Workday HRIS Lead Specialist in Reading

ICON plc is a world-leading healthcare intelligence and clinical research organization. We’re proud to foster an inclusive environment driving innovation and excellence, and we welcome you to join us on our mission to shape the future of clinical development.

As a HR Technology Lead at ICON, you will oversee the strategy, implementation, and optimization of HR technology solutions to support our organizational goals and enhance the employee experience.

What You Will Do:

• You will manage day-to-day human resources activities, supporting your team to deliver quality outcomes.
• Workday HRIS Operations & Governance
  • Act as escalation point for complex Workday L2/L3 cases across HCM, Recruiting, Compensation, Absence and Integrations.
  • Manage direct escalations from Tier 1 analysts and HR/TA stakeholders on urgent or sensitive cases.
  • Provide decisioning and risk management for high-impact issues affecting hiring, pay or executive populations.
  • Oversee HRIS backlog prioritisation and recurring refinement forums.
  • Ensure documentation and governance controls are in place.
• Functional Team Leadership & Configuration Direction
  • Provide day-to-day leadership and support to the functional HRIS team across HCM, Recruiting, Compensation and Absence.
  • Act as first point of contact for complex functional or technical queries where analysts require confirmation or direction.
  • Support the team in assessing requirements, options and impacts before configuration changes are made.
  • Guide next steps on configuration for Change Requests (CRs) and project work, including tenant strategy (sandbox vs preview vs production).
  • Help shape and validate configuration approaches to ensure they align to global design, governance standards and downstream impacts.
  • Remove blockers by advising on sequencing, dependencies, testing approach and stakeholder alignment.
• Supplier, Contract & SOW Management
  • Coordinate SOW preparation, internal approvals and VP signature routing via DocuSign.
  • Liaise with Procurement and Legal to ensure commercial and contractual compliance.
  • Maintain oversight of active AMS and project SOWs.
• Release Management
  • Release impact assessment change gating/evidence deployment coordination post-release stabilization.
• Annual Process Governance & Traceability
  • Responsible for BAU delivery (e.g. performance review, compensation cycles and benefit enrollment events).
  • Workday security/data reviews & access governance.
  • Working with cross functional teams to ensure all security related requirements are fully analysed and appropriate checks and balances applied.
  • Facilitating weekly team and quarterly SLT governance forums.

Your Profile:

You will have solid human resources experience, with the ability to manage competing priorities and develop your team.

Required qualifications and experience:

• Bachelor's degree in information systems, human resources, business administration, or a related field, or equivalent experience.
• Extensive experience in HR technology management, including implementation and oversight of major HR platforms e.g., Workday, SAP, Oracle.
• Strong strategic thinking skills with a proven ability to align technology with business goals.
• Excellent communication and leadership abilities, with experience managing teams and cross-functional projects.
• A commitment to continuous improvement, innovation, and delivering a high-quality employee experience through technology.
• Willingness to travel as required (approximately 5%).

What ICON can offer you:

Our success depends on the quality of our people. That’s why we’ve made it a priority to build a diverse culture that rewards high performance and nurtures talent. In addition to your competitive salary, ICON offers a range of additional benefits. Our benefits are designed to be competitive within each country and are focused on well-being and work life balance opportunities for you and your family.

• Various annual leave entitlements.
• A range of health insurance offerings to suit you and your family’s needs.
• Competitive retirement planning offerings to maximize savings and plan with confidence for the years ahead.
• Global Employee Assistance Programme, LifeWorks, offering 24-hour access to a global network of over 80,000 independent specialized professionals who are there to support you and your family’s well-being.
• Life assurance.
• Flexible country-specific optional benefits, including childcare vouchers, bike purchase schemes, discounted gym memberships, subsidized travel passes, health assessments, among others.

At ICON, inclusion & belonging are fundamental to our culture and values. We’re dedicated to providing an inclusive and accessible environment for all candidates. ICON is committed to providing a workplace free of discrimination and harassment. All qualified applicants will receive equal consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability or protected veteran status. If, because of a medical condition or disability, you need a reasonable accommodation for any part of the application process, or in order to perform the essential functions of a position, please let us know or submit a request here.