Workday Operations Manager

Title: Workday Operations Manager

Position Type: Long term contract role with potential extensions(6 months to begin with)

Location: Boston, MA(100% remote)

JOB ID: NEU29012026

Pay rate: $104.90 to $111.90 per Hour on W2

We are looking for a Workday Operations Manager contract position to help manage the operations of the Workday Support team.

As the Workday platform grows in scope, complexity, and institutional reliance, there is a clear need to separate strategic platform leadership from day-to-day operational management.

Currently, the Workday Lead is responsible for both long-term program direction and operational oversight. This creates competing priorities and limits the ability to fully focus on platform strategy, roadmap alignment, governance evolution, and cross-functional program leadership.

Establishing a Workday Operations Manager role allows for a clear division of responsibilities:

Workday Lead — Focus on strategic system ownership and program direction, including roadmap planning, governance design, cross-functional alignment, and major initiatives

Operations Manager — Own operational execution, including support team coordination, performance metrics, reporting, workload management, process adherence, and service delivery consistency.

Education:

Bachelor's degree in Information Systems, Business Administration, Computer Science, or related field required.

Experience:

• Minimum of 3-5 years of people management experience leading technical or operational teams in a complex enterprise environment.
• Demonstrated expertise with Workday HCM, Finance, and Payroll modules
• Background in higher education ERP systems strongly preferred
• Preferred, experience managing teams supporting SaaS platforms, including oversight of operational processes, ticket management disciplines, and service performance metrics.
  
  

Required Skills:

• Strong understanding of higher education business processes (academic, HR, finance)
• Excellent analytical and problem-solving abilities
• Ability to translate business requirements into technical solutions
• Strong collaboration skills and ability to work effectively in team environments
• Excellent documentation and communication skills
• Strong organizational skills with ability to manage multiple priorities
• Experience with change management and ITIL processes
  
  

Preferred Qualifications

• Workday Certification (HCM, Financials, or Student)
• Workday Pro or Partner certification
• Additional Workday module certifications (Absence, Benefits, Recruiting, Learning, Compensation)
• Experience with Workday Adaptive Planning or PRISM Analytics
• Knowledge of Workday Extend platform development
• Familiarity with Agile methodologies and iterative development approaches
• Experience with other higher education ERPs (Banner, PeopleSoft, Oracle)
  
  

Familiarity with data analytics and visualization tools (Tableau, Power BI)

Key Responsibilities & Accountabilities

• Team Leadership, Capacity Management & Cross-Functional Coordination (40%)
  
  

Lead and develop the Workday Operations Team, including prioritization and, ensuring disciplined workload management, structured execution of operational commitments, and alignment with enterprise priorities.

Drive team accountability for SLAs, operational quality, and service maturity. Partner closely with HR, Finance, ITS, Security, and the Workday Product Lead to ensure aligned priorities and transparent communication. Own weekly operational huddles, backlog reviews, and readiness process that support the enterprise governance model.

• Platform Operations & Incident Management (25%)
  
  

Oversee day-to-day production stability, including incident triage, major incident management, root-cause analysis, and prevention strategies. Monitor KPIs, maintain operational runbooks, and ensure timely escalation of systemic risks or capacity constraints through the Product Lead.

• Release & Change Management (15%)
  
  

Lead the Workday support team to successfully deploy Workday's biannual release cycles, monitor weekly service updates, and internal changes following IT change-control procedures and cross-functional review gates. Manage the support coordination around regression testing, cutover planning, stakeholder communication, and issue resolution, in alignment with the Product Lead's tenant and roadmap strategy.

• Security & Compliance Operations (10%)
  
  

Manage Workday security operations including role assignments, quarterly access reviews, SoD monitoring, and audit documentation. Coordinate with HR, Finance, Internal Audit, and the Security Lead to ensure compliance and elevate exceptions through the governance process.

• CrossFunctional Collaboration on Integration and Environment Activities (10%)
  
  

Collaborate with the Integrations Lead and Workday Architect to support integration stability and environment operations, ensuring timely coordination, adherence to Software Development Lifecycle (SDLC) controls, and alignment with release and environment planning activities.

This structure ensures:

Stronger operational discipline and accountability

Consistent application of support and governance frameworks

Improved visibility through metrics and reporting

Better team performance and workload balance

Reduced risk from unmanaged or inconsistent processes