Product Owner, HR (Workday HCM)

SystemsAccountants Inc.; United States; On-site; USD 110,000 - 150,000; Full time

Job summary

SystemsAccountants Inc. is seeking a Product Owner – Workday HCM to lead the implementation and ongoing ownership of the Workday HCM platform for an insurance organization.

You will act as the strategic business owner, partnering with HR, Payroll, IT, Finance, and external partners to deliver a scalable, secure, user‑focused solution. Initially you will drive planning through deployment, translating business requirements into effective system capabilities.

Responsibilities

• Lead Workday HCM implementation backlog and requirements.
• Coordinate with HR, IT, payroll, and partners to align milestones.
• Manage biannual Workday releases and testing.
• Define governance for Workday enhancements and releases.
• Ensure system adoption, user training, and change management.

Job description

Position Summary

The Product Owner – Workday HCM is responsible for leading the successful implementation, optimization, and ongoing ownership of the Workday Human Capital Management (HCM) platform for our insurance organization. This individual will serve as the strategic business owner of the Workday HCM product, partnering closely with Human Resources, Payroll, IT, Finance, and external implementation partners to deliver a scalable, secure, and user-focused solution.

This role will initially focus on leading the Workday HCM implementation from planning through deployment, ensuring business requirements are translated into effective system capabilities. Following go-live, the Product Owner will become the functional owner and administrator of the Workday HCM platform, driving continuous improvements, system enhancements, governance, and adoption across the enterprise.

Key Responsibilities

Workday Implementation Leadership

• Serve as the business Product Owner for the Workday HCM implementation.
• Define and prioritize the product roadmap, implementation backlog, and business requirements.
• Partner with implementation consultants, system integrators, HR leadership, IT, and business stakeholders throughout the project lifecycle.
• Lead requirements gathering, solution design reviews, configuration decisions, testing, and user acceptance testing (UAT).
• Ensure implementation milestones are achieved on schedule and within scope.
• Drive change management, communication, and user adoption initiatives.

Product Ownership

• Own the long-term vision and roadmap for the Workday HCM platform.
• Prioritize enhancements based on business value and organizational strategy.
• Balance business needs, technical capabilities, compliance requirements, and system scalability.
• Establish governance processes for Workday enhancements and releases.
• Act as the primary liaison between HR, IT, and executive stakeholders.

Workday Administration & Optimization

• Serve as the primary functional administrator for Workday HCM after go-live.
• Configure and maintain core HCM business processes, security roles, organizations, supervisory structures, and workflows.
• Coordinate biannual Workday releases, regression testing, and feature adoption.
• Manage system configuration changes, documentation, and production support.
• Monitor system health, user experience, and platform performance.
• Identify opportunities for automation and process improvement.

Stakeholder Collaboration

• Partner with HR Centers of Excellence including Talent Acquisition, Benefits, Compensation, Payroll, Learning, and Talent Management.
• Build trusted relationships with business leaders to understand evolving workforce needs.
• Facilitate workshops to gather requirements and define future-state processes.
• Communicate project status, risks, and roadmap updates to leadership.

Data & Reporting

• Ensure integrity and quality of employee data within Workday.
• Partner with HR and business leaders to develop dashboards and operational reporting.
• Support compliance, audit, and regulatory reporting requirements within the insurance industry.

Vendor & Release Management

• Manage relationships with Workday and implementation partners.
• Evaluate new Workday capabilities and recommend adoption where appropriate.
• Coordinate release planning, testing, deployment, and user communications.