Senior Workday Timekeeping and Absence Analyst

Title: Workday Timekeeping and Absence Analyst Location: Greater Chicago Area, IL (onsite role) Direct Hire Immediate interviews Must Have: Bilingual English/Spanish communication skills Job description: The Sr. Analyst partners closely with business stakeholders, architects, and cross-functional teams to analyze business needs, design and implement solutions, optimize processes, and ensure successful delivery of Workday enhancements and projects. The position requires strong expertise in Workday Timekeeping and Absence, along with the ability to translate complex business requirements into effective system solutions. This role plays a critical part in driving operational excellence through continuous improvement, solution design, testing, deployment, and support of Workday functionality. The ideal candidate combines strong analytical and problem-solving skills with a collaborative approach to stakeholder engagement and project delivery. Bilingual English/Spanish communication skills are highly preferred to support collaboration with business partners, end users, and stakeholders across multiple regions. Key Responsibilities - Configure, build, test, and deploy Workday solutions supporting Timekeeping and Absence processes. - Partner with business stakeholders to gather, analyze, and document business requirements and translate them into scalable system designs. - Facilitate workshops, discovery sessions, and solution discussions to identify business needs, process improvements, and technology opportunities. - Collaborate with architects and project teams to evaluate solution options and ensure proposed designs align with business and technical objectives. - Support project planning activities, including requirements gathering, solution design, testing, deployment, and post-production support. - Develop and maintain functional documentation, business process designs, test scripts, and implementation materials. - Create, execute, and support User Acceptance Testing (UAT), regression testing, and validation activities to ensure solution quality and stability. - Coordinate and manage assigned deliverables to ensure project milestones and customer timelines are achieved. - Provide recommendations and insights to improve system functionality, business processes, and user experience. - Partner with Security, Compliance, and Audit teams to ensure adherence to corporate policies, controls, and regulatory requirements. - Troubleshoot system issues, conduct root cause analysis, and work with internal and external partners to drive timely resolution. - Manage multiple priorities and workstreams simultaneously while maintaining a high level of quality and customer service. - Support integrations and downstream processes that impact Timekeeping, Absence, Payroll, and related HR functions. - Stay current on Workday product enhancements, industry trends, and best practices through participation in Workday Community, training programs, and user groups.