR systems leaders from other enterprise HCM environments who can challenge solution design, connect systems, and build Workday fluency.

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES

People systems product ownership & user experience

Own the People systems roadmap, balancing user needs, business impact, risk, and team capacity

Understand employee, manager, and HR team pain points through user feedback, journey mapping, support requests, and usage data

Simplify HR workflows and design intuitive self-service experiences across Workday and connected tools

Challenge whether a request calls for process simplification, configuration, automation, integration, or a change in user experience

Lead discovery, solution design, user testing, and adoption; measure success through user satisfaction, adoption, time saved, and reduced manual work

AI & automation innovation

Identify and prioritize practical AI and automation opportunities across HR processes, reporting, knowledge access, and employee and manager support

Map the AI and automation tools already used at Pennylane and assess how they can complement Workday and the wider HR ecosystem

Lead hands-on experimentation and delivery, from prototypes and business-case assessment to testing, deployment, and ongoing monitoring

Evaluate native Workday capabilities, including Workday Extend, alongside integration, workflow automation, and AI-enabled solutions; choose tools based on user needs, feasibility, maintainability, and business value

Partner with IT and Security to establish appropriate privacy, access controls, human oversight, and governance before deploying AI-enabled solutions

Build the team's capabilities through training, experimentation, documentation, and knowledge sharing

HR data, analytics & governance

Work with the HR Data Analyst to ensure data quality, consistency, and governance across the HR ecosystem

Translate stakeholder questions into actionable dashboards, KPIs, and reporting capabilities covering headcount, attrition, workforce planning, and other People priorities

Align metric definitions and data ownership with HR and Finance, and make reliable insights accessible to the right users

Champion a data-driven HR culture and help stakeholders turn workforce insights into decisions

Ensure GDPR compliance and appropriate controls across HR data access, use, and flows

Team leadership & delivery

Manage, mentor, and develop a team of two Workday HRIS Experts and one HR Data Analyst

Organize delivery through clear project plans, a transparent backlog, and pragmatic agile sprints

Balance business-as-usual support, compliance, release management, and strategic improvements

Set direction and challenge solution choices while empowering the Workday specialists to lead detailed configuration and the HR Data Analyst to lead analytical delivery

Stay hands-on in discovery, solution design, prototyping, delivery coordination, and problem-solving where you add the most value

Foster documentation and knowledge sharing in Notion; develop team capabilities across HR systems, data, automation, AI, and user experience

Core HRIS ownership - Workday

Own the post-go-live performance and evolution of Workday as our core HCM platform, ensuring reliability, scalability, and adoption

Translate HR needs into clear requirements and lead solution design, UAT, change management, deployment, and stabilization with the Workday experts

Challenge existing workflows and design choices, drawing on specialist expertise and platform best practices

Oversee support and Workday release management; assess new capabilities for their relevance and user value

Ensure robust role-based access, data privacy, audit controls, and segregation of duties in partnership with the Workday experts, IT, and Security

Integrations & HR technology ecosystem

Oversee secure, scalable integrations between Workday and third-party tools, including Ashby for recruitment, Silae for payroll, and other HR and Finance systems

Identify opportunities to remove duplicate data entry, improve data flows, and automate cross-system workflows

Partner with IT to ensure integration architecture, monitoring, incident ownership, and recovery processes are robust and maintainable

Maintain an up-to-date map of the HR technology stack and evaluate new tools based on user experience, interoperability, cost, and value

Stakeholder collaboration & prioritization

Partner with IT, Finance, HR Leadership, Talent Acquisition, and business teams to understand needs and align on priorities

Facilitate prioritization workshops and steering committees, making trade-offs and roadmap deci