Workday Business Systems Analyst, People Systems

Anthropic; San Francisco (CA); Hybrid; USD 243,000 - 297,000; Full time

Job summary

Anthropic is looking for a talented Workday Business Systems Analyst to join their People Systems team in San Francisco. You will be responsible for the technical configuration of Workday HRIS, focusing on Payroll and HCM. Your passion for optimizing People Systems through AI and internal tooling will drive enhancements.

Ideal candidates have extensive Workday experience, particularly in Payroll and Absence configuration, and a collaborative mindset. This position offers an attractive salary and a hybrid work policy.

Qualifications

• 7+ years of experience as a Workday Business Systems Analyst.
• Strong understanding of Workday architecture and security models.
• Experience with full-lifecycle Workday implementations.

Responsibilities

• Configure and maintain Payroll, Absence, and Time Tracking in Workday.
• Support annual People cycles in Workday.
• Design and maintain business-process definitions.

Skills

Workday Payroll configuration

Workday Absence configuration

Workday Time Tracking

Workday Core HCM

Creative problem solving

Relationship building

Education

Bachelor's degree or equivalent

Tools

Workday

Job description

About Anthropic

Anthropic’s mission is to create reliable, interpretable, and steerable AI systems. We want AI to be safe and beneficial for our users and for society as a whole. Our team is a quickly growing group of committed researchers, engineers, policy experts, and business leaders working together to build beneficial AI systems.

About The Role

Anthropic is seeking a talented and driven Workday Business Systems Analyst to join our People Systems team. You will own the technical configuration, testing and operational excellence of our Workday HRIS across two domains: PATT and HCM. Your primary focus will be on the PATT side, refining our payroll, absence and time‑tracking configuration and shaping design decisions. On the HCM side, you will own core data structures, business‑process frameworks and the security model that underpins everything we do in Workday. You will be relied on as a system expert for both strategic guidance and hands‑on delivery.

This role is about moving the team forward, not just keeping the system running. The right candidate is passionate about where AI and internal tooling can make People Systems more effective, and treats “the way it’s always been done” as a starting point for questioning rather than a constraint.

Responsibilities

• Configure and maintain Payroll (pay components, earnings and deductions, pay groups, period schedules, payroll‑related processes).
• Configure and maintain Absence (time‑off plans, accrual rules, eligibility criteria, leave types).
• Configure and maintain Time Tracking (entry templates, validations, schedules and calendars, overtime calculations).
• Maintain Core HCM foundations (supervisory organizations, staffing models, job profiles and structures, custom organizations, worker data integrity).
• Support annual and recurring People cycles in Workday, including compensation review setup, open enrollment configuration and organisational restructures.
• Design, build and maintain business‑process definitions in both domains (condition rules, calculated fields, custom validations, routing and approval logic, notifications).
• Partner with the Payroll team to troubleshoot configuration‑driven payroll issues such as gross‑to‑net discrepancies, retro calculations and off‑cycle errors.
• Apply a strong command of the Workday security model (role‑based, user‑based and intersection security groups, domain security policies, process security policies, integration system users).
• Support security and data audits, analysing access patterns and remediate exceptions.
• Perform impact analysis before changes ship, assessing how HCM and security changes ripple into payroll, absence and time data.
• Lead testing and adoption for Workday’s twice‑yearly releases, assessing new features, running regression testing on critical processes and security, and driving rollout of opted‑in features.
• Translate business requirements into scalable system design and document configuration decisions.
• Build trusted relationships with partner teams and act as a translator between technical configuration and business needs.
• Support change management for system updates and new functionality, including communication, documentation and enablement materials.
• Build and maintain advanced, matrix and composite reports and dashboards; support mass data changes via EIB.
• Configure alerts, scheduled reports and report security to deliver the right data to the right people automatically.
• Triage and resolve day‑to‑day system issues, driving root‑cause analysis rather than patching symptoms.
• Explore opportunities where AI and automation strengthen People Systems, from testing and documentation to ticket triage and report generation.
• Drive process automation and optimisation opportunities with the broader People team and partner functions.

Minimum Qualifications

• Deep hands‑on knowledge of Workday Payroll, Absence, Time Tracking (PATT) configuration and design, business‑process configuration and security.
• Hands‑on knowledge of Workday Core HCM.
• Experience in a fast‑paced, high‑growth environment and ability to flex between roles.
• Strong technical skills including understanding of Workday architecture, security models and integration methodologies.
• Experience with full‑lifecycle Workday implementations and/or significant module expansions.
• Intellectual curiosity, asking “why” before “how,” exploring root causes, and staying current on Workday and adjacent HR tech.
• Creative problem solving, looking beyond the standard solution to fit the business.
• Commitment to HR data security and privacy as a non‑negotiable foundation.
• Excellent relationship‑building and communication skills with technical and non‑technical stakeholders at all levels.
• Detail‑oriented with strong documentation skills and a commitment to process excellence.
• Track record of managing multiple competing priorities with a bias toward flexibility and impact.
• Collaborative mindset and willingness to take on slack outside your job description.

Preferred Qualifications

• 7+ years of experience as a Workday Business Systems Analyst with expertise in configuration, testing and implementation.
• Workday Pro accreditations or partner certifications in HCM, Payroll, Absence, Time Tracking.
• Understanding of Workday integrations (EIB, Core Connectors, Workday Studio, SOAP/REST, RaaS), inbound/outbound patterns, authentication, common partners and error handling.
• Exposure to Workday Prism Analytics, Extend or advanced reporting beyond the standard report writer.
• Experience applying AI tools to HRIS or People operations work, or strong interest in building that capability.
• Knowledge of complementary HR/Finance systems and integration patterns.
• Understanding of data privacy regulations and security best practices.

Annual Salary

$270,000—$270,000 USD

Logistics

• Minimum education: Bachelor’s degree or equivalent combination of education, training and/or experience.
• Required field of study: Relevant to the role through coursework, training or professional experience.
• Minimum years of experience: Correlates with internal job level requirements.
• Location‑based hybrid policy: Staff are expected to be in an office at least 25% of the time.
• Visa sponsorship: Anthropic sponsors visas when possible and will work with an immigration lawyer to secure a visa.