Workday Core HCM, Recruiting & Talent Lead, Senior

Workday Core HCM, Recruiting, and Talent Lead

Our client is seeking a Workday Core HCM, Recruiting, and Talent Lead that will oversee the design, administration, and optimization of key Workday functional areas including Core HR, Recruiting, Talent & Performance, and Adaptive Workforce Planning. This role is responsible for ensuring scalable, efficient, and employee-centric business processes that support the full employee lifecyclefrom hire to retire. This individual will partner closely with HR Centers of Excellence (Talent Acquisition, Talent Management, HR Operations), IT, and business stakeholders to deliver a modern, data-driven, and AI-enabled employee experience across the Workday platform. In addition to functional ownership, this role will support governance, continuous improvement, and adoption of intelligent workflows, automation, and AI-driven capabilities within Workday.

*Must be eligible to work on W2 without sponsorship. Not eligible for C2C.

• Pay Rate: $60 $65/hr
• Work hours: 8-5pm PST
• Duration: 6-month contract-to-hire
• Location: Hybrid; 2x/week in office San Diego, Long Beach, Sacramento, Rancho Cordova, or Oakland (SF Bay Area).
• Remote option if located in Alabama, Arizona, Colorado, Connecticut, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Maryland, Minnesota, New York, Nevada, Ohio, Oregon, Texas, Virginia, Washington, and Wisconsin as well as Washington, D.C.

Responsibilities

• Lead configuration and optimization of Core HCM including worker data, job profiles, organizations, supervisory structures, and staffing models
• Manage key business processes such as hires, terminations, job changes, compensation changes, and organizational updates
• Ensure data integrity, standardization, and alignment with enterprise HR data governance practices
• Support organizational changes, acquisitions, and restructuring activities within Workday
• Oversee Workday Recruiting configuration including job requisitions, candidate workflows, interview processes, and offer management
• Partner with Talent Acquisition teams to streamline hiring processes and improve candidate and recruiter experience
• Optimize sourcing, screening, and hiring workflows to reduce time-to-fill and improve quality of hire
• Support integrations with external recruiting tools (job boards, onboarding, background checks, etc.)
• Lead configuration and administration of Talent modules including performance reviews, goal management, succession planning, and talent reviews
• Partner with Talent Management COE to design scalable frameworks for performance, development, and career progression
• Enable workforce planning, skills tracking, and internal mobility initiatives
• Lead configuration and administration of Workday Adaptive Planning, including workforce planning, budgeting, and forecasting models
• Support calibration processes, potential assessments, and succession readiness tracking
• Establish and maintain governance standards for business processes, configurations, and system controls
• Partner with HR, IT, and enterprise architecture teams to ensure scalable and standardized solutions
• Drive continuous improvement of business processes to enhance user experience and operational efficiency
• Maintain documentation, configuration workbooks, and process maps
• Enable intelligent workflows, automation, and AI-supported capabilities across Core HCM, Recruiting, and Talent
• Partner with enterprise AI and architecture teams to evaluate and implement AI-driven features (e.g., recommendations, skills inference, candidate matching)
• Identify opportunities to improve employee and manager self-service through automation
• Support Workday releases, testing cycles, and ongoing enhancements across Core HR, Recruiting, and Talent
• Lead functional testing, regression validation, and business readiness activities
• Partner with change management teams to drive adoption and training

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree required (HR, Business Administration, Information Systems, or related field preferred)
• 5+ years of hands-on experience implementing and configuring in Core HCM, Recruiting, Talent and Workday Adaptive Planning modules
• Deep understanding of Workday business process framework, configuration, and data model
• Experience designing and optimizing hire-to-retire and recruit-to-hire workflows
• Deep familiarity with Talent processes including performance, succession planning, and workforce planning
• Experience supporting enterprise scale platform operations in a complex, matrix environment.
• Demonstrated experience enabling AI and intelligent automation capabilities within enterprise platforms, including familiarity with AI-supported workflows, event driven automation, and emerging agenetic operating models.
• Strong analytical, problem solving, and stakeholder management skills.
• Excellent communication and cross functional collaboration abilities.
• Experience supporting Workday implementations and large scale transformation programs Experience with Workday Talent Optimization, Skills Cloud, or Workforce Planning.
• Familiarity with Workday Extend, Prism, or advanced analytics/reporting capabilities.
• Experience integrating recruiting or talent tools into Workday ecosystem.
• Exposure to AI-driven HR capabilities, automation, or digital employee experience platforms.
• Workday certifications in HCM, Recruiting, or Talent preferred.

We are an equal opportunity employer and value diversity at our company. We do not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, color, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, age, marital status, veteran status, disability status, or other non-merit factor. We are committed to creating a diverse and inclusive environment for all employees.