Workday HCM Technical Lead - 12 month contract

Herschend is the world’s largest family-held themed attractions company, with a portfolio of over 40 family entertainment brands across North America, including destinations, resorts, theme parks, water parks, immersive experiences, and content enjoyed by audiences worldwide.  

While each of our family brands offers something unique, all are united by a shared purpose: Bringing Families Closer Together by Creating Memories Worth Repeating®. Our 22,000 passionate hosts make this purpose possible through everyday acts of love and service—what we call Heartspitality®—the intersection of heart and hospitality.  

As an equal-opportunity employer, we strive to provide environments where every host, guest, and partner feels welcome, valued, and loved. We firmly believe that words and actions matter, which is why all individuals are to be treated equally and with respect. For more information, visit www.Herschend.com.   

POSITION SUMMARY 

The Workday HCM Technical Lead (12-month contract) serves as a technical owner of the Workday platform, responsible for integrations, data architecture, security framework, and system performance. Reporting through the Technology organization and partnering with HR functional leads, this role ensures Workday operates as a scalable, secure, and well-integrated enterprise system.

ESSENTIAL DUTIES & RESPONSIBILITIES

Technical Platform Ownership & Architecture  

• Serve as the technical owner and subject matter expert for Workday HCM modules, partnering with HR stakeholders to define data governance and data flow design. 
• Own integration architecture and patterns within the Workday HCM modules. 
• Manage tenant health, performance, and monitoring. 
• Align system capabilities and enhancements with HR priorities and organizational initiatives as defined in the Workday HCM roadmap. 
• Oversee environment strategy (test, preprod, prod) and evaluate impacts of Workday system changes on integration and security architecture. 

Technical Support & Engineering 

• Serve as a point of escalation and partner for HR for configuration issues, enhancements, and system questions related to Workday HCM. Ensure system configuration remains aligned with approved processes, controls, and governance standards. 
• Troubleshoot integration failures, data issues, and security issues partnering with technical teams and third-party partners as needed. 
• Support API, EIB, Studio, Core Connector frameworks. 
• Coordinate with internal business and technology teams, Application Management Services (AMS) partners, and Workday as needed to resolve system issues and implement improvements. 
• Ensure system uptime and integration reliability during critical HR cycles and events. 
• Monitor integration SLAs and failures. 

Testing, Releases, and Change Management 

• Own integration testing strategy and validate data integrity across systems.  
• Coordinate testing and release activities related to Workday biannual releases, or major changes. 
• Manage release impact analysis for integrations and security. Ensure technical impacts of system updates and changes are properly validated and communicated.  

Integrations, Data & Security 

• Own Workday integration ecosystem: EIBs, Core Connectors, Workday Studio, APIs (REST/SOAP). 
• Define and maintain data models and data flow diagrams. 
• Define and maintain data governance standards. 
• Manage Workday security model (role-based, domain security). 
• Manage audit and compliance requirements. 
• Partner with HR to ensure data consistency across Workday and from Workday to downstream systems. 

EXPERIENCE & EDUCATION

• 5-10 years of experience supporting enterprise systems, preferably in HR or Human Capital Management environments. 
• 3 years of hands-on experience supporting Workday HCM in a technical lead, analyst, or product owner role. 

SKILLS & QUALIFICATIONS 

• Working knowledge of HR processes sufficient to translate requirements into technical solutions. 
• Experience with Workday integrations (EIB, Studio, Core Connectors), APIs (REST/SOAP). 
• Experience with data transformation (XML, XSLT preferred) 
• Understanding of enterprise integration patterns. 
• Experience managing security frameworks and role-based access. 
• Experience with data governance. 
• Strong communication and stakeholder management skills with the ability to translate technical concepts to business terms and present solutions in a user-friendly language. 
• Experience supporting post-implementation Workday environments within an internal HRIS or technology team. 
• Experience working with Workday AMS partners and other third-party Workday resources. 
• Understanding of middleware platforms. 
• Workday HCM certification.