Job Description
We are seeking an experienced
Workday Payroll, Time & Absence Functional Lead to support a large-scale ERP harmonization and business transformation initiative within a complex, employee-centric organization. This role will serve as the primary functional authority for Workday Payroll, Time Tracking, and Absence while partnering with HR, Payroll, Finance, Digital, HRIS, and implementation teams to align workforce management processes with a new enterprise financial platform.
The successful consultant will bring deep Workday expertise, strong stakeholder engagement skills, and proven experience leading payroll and workforce management workstreams through enterprise-wide transformation programs. This is a highly visible role requiring both strategic advisory capabilities and hands-on execution across requirements gathering, solution design, testing, deployment, and post-go-live stabilization.
Responsibilities
- Lead the Workday Payroll, Time Tracking, and Absence workstream within a multi-year ERP harmonization and transformation program.
- Serve as the primary functional subject matter expert, advising stakeholders on Workday leading practices, process optimization, and scalable solution design.
- Facilitate discovery sessions, design workshops, and requirements gathering meetings with business leaders, HR, Payroll, and operational stakeholders.
- Evaluate current-state Payroll, Time Tracking, and Absence configurations and identify opportunities for process standardization and reuse.
- Analyze business requirements and determine configuration, integration, and process impacts across the enterprise landscape.
- Identify functional gaps and recommend solutions required to support integration with enterprise financial systems.
- Develop and document future-state business processes, functional requirements, assumptions, dependencies, risks, and design decisions.
- Partner closely with HRIS, Payroll, Digital, and technical teams to ensure solutions align with operational and compliance requirements.
- Provide leadership and guidance throughout configuration review and validation activities.
- Assess upstream and downstream system impacts related to payroll, workforce scheduling, time collection, absence management, and financial integration points.
- Review and validate integrations, data flows, inbound and outbound interfaces, and payroll-related business processes.
- Support reporting, security, audit, and compliance requirements related to Payroll, Time Tracking, and Absence functions.
- Develop comprehensive testing strategies, test scenarios, and validation approaches for functional and integrated business processes.
- Lead system integration testing, payroll parallel testing, user acceptance testing, payroll validation, and defect resolution activities.
- Coordinate issue triage sessions, manage defect prioritization, and work with project teams to ensure timely resolution.
- Facilitate stakeholder sign-off activities and ensure testing outcomes meet business expectations and compliance requirements.
- Support cutover planning, payroll readiness reviews, deployment activities, and transition-to-support planning.
- Provide functional leadership during hypercare, stabilization, and post-implementation support phases.
- Deliver knowledge transfer sessions and operational documentation to internal HRIS, Payroll, and business support teams.
Qualifications
- 8+ years of progressive Workday functional experience with a strong focus on Payroll, Time Tracking, and Absence.
- Demonstrated expertise supporting complex Workday environments with responsibility for solution design, process optimization, and enterprise-scale deployments.
- Proven experience leading Workday workstreams within ERP transformations, business transformation programs, system consolidations, or harmonization initiatives.
- Strong functional knowledge of Workday Payroll, Time Tracking, Absence, and their interaction with broader HR, Finance, and operational processes.
- Experience conducting requirements gathering, functional design, testing, deployment, and stabilization activities across large cross-functional programs.
- Previous experience assessing integration impacts across HR, Finance, Payroll, Benefits, and enterprise technology ecosystems.
- Track record of partnering effectively with HRIS teams, Payroll departments, business stakeholders, system integrators, and external consulting partners.
- Deep understanding of payroll processing, payroll controls, workforce management processes, absence administration, and compliance requirements.
- Experience supporting employee migrations, acquisitions, mergers, legal entity consolidations, or workforce integrations into existing Workday tenants.
- Strong understanding of enterprise integration concepts and data dependencies impacting payroll and workforce management functions.
- Experience leading payroll validation, payroll parallel testing, reconciliation activities, and issue resolution efforts.
- Knowledge of reporting, security frameworks, audit requirements, and governance considerations within Workday environments.
- Experience working within highly regulated or operationally complex industries such as energy, utilities, manufacturing, industrial, or related sectors.
- Understanding of unionized workforce environments, collective agreement impacts, complex pay structures, and workforce compliance requirements.
- Knowledge of Canadian payroll legislation, regulatory requirements, statutory deductions, and payroll compliance practices.
- Excellent stakeholder management, communication, facilitation, negotiation, and decision-making skills.
- Ability to influence both technical and business audiences while navigating competing priorities and project dependencies.
- Experience supporting large employee populations and enterprise environments with approximately 3,000+ employees is considered an asset.
Affinity Earn
Know someone who’s great for this, or any of our open roles? Earn up to $4,000/year for each successful referral through Affinity Earn. You can also earn up to $50,000 for helping us find new clients. Learn about our referral program at https://affinity-group.ca/earn/ or browse our jobs & follow us at https://www.linkedin.com/company/affinity-staffing/jobs/
About Affinity
Affinity Group is a technology and business consulting and services company. We believe in creating long term relationships between clients and consultants that foster a mutually beneficial partnership. Affinity is an equal opportunity employer. We celebrate diversity and are committed to creating an inclusive environment for all employees. All employment is decided on the basis of qualifications, merit and business need.
For more information on Affinity, please visit www.affinity-group.ca
Job Number: 13989
