Payroll Consultant, Higher Education

About the role

The Higher Ed Functional Consulting team partners with colleges and universities to design and deliver Workday Payroll solutions that help them pay their people accurately and on time, so they can stay focused on their missions. You will partner with mission-driven organizations to design, configure, and deploy Workday Payroll solutions built for accuracy and long-term success.

Responsibilities

• You will design and configure Workday Payroll solutions.
• You will apply deep expertise in the Workday Payroll product across customer engagements.
• You will partner with customers to elicit, clarify, and document business requirements.
• You will configure Workday Payroll to align with customer needs and operational realities.
• You will document solution decisions clearly so customers can support and sustain their environment after go-live.
• You will support data conversion, integrations, and testing.
• You will support customers through testing cycles, including issue triage and resolution.
• You will transfer system knowledge to customer teams to support adoption, confidence, and long-term success in production.
• You will communicate regularly with the Engagement Manager on project status, hours forecasting, time reporting, risks, and mitigation plans.
• You will participate in update training and knowledge-sharing opportunities that strengthen team capability.
• You will contribute to the Higher Education consulting practice by identifying opportunities for improvement and leading or participating in internal initiatives.

Qualifications

• Senior Payroll Consultant (P4): 4+ years of experience implementing and/or configuring Workday Payroll, 4+ years of experience in a consulting, software, or internal Workday environment with hands-on responsibility for payroll configuration, testing, and partnering with stakeholders.
• Principal Payroll Consultant (P5): 6+ years of experience implementing and/or configuring Workday Payroll, 6+ years of experience in a consulting, software, or internal Workday environment leading complex payroll initiatives that require cross-workstream coordination, stakeholder alignment, and structured testing.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience working with Higher Education and/or Nonprofit organizations.
• Ability to implement Absence and/or Time Tracking.
• Experience with multiple payroll applications.

Other Qualifications

• Relationship Management: Proven ability to build trusted, long-term relationships with payroll, HR, and/or finance stakeholders in Higher Education and/or Nonprofit environments, including navigating complex governance structures (e.g., committees, unions, shared governance).
• Task Management: Ability to manage multiple customers in parallel, estimate effort accurately, surface risks early, and coordinate with Engagement Managers and project teams to keep scope, schedule, and quality on track.
• Ability to travel up to 50% based on client and project needs, particularly for key implementation milestones such as design sessions and major testing events.