Director, HRIS (Workday)

Summary:

We are a newly formed, large PE backed recurring revenue business with ~5,000 employees that is highly acquisitive.

We are seeking a high-caliber Director of HRIS (Workday) to lead the strategic vision, governance, integration, and optimization of Workday across the enterprise.

This is a mission-critical hire responsible for ensuring Workday supports scale, provides data integrity, drives automation, and enables seamless onboarding of acquisitions. The Director will lead the HRIS team, partner with HR, Payroll, Finance, IT, and Operations, and serve as the primary Workday design authority for the company.

The ideal candidate is both a strategic systems leader and a hands-on architect, capable of shaping our enterprise HR systems roadmap while owning technical decisions and integrations.

Key Responsibilities:

Enterprise Workday Ownership

• Serve as the Workday owner for the entire organization, responsible for overall architecture, governance, and system performance
• Lead Workday roadmap planning, including new modules, enhancements, integrations, and automations
• Ensure Workday remains the single source of truth for all employee data across entities
  
  

M&A – System Integration & Onboarding

• Create and own the Workday integration playbook for acquired companies
• Lead employee data mapping, conversion, mass uploads, security updates, and organizational structure builds
• Manage timelines for onboarding waves, parallel testing, cutovers, and post-close stabilization
• Ensure seamless alignment with Finance/Payroll (e.g., Paylocity, ADP, UKG) and with ERP/Intacct/NetSuite
  
  

Team Leadership

• Build and manage a high-performing HRIS team (analysts, technical specialists, reporting resources)
• Mentor team members and elevate HRIS into a strategic, value-add function
• Create a scalable operating model for system support, enhancements, ticketing, and change control
  
  

Systems Configuration & Technical Design

• Oversee technical Workday configuration across HCM, Absence, Time, Talent, Compensation, and Benefits
• Approve calculated fields, business process changes, security model updates, and integration designs
• Ensure consistent global design standards across all business units
  
  

Integrations & Data Infrastructure

• Own the full ecosystem of Workday integrations, including:
• Payroll systems (ADP / UKG / Paylocity)
• ERP (Sage Intacct, NetSuite, SAP, etc.)
• Recruiting systems (if external ATS)
• Identity solutions (Okta / Azure)
• Benefits providers, LMS, background checks
• Oversee data quality, master data governance, and downstream data flows
  
  

Security, Compliance, & Governance

• Own Workday security model: roles, domains, approvals, and controls. Ensure the system is SOX-ready with documented processes and audit trails
• Manage Workday bi-annual upgrades (testing, regression, training)
  
  

Cross-Functional Partnership

• Partner closely with HR, Payroll, Finance, Accounting, and M&A teams to align Workday to business needs
• Provide Workday expertise during comp cycles, reorganizations, annual audits, headcount planning, and workforce analytics
• Serve as the executive-level advisor on systems, automation, and people data
  
  

Qualifications

Must-Have

• 8–12+ years of HRIS/Workday experience with increasing leadership responsibility
• Proven Workday architect with deep knowledge across HCM, security, integrations, and reporting
• Experience supporting large, multi-entity organizations (2,500+ employees)
• Hands-on experience with M&A integrations within Workday
• Strong project and stakeholder management skills — able to influence executives
• Ability to lead both high-level strategy and hands-on technical initiatives
• Strong understanding of payroll, benefits administration, compliance, and HR operations
  
  

Preferred

• PE-backed or high-growth environment experience
• Workday certifications (HCM, Integrations, Reporting, Security)
• Experience overseeing HRIS → ERP → Payroll ecosystem
• Experience building or scaling an HRIS team from scratch
• Knowledge of data warehousing, BI/analytics, or system architecture
  
  

Competencies

• Strategic thinker: Builds a system roadmap aligned with business growth
• Enterprise architect: Understands system interdependencies across HR, Finance, Payroll, and IT
• Change leader: Improves processes and navigates complexity in acquisitive environments
• Hands-on operator: Comfortable configuring, troubleshooting, and validating system behavior
• Leadership: Develops and scales a high-performing HRIS team
• Business partner: Communicates clearly with executives, department heads, and operations staff
  
  

What Success Looks Like

• Workday serves as a scalable, automated, trusted system across all entities
• New acquisitions onboard into Workday rapidly, accurately, and consistently
• Downstream integrations (Payroll, Finance, Identity, Benefits) run smoothly
• HR, Finance, and Operations teams trust the data and rely on Workday to make decisions
• HRIS becomes a proactive strategic partner — not a ticket-taking function
• The company avoids costly consultant dependency by having strong internal ownership
  
  

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