Director, HR Applications – Workday

About the role

The Director, HR Applications – Workday will serve as the IT application leader responsible for the overall strategy, delivery, and support of the Workday HR application suite. This role will partner closely with HR business stakeholders, regional teams, and IT teams to drive Workday transformation, optimize business processes, and ensure the platform supports the company’s growth and evolving HR operating model.

Responsibilities

• Lead the overall strategy, roadmap, delivery, and support model for the Workday HR application suite.
• Partner with HR leadership and business stakeholders to align Workday capabilities with HR transformation goals and business priorities.
• Oversee major HR processes and annual cycles, including Compensation, Benefits, Payroll, Performance, Talent, Absence, and employee lifecycle processes.
• Provide leadership and direction to global Workday teams, including APAC-based resources, technical architects, configuration teams, and support partners.
• Drive Workday enhancements, integrations, automation, reporting, and process improvements to improve employee and manager experience.
• Ensure strong governance around Workday security, access controls, business processes, data quality, integrations, and compliance requirements.
• Partner with Payroll, Benefits, Compensation, HR Operations, Legal, Finance, and IT teams to deliver scalable and compliant solutions.
• Lead prioritization of Workday initiatives, balancing business needs, platform capabilities, risk, and operational capacity.
• Support major transformation programs, system rollouts, vendor engagements, and Workday roadmap planning.
• Establish application support standards, documentation, release management, testing discipline, and production change controls.
• Drive continuous improvement by identifying opportunities to automate manual processes, reduce cycle time, and improve data accuracy.
• Serve as the senior IT point of contact for Workday-related strategy, escalations, and executive-level discussions.

Qualifications

• Strong experience leading Workday HR applications in a global enterprise environment.
• Deep understanding of Workday HCM and related modules such as Compensation, Benefits, Payroll, Absence, Time Tracking, Talent, Performance, Reporting, Security, and Integrations.
• Experience partnering with HR leadership and business stakeholders on strategic roadmap planning and transformation initiatives.
• Strong knowledge of HR business processes, employee lifecycle management, compliance, data governance, and global HR operations.
• Proven ability to lead global teams, including offshore or APAC-based delivery and support teams.
• Experience managing major HR cycles such as compensation planning, benefits enrollment, payroll operations, performance cycles, and organizational changes.
• Strong leadership, communication, stakeholder management, and executive presentation skills.
• Ability to translate business needs into scalable Workday solutions and long-term application strategy.
• Experience with application governance, production support, release management, change management, and audit controls.