Workday Payroll Consultant

Senior Workday Payroll Consultant – 9–12 Month Contract

Hale International is partnering with a large manufacturing organization to support the implementation of Workday Payroll across a complex, unionised environment. We are looking for an experienced Senior Workday Payroll Consultant to play a key role in the delivery of this programme, supporting a payroll population of approximately 15,000 employees across multiple U.S. states and select international locations.

This role will cover the full lifecycle of the implementation, from design and requirements gathering through testing, go-live, and post-production stabilization and optimisation.

Key Responsibilities:

• Lead the configuration and delivery of Workday Payroll across a large, multi-entity manufacturing workforce.
• Support weekly, bi-weekly, semi-monthly, monthly, and off-cycle payroll runs.
• Gather detailed business and payroll requirements by working directly with Payroll, HR, Finance, Compliance, and Union stakeholders.
• Provide expert guidance on Workday Payroll best practices, tailored to a unionised manufacturing environment including shift work, overtime, premiums, and complex pay rules.
• Configure and support multi-state payroll processing and compliance, with a focus on California, Oregon, Washington DC, and Virginia.
• Support aspects of global payroll for Canada, France, and the UK.
• Lead testing across all phases, including UAT, Parallel Payroll, and full end-to-end testing.
• Work closely with technical teams to resolve payroll, integration, and data issues.
• Support payroll data migration and validation, including balances and year-to-date figures.
• Provide hands-on support during post-go-live stabilization, followed by optimisation and enhancement activities.
• Partner with Time Tracking, Absence, Benefits, and Finance teams to ensure full end-to-end payroll integration.
• Support knowledge transfer and help establish strong operational processes for the business.

Required Experience:

• 5 years of Workday Payroll experience, including at least one full end-to-end implementation.
• Strong background delivering payroll solutions within manufacturing or similarly regulated environments.
• Proven experience supporting unionised payroll populations.
• Hands-on experience with multiple payroll frequencies (weekly, bi-weekly, semi-monthly, monthly, and off-cycle).
• Strong knowledge of multi-state payroll compliance, particularly CA, OR, DC, and VA.
• Exposure to global payroll operations (Canada, France, and the UK) highly desirable.
• Demonstrated experience leading UAT, Parallel, and End-to-End payroll testing.
• Confident working directly with senior stakeholders on requirements gathering and solution design.
• Strong reporting, reconciliation, and audit support experience.
• Excellent communication skills and the ability to work in fast-paced, large programme environments.

This is an excellent opportunity to take a lead role on a large-scale Workday Payroll implementation within a complex, unionised manufacturing business, with additional exposure to global payroll operations.