Sr. Workday Project Manager

Job Description

Job Description

Position: Workday Project Manager

Job Type: Contract – 1 Year+

Location: Hybrid (Chicago/Cleveland)/Remote

Overview

Our client is seeking an experienced Workday Implementation Project Manager to lead and drive a major Workday implementation initiative. This individual will be responsible for establishing clear project accountability, providing accurate visibility into project status, proactively identifying risks and issues, and ensuring timely communication with both project stakeholders and executive leadership.

Note: This is an internal Consulting Project Manager position who will be working with client's internal technical and business teams as well as Workday Services, and clients third-party implementation partner.

Ideal Candidate

The ideal candidate will have hands-on experience managing Workday implementation projects, with experience supporting Workday Financials (FINS) and Workday Human Capital Mgmt (HCM) with Professional Services Automation (PSA) strongly preferred . Given the significant data conversion and development components of the project, experience managing data conversion, migration, or related technical workstreams is highly desirable.

The ideal candidate will also have experience as a hands-on, transparent project leader who can quickly understand the current state of a complex Workday implementation, establish accountability, and bring structure and visibility to the project. They are comfortable working directly with executive leadership, escalating issues appropriately, and respectfully challenging stakeholders when a proposed approach may put the project at risk. Workday implementation experience is essential, while experience with FINS, HCM, PSA, and large-scale data conversion will be particularly valuable.

Qualifications

•Experience managing Workday FINS and HCM implementations is required with PSA in addition being strongly preferred.

•Experience managing large scale data conversion as part of Workday implementations is a requirement.

• Will need to be comfortable providing project/program management oversight of not just the direct Workday implementation but also the related changes to a variety of systems within our ecosystem, including Salesforce, Power BI Dashboards, and internal tools such as Pricing Calculator.

• Must demonstrate/have proven track record as a strong teamwork while also holding all parties accountable. Successful candidates have experience being part of the team not just sit above the team and report at arms length.

•5+ years of project management experience, preferably within enterprise technology or business systems implementations.

•Proven experience managing Workday implementation projects.

•Experience with Workday Financials (FINS) and Workday Human Capital Mgmt (HCM) with Professional Services Automation (PSA) preferred.

•Experience managing complex, cross-functional implementation teams and third-party partners.

•Strong understanding of project planning, risk management, issue resolution, dependencies, and executive reporting.

•Experience with data conversion, data migration, or large-scale data-related projects strongly preferred.

•Familiarity with data sources and technologies such as Salesforce and SQL is a plus.

•Excellent communication and presentation skills, including the ability to communicate effectively with C-suite executives.

•Comfortable delivering transparent assessments of project health, including communicating difficult issues or potential delays.

•Strong judgment and ability to appropriately challenge project assumptions and recommend alternative solutions.

•Highly organized, proactive, and comfortable operating in a project environment requiring strong accountability and follow-through.

Key Responsibilities

•Lead and manage the Workday implementation project, ensuring project milestones, deliverables, timelines, and priorities remain on track.

•Establish clear accountability across the implementation team and hold project stakeholders responsible for commitments and deliverables.

•Assess the current state of the project, identify risks, issues, dependencies, and potential delays, and communicate them proactively.

•Provide accurate and timely project status updates to senior leadership and C-suite stakeholders.

•Manage project communication, documentation, status reporting, and executive-level presentations.

•Coordinate across business, technical, Workday, and third-party implementation teams.

•Identify project issues early and ensure appropriate escalation and resolution.

•Manage competing priorities while appropriately challenging timelines, assumptions, or proposed approaches when necessary.

•Recommend practical alternatives and solutions when project requirements, timelines, or resources create challenges.

•Oversee project workstreams related to data conversion, migration, integrations, development, testing, and implementation activities.

•Partner with technical teams and business stakeholders to ensure data and system dependencies are clearly understood and managed.

•Maintain a strong focus on project quality, transparency, risk management, and successful delivery.