Senior People Operations Lead - Workday Expert

The Howard University; Ypsilanti (MI); On-site; USD 110,000 - 150,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Health insurance

Dental & vision insurance

Paid time off

Flexible work arrangements

403(b) with company match

Tuition reimbursement

Career advancement

Job summary

Howard University is hiring a Senior People Operations Officer to serve as the College’s principal operational administrator for HR-, payroll-, and hiring-related transactions. You will ensure accuracy, compliance, and timely processing for faculty, staff, adjuncts, student employees, wage workers, and stipends, coordinating between CEA leadership, HR, Payroll, Provost, and department admins.

This non-strategic, senior role focuses on end‑to‑end workflow execution, onboarding/offboarding,

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in finance, business, or related field.
• Minimum of five years in higher-education operations.
• Workday HR and Workday Finance familiarity.
• Experience working with academic departments.
• Administrative operations experience.
• Proficiency in policy interpretation and cross‑functional collaboration.

Responsibilities

• Serve as the College's senior Workday transaction specialist for hires, job changes, faculty terminations, PAPs, compensation changes, funding changes, and academic appointments.
• Coordinate all job posting requests with HR Recruiting and ensure funding alignment prior to submission.
• Draft and monitor term sheets, offer letters (where applicable), hiring packets, and background check requirements.
• Manage onboarding workflows including I‑9, tax documentation, direct deposit, employee access, and new employee orientation tracking.
• Initiate and track offboarding workflows for employees, adjunct faculty, and student workers.
• Ensure accurate student hiring through FRFs, HAFs, wage-hire classifications, and Workday setup.
• Maintain weekly hiring and transaction status reports for CEA leadership.
• Conduct monthly HR and payroll compliance audits including cost allocations, active/inactive positions, and pending transactions.
• Provide training and guidance to department administrators, chairs, and coordinators on Workday processes and personnel workflows.
• Maintain and update SOPs for hiring, onboarding, terminations, PAPs, and Workday routing.
• Liaise with HR, Payroll, and the Office of the Provost to resolve transactional issues and ensure timely processing.
• Serve as topic‑expert for Workday HR and Workday Finance functionality relevant to personnel transactions.
• Provide people‑data inputs to the Assistant Dean for reporting and planning (not financial analysis).
• Manage confidential personnel information in accordance with University policies.

Skills

Leadership

Policy interpretation

Cross-functional collaboration

Executive communication

Education

Bachelor's degree in finance/Business Administration or related field

Tools

Workday Financials

Workday HR

HR/Payroll systems

Procurement systems

Job description

Howard University is hiring a Senior People Operations Officer to serve as the College’s principal operational administrator for HR-, payroll-, and hiring-related transactions. You will ensure accuracy, compliance, and timely processing for faculty, staff, adjuncts, student employees, wage workers, and stipends, coordinating between CEA leadership, HR, Payroll, Provost, and department admins.

This non-strategic, senior role focuses on end‑to‑end workflow execution, onboarding/offboarding,