Product Manager / Workday HCM

Title: Product Manager / Workday HCM Locations: DC Metro Area, (Hybrid) Experience: 10+ Years Pay rate: ./hr on W2 Only Local candidates who are in DC/VA/MD who can got for F2F interview* Role Overview This is primarily a BAU-focused Product Manager role, rather than a role tied to one major implementation. The Product Manager will own and organize the ongoing HCM backlog, partner closely with business stakeholders, translate needs into actionable requirements/user stories, and help introduce stronger product management and Agile practices to the engineering team. Key Responsibilities Take ownership of the HCM product backlog, including organizing, prioritizing, and grooming work for the engineering team.Create clear user stories and requirements with appropriate detail and acceptance criteria.Partner directly with business stakeholders to uncover and clarify new requirements.Guide stakeholders through conversations around the current-state process, business need, and desired future state rather than simply taking requirements at face value.Establish and mature product management processes and best practices across the product lifecycle.Support BAU enhancements across the broader HCM environment.Manage a specific business-funded initiative within the Talent Management space, including status tracking, timelines, requirements, and delivery coordination.Help the team with Agile practices, including backlog grooming, prioritization, capacity planning, and managing engineering capacity. Required Experience / Skills Strong Product Management experience, ideally supporting enterprise applications or platforms.Hands-on Workday HCM experience.Strong understanding of the HR lifecycle and HCM business processes.Experience across areas such as Talent Management, Compensation, Recruiting, Learning & Development, and People Operations.Strong Agile experience, particularly backlog management/grooming, user stories, prioritization, and capacity planning.Ability to manage both ongoing BAU enhancements and a defined project/workstream.Excellent stakeholder communication and requirements-gathering skills.Ability to challenge, clarify, and guide business partners toward well-defined requirements.Comfortable working closely with engineering teams and bringing structure to a relatively new product management function.Candidate Profile / Interview FeedbackRani is looking for someone who is more of a hands-on Product Manager than a high-level Program Manager. A previous candidate had strong implementation/program-level experience and could speak to Agile, but the role requires someone comfortable getting into the details of backlog grooming, capacity planning, requirements, user stories, and day-to-day product ownership. Strong communication and HR lifecycle knowledge are particularly important.