Senior Workday Payroll Systems Engineer — Remote

Releady; California, Northern (MO, KY); Hybrid; USD 83,000 - 90,000; Full time

Job summary

Releady is seeking a Senior Workday Payroll Systems Engineer to lead the design, configuration, and optimization of Workday Payroll, Time Tracking, and Absence modules. You will own end-to-end payroll processes, ensuring compliance and data accuracy across multiple states.

You’ll drive automation, AI-enabled efficiencies, and integration excellence while partnering with HR, Payroll, Finance, and IT. This role supports a 6-month contract-to-hire engagement, with remote or hybrid work and CA-based

Qualifications

• 5+ years of hands-on experience implementing, supporting, and configuring Workday Payroll, including Time Tracking and Absence in a multi-state environment.
• Strong understanding of payroll compliance, audits, and regulatory requirements.
• Strong understanding of end-to-end data flows across HR, payroll, and financial systems.

Responsibilities

• Lead the design, configuration, and ongoing optimization of Workday Payroll, Time Tracking, and Absence modules.
• Design and configure advanced complex payroll business processes including earnings, deductions, taxes, accruals, time calculations, and pay rules.
• Own end-to-end payroll system support, including audits, reconciliations, compliance validation, and issue resolution.
• Partner cross-functionally with Payroll, HR, Finance, and IT to ensure compliance with federal, state, and local payroll regulations.
• Act as the primary escalation point for complex system issues by performing root cause analysis and implementing sustainable solutions.
• Lead full lifecycle Workday Payroll implementations, including requirements gathering, configuration, testing, deployment, and stabilization.
• Serve as the functional and technical SME for Payroll, Time Tracking, Absence, and related Workday HCM functionality.
• Develop and maintain advanced Workday calculated fields, eligibility rules, condition logic, and reporting solutions.
• Provide hands-on day-to-day support for Workday HCM modules, ensuring system stability and high service levels.
• Drive Workday release management activities, including feature evaluation, regression testing, and production rollout.
• Manage and deliver projects such as system enhancements, new implementations, and continuous process improvement initiatives.
• Identify and implement opportunities to improve Workday configuration, streamline business processes, and enhance the user experience.
• Identify and implement automation opportunities within payroll processes (e.g., validations, reconciliations, exception handling) to improve accuracy and reduce manual effort.
• Leverage Workday capabilities and adjacent tools to enable data-driven insights and proactive issue detection (e.g., payroll anomalies, audit flags).
• Partner with platform and analytics teams to support AI-enabled reporting, intelligent workflows, and predictive insights that enhance payroll operations.
• Contribute to the broader enterprise AI strategy by embedding automation and intelligent decision support into payroll workflows.
• Support and maintain integrations with downstream and third-party systems (e.g., finance, benefits, time, or vendors).
• Collaborate with integration teams to design, support, and optimize inbound and outbound payroll integrations across systems.
• Support design and validation of API-based and file-based integrations, including data mappings, transformations, and error handling.
• Partner with engineering teams to ensure integrations are scalable, secure, and aligned with enterprise architecture standards.
• Lead testing efforts including unit testing, parallel payroll testing, and user acceptance testing to ensure solutions meet business requirements.
• Support knowledge transfer through documentation, training, and best-practice guidance to HR and Payroll stakeholders.

Skills

Workday Payroll

Time Tracking

Absence

Automation

AI-enabled efficiencies

Integrations

HCM

Education

Bachelor’s degree

Tools

Workday Studio

API-based Integrations

EIBs

Job description

Releady is seeking a Senior Workday Payroll Systems Engineer to lead the design, configuration, and optimization of Workday Payroll, Time Tracking, and Absence modules. You will own end-to-end payroll processes, ensuring compliance and data accuracy across multiple states.

You’ll drive automation, AI-enabled efficiencies, and integration excellence while partnering with HR, Payroll, Finance, and IT. This role supports a 6-month contract-to-hire engagement, with remote or hybrid work and CA-based