Workday HCM Lead in Leeds

Location: Hybrid (Office bases in Swindon, Stockton, or Newport with flexibility depending on business needs)

Security Clearance: SC Clearance required (or willingness/eligibility to undergo checks)

Are you a senior Workday specialist who loves getting under the hood of complex configurations, but is ready to step into a high-visibility leadership role? We are looking for a Workday HCM Lead to provide technical authority, design assurance, and subject matter expertise within a complex, large-scale government shared services environment. Operating as part of a multi-disciplinary delivery team, you will blend hands-on configuration brilliance with senior stakeholder management and team mentorship. This role offers a unique opportunity to shape the HR technology landscape for the public sector, ensuring our systems remain robust, scalable, compliant, and aligned with wider government standards.

Key Responsibilities

• Technical & Functional Leadership: Acting as the senior expert across Core HCM, Organizations, Staffing Models, Job Architecture, and the Business Process Framework (BPF).
• Design Assurance & Quality: Providing technical assurance and peer reviews of configurations delivered by internal colleagues, system integrators, and third-party suppliers.
• AMS & Service Delivery: Overseeing ticket queue management, enforcing SLA/KPI frameworks, and proactively driving continuous improvement to reduce incident volumes.
• Workshop Facilitation: Leading complex requirements-gathering sessions and translating intricate business needs into clear functional designs.
• People & Capability Development: Providing day-to-day technical supervision, coaching, and mentoring to junior analysts and contractors, fostering succession planning.
• Release Management: Overseeing enhancements, bi-annual Workday releases, and regulatory changes with a strict focus on compliance and auditability.

Skills, Knowledge & Experience

Essential:

• Deep Workday Expertise: Significant experience in a senior Workday HCM configuration, implementation, or support role.
• Complex HR Architecture: A strong understanding of end-to-end HR processes within large, complex, enterprise-level organizations.
• Technical Oversight: Proven experience providing technical leadership, assurance, or governance within SaaS/ERP environments.
• Requirement Translation: Exceptional ability to gather complex business requirements and translate them into robust functional designs.
• Leadership & Communication: Natural stakeholder management skills with the ability to influence at senior levels and coach/mentor junior team members.
• Methodologies: Experience working within structured delivery environments (e.g., Agile, SAFe, or hybrid).

Desirable:

• Experience within a government, public sector, or shared services environment.
• Exposure to Workday Payroll, integrations, reporting, or analytics.
• Experience with legacy ERP migrations (e.g., Oracle EBS or Fusion).

What we offer

• Unbeatable Pension: Access to an exceptional, market-leading defined benefit pension scheme.
• True Hybrid Flexibility: A balanced hybrid working model with office bases at Swindon, Stockton, and Newport (with flexibility tailored to business needs).
• Generous Leave: A highly competitive annual leave allowance.
• Continuous Learning: Dedicated access to training, professional development, and official Workday-related learning opportunities.
• Purpose-Driven Work: The chance to deliver critical services that support operations across the UK public sector.

Eligibility & Security

Because of the nature of this work, appointment to this role is subject to successful completion of pre-employment checks, including SC (Security Check) clearance. Applicants must have the right to live and work in the UK at the time of application.

£66000 - £74000 / year