Workday Functional Architect

Jobtailor; Illinois; On-site; USD 150,000 - 210,000; Full time

Job summary

Jobtailor seeks a senior Workday architect to lead enterprise-wide design across Core HCM, Compensation, Recruiting, Payroll, and more. You will govern configuration standards, drive cross-module solutions, and partner with HR, Finance, Legal, and Compliance to align architecture with business strategy.

You will act as the primary escalation resource for complex requirements, author architectural decisions, and mentor teams on Workday best practices and upcoming releases.

Qualifications

• 10+ years Workday experience across multiple modules.
• Experience leading enterprise Workday implementations.
• Strong knowledge of security model and reporting.

Responsibilities

• Serve as the highest-level internal Workday authority across Core HCM, Compensation, Advanced Compensation, Recruiting, Talent, Learning, Benefits, US Payroll, Onboarding, People Analytics, Workday Help, and Peakon.
• Lead solution design for cross-module and enterprise-wide requirements spanning PortCos, geographies, or domains.
• Define and govern configuration standards, design patterns, and architectural guardrails across the Workday tenant.
• Evaluate trade-offs between configuration, custom reporting, and integration approaches with clear rationale.

Skills

Workday expertise

Enterprise architecture

Cross-functional leadership

Executive communication

Job description

Responsibilities

• Serve as the highest-level internal Workday authority across Core HCM, Compensation, Advanced Compensation, Recruiting, Talent, Learning, Benefits, US Payroll, Onboarding, People Analytics, Workday Help, and Peakon.
• Lead solution design for complex, cross-module, and enterprise-wide requirements that span multiple PortCos, geographies, or functional domains.
• Define and govern configuration standards, design patterns, naming conventions, and architectural guardrails across the Workday tenant.
• Evaluate trade-offs between configuration, custom reporting, and integration approaches — making and documenting architectural decisions with clear rationale.
• Provide expert guidance on Workday's evolving product roadmap and assess the impact of bi-annual releases on the tenant architecture.
• Act as the primary escalation resource for Product Owners when requirements exceed module-level complexity or require cross-domain coordination.
• Design scalable solutions that can be deployed across multiple PortCos without sacrificing the ability to accommodate entity-specific variation.
• Partner with HR leaders, Finance, Legal, and Compliance teams to translate business requirements into Workday architecture that is both technically sound and strategically aligned.
• Lead discovery and design workshops with PortCo stakeholders for high-complexity initiatives, new product rollouts, or structural changes.
• Closely partner with IT team to oversee integration architecture between Workday and third-party systems including but not limited to payroll providers, benefits carriers, and analytics platforms.
• Ensure data governance principles are embedded into platform design, with attention to data lineage, tenant configuration, and reporting structures.
• Conduct periodic platform audits to identify configuration drift, unused functionality, or compliance gaps.
• Champion Workday best practices and ensure the team remains current with Workday Community, certification updates, and product innovations.

Requirements

• 10+ years of Workday functional experience, with deep hands‑on expertise across a minimum of five Workday modules.
• Demonstrated experience as a lead architect or senior consultant on complex, multi-entity or global Workday implementations.
• Strong command of Workday business process framework, security model, reporting and calculated fields.
• Proven experience solutioning across Core HCM, Compensation, Recruiting, Payroll, and at least two additional modules.
• Experience with Workday integration technologies.
• Exceptional ability to translate ambiguous, complex business requirements into clear, scalable Workday solutions.
• Experience operating in a federated, multi-entity, or shared‑services model — ideally across a portfolio of companies.
• Strong executive communication skills — able to present architectural recommendations clearly to non-technical audiences.
• Workday Pro certification(s) in one or more modules strongly preferred but not necessary.
• Prior experience in consulting and Workday partner ecosystem is a plus.

Certifications & Qualifications

• Workday Pro certification