Workday Advanced Compensation Lead & Capability Architect

Horizontal Talent; Danvers (MA); On-site; USD 140,000 - 190,000; Full time

Job summary

Horizontal Talent is seeking an experienced Workday Advanced Compensation (WDAC) specialist to lead the implementation and optimization of WDAC across Global Compensation Operations in a large multinational setting.

The role acts as a trusted advisor, delivering deep WDAC expertise, capability building, and process optimization to transition compensation programs from legacy systems to WDAC, with emphasis on annual cycles, reporting, auditing, and governance.

Qualifications

• Deep expertise in Workday Advanced Compensation (WDAC).
• Strong knowledge of compensation program administration, including merit increases, promotions, annual incentive plans (STI), long-term incentives (LTI), base pay management.
• Experience supporting WDAC implementations, enhancements, or large-scale compensation transformations.
• Experience supporting annual compensation planning cycles within a large global organization.
• Strong understanding of compensation operations processes, controls, governance, and data integrity requirements.
• Advanced reporting, auditing, and analytical skills within Workday and compensation processes.
• Ability to translate complex business requirements into practical system solutions and operational processes.
• Proven ability to coach, train, and build capability across compensation, HR, and operations teams.
• Strong documentation, process mapping, and change management experience.
• Excellent stakeholder management and collaboration skills.

Responsibilities

• Serve as a WDAC subject matter expert for Global Compensation Operations.
• Coach, train, and advise Compensation Operations team members on WDAC functionality, best practices, reporting solutions, auditing capabilities, and process optimization.
• Build sustainable team capability, enabling Compensation Operations to confidently and independently manage WDAC processes and activities.
• Identify opportunities to improve system utilization, operational effectiveness, controls, and user experience.
• Develop a thorough understanding of Client compensation programs, including Base Pay, Merit, Promotions, STI, and LTI.
• Partner with Compensation Operations and Compensation COE stakeholders to transition compensation processes from legacy platforms into WDAC.
• Provide recommendations on process design, governance, controls, and operational best practices.
• Partner closely with Compensation Operations project leadership to support day-to-day WDAC implementation and deployment activities.
• Support execution of project deliverables, milestones, risks, dependencies, and action items.
• Review existing Annual Rewards Planning processes and project plans and recommend updates required for WDAC deployment.
• Ensure business requirements are translated into effective and scalable WDAC solutions.
• Create and maintain detailed work instructions, process maps, operating procedures, audit guides, and supporting documentation.
• Assess existing documentation and recommend updates to align with WDAC processes and future-state operating models.
• Develop materials that support operational readiness, knowledge transfer, and long-term sustainability.
• Support testing activities across compensation programs and annual reward planning cycles.
• Design and document audit processes and operational controls to improve data accuracy, compliance, and process integrity.
• Assist with reporting validation, issue resolution, and post-deployment stabilization activities.
• Support go-live planning and deployment activities for compensation-related WDAC releases and program transitions.
• Develop communication, training, and change management materials supporting Compensation Operations activities.
• Support delivery of Technical Excellence initiatives related to LTI and Annual Rewards Planning, including testing, documentation, communications, and subject matter expert enablement.
• Compensation Operations team demonstrates increased WDAC proficiency and self-sufficiency.
• WDAC compensation processes are implemented effectively and adopted successfully.
• Annual compensation cycles are delivered accurately and on schedule.
• Robust documentation, controls, and audit processes are established.
• Project milestones and deployment objectives are achieved with minimal operational disruption.
• Increased automation, process efficiency, and reporting effectiveness across Compensation Operations.

Skills

WDAC expertise

Compensation administration

Stakeholder management

Change management

Training and capability building

Process mapping

Documentation

Reporting and analytics

Data integrity

Communication

Job description

Horizontal Talent is seeking an experienced Workday Advanced Compensation (WDAC) specialist to lead the implementation and optimization of WDAC across Global Compensation Operations in a large multinational setting.

The role acts as a trusted advisor, delivering deep WDAC expertise, capability building, and process optimization to transition compensation programs from legacy systems to WDAC, with emphasis on annual cycles, reporting, auditing, and governance.