Workday Optimization Manager (Technical Lead) at Barnard College – New York City, New York

Title: Workday Optimization Manager (Technical Lead)

Location: New York City, NY

Full/Part Time: Full time
Req ID: JR4708

Description:

If you are a current Barnard College employee, please use the internal career site to apply for this position.

Job:

Workday Optimization Manager (Technical Lead)As the Workday Optimization Manager, you play a critical, hands-on role in supporting the technical design, configuration, and continuous improvement of our enterprise-wide Workday platform. This position combines deep, expert-level technical proficiency in Workday with a strategic approach to cross-functional business process redesign.

Unlike traditional program management roles, this is fundamentally a technical builder’s position. You will serve as the primary driver of Workday optimization by transforming complex business requirements into impactful solutions. The ideal candidate is a systems thinker and a Workday configuration expert who thrives at the intersection of technology, process, and people. You will work collaboratively with departments across the organization to proactively identify efficiency opportunities and independently configure the system to meet those needs.

Job Description:

Expert-Level Configuration & Technical Design:

• Serve as the primary hands-on technical expert for Workday configuration, testing, and functionality deployment across the platform (HCM, Finance, Payroll, etc.).

• Develop, test, and maintain complex Workday reports, dashboards, and advanced business processes.

• Analyze Workday help desk trends and ticket data to identify recurring issues, troubleshooting, and directly remediating problems through system configuration.

Community Engagement:

• Serve as a bridge between technical solutions and community adoption — building trust, addressing concerns, and providing training.

• Communicate complex technical changes in accessible and empathetic ways.

• Help develop a culture of continuous improvement.

Platform Optimization & Business Process Engineering:

• Direct the tenant strategy and stay continuously updated on Workday’s product roadmap and bi-annual releases.

• Translate new features and Workday community best practices into actionable system enhancements, and configure and test them in sandbox environments before deployment.

• Monitor overall system performance, data integrity, and cross-functional impacts to ensure updates are leveraged to their full potential without duplicating effort.

• Proactively engage with functional leaders and subject matter experts to understand workflows, pain points, and business practices.

• Apply methodologies (e.g., Six Sigma, Lean, Agile) to rethink and redesign business processes, subsequently building those optimized workflows directly within Workday.

• Simplify complex technical changes for non-technical users and champion documenting new workflows to ensure sustainable adoption.

Keeping yourself up to date:

• Training: Maintain Workday Pro certifications in areas of Functional Core Area, Integration Administration, Security, and Reporting.

• Community: Represent the College in peer groups, user conferences, and other events to maintain a network of informal resources.

• Partnership: Maintain productive working relationships with functional areas, serve as a liaison as needed between functional areas, and end-user support themes.

• Other duties & responsibilities as assigned.

Skills, Qualifications & Requirements:

Knowledge, Skills & Abilities:

• Expert knowledge one or more of the following: Workday Recruiting, Time & Absence, Benefits, and Payroll, Finance, or Student.

• Understand technology trends and the practical application of existing and new emerging technologies to support the evolving HR, Finance, and Payroll functions.

• Highly organized and capable of prioritizing tasks under tight deadlines

• Ability to present and guide conversations regarding technical features to non-technical staff.

• Eagerness to explore new technology and processes.

• Communication and Collaboration: Excellent verbal and written communication skills.

• Collaborative in nature across diverse teams and comfortable guiding a mission-driven community through system changes, even when that community might be resistant or have varying levels of "change readiness."

• Ability to communicate business needs to technical people and to communicate and simplify complex technical information for non-technical users

Qualifications:

• Education: Bachelor's degree in a related field (Information Technology, Human Resources, Finance, Business Administration, etc.).

• Experience: Minimum of 5+ years of experience in Workday system analysis, design, development, and support, with a strong preference for enterprise-wide platform exposure.

• Technical Expertise: 5+ years of deep, hands-on Workday configuration experience. (Must be able to pass a technical configuration assessment).

• Process Improvement: Demonstrated ability to lead process improvement projects, ideally backed by certification or strong experience in Six Sigma, Lean, or Agile methodologies.

• Communication: Excellent written and oral communication skills; ability to seamlessly translate between strategic business needs and highly technical system configurations.

Preferred Qualifications:

• Workday Pro Certification in one or more core modules.

Work Conditions:

• This position is a full-time remote position, with the possibility of occasional requirements to come onsite for planning or strategic meetings.

• Requires the ability to perform customary office tasks such as sitting, walking, standing, computing, and participation in video meetings for moderate to prolonged periods of time.

| Salary Range: $120,000 - $130,000 annually

The salary of the finalist selected for this role will be set based on a variety of factors, including but not limited to departmental budgets, qualifications, experience, education, licenses, specialty, and training. The above hiring range represents the College's good faith and reasonable estimate of the range of possible compensation at the time of posting.

Company:

Barnard College

Time Type:

Full time

About Us: Barnard is an intellectually stimulating, diverse college community of approximately 800 full- and part-time faculty and staff dedicated to providing an extraordinary educational environment for our 2,600 students.
Whether you are a current or potential Barnard employee, the Office of Human Resources is here to provide you with clear and accurate information and the best possible service. We hope that you find the site useful and will feel free to email any of the HR staff directly with questions or suggestions. We look forward to working with you.