Director of Strategic Initiatives - HCM and Workforce Management Development

Your work days are brighter here. We’re obsessed with making hard work pay off, for our people, our customers, and the world around us. As a Fortune 500 company and a leading AI platform for managing people, money, and agents, we’re shaping the future of work so teams can reach their potential and focus on what matters most. The minute you join, you’ll feel it. Not just in the products we build, but in how we show up for each other. Our culture is rooted in integrity, empathy, and shared enthusiasm. We’re in this together, tackling big challenges with bold ideas and genuine care. We look for curious minds and courageous collaborators who bring sun-drenched optimism and drive. Whether you're building smarter solutions, supporting customers, or creating a space where everyone belongs, you’ll do meaningful work with Workmates who’ve got your back. In return, we’ll give you the trust to take risks, the tools to grow, the skills to develop and the support of a company invested in you for the long haul. So, if you want to inspire a brighter work day for everyone, including yourself, you’ve found a match in Workday, and we hope to be a match for you too. About the Team We are looking for a Chief of Staff who will serve as a strategic advisor and counsel to the VP of HCM & Workforce Management Engineering and will help drive forward key strategic initiatives to ensure operational excellence. This role will lead all aspects of initiatives that will accelerate business operations and drive business effectiveness and efficiencies across the HCM & Workforce Management Engineering teams while creating and maintaining cross-departmental relationships to enable leadership success. The successful candidate has a passion for driving continuous improvement and thrives in an employee first, customer centric culture About the Role In this role, you will have the opportunity to: Promote operational excellence: identify and execute on opportunities to optimize our organizational systems and processes while bringing together multiple stakeholders to help drive decisions. Thought partnership and assisting with defining, planning and orchestrating culture based initiatives across the team. Outcome Focused: Drive successful outcomes and bring visibility to status and progress of Key Strategic business and operational initiatives and priorities. Metrics & Measurement: Curate the overall story/narrative for all business related metrics through regular interactions with metrics owners to stay informed of all business operations metrics and proactively work to understand data trends and insights. Monitors and analyzes trends to provide key insights and integrates these metrics into business and operations reviews. Annual Planning: Responsible for business planning and providing detailed analysis and key inputs for decision making. Communication: Orchestrate and develop key communication strategies. Coordinate and develop content for team and org-wide meetings and events. Curate and source org specific content for senior management reporting. HCM & Workforce Management Employee Recognition Program. Develop and implement creative ways to cultivate all types of recognition throughout the organization and ensure representation in the Product and Corporate level recognition as appropriate. Design, coordinate and lead HCM & Workforce Management Engineering Professional Development Programs. Develop and implement creative ways to cultivate all types of learning and innovation ideas throughout the organization Collaborate across the organization to align OKRs, including cross-team communication and alignment and proactive reporting. Involved in program managing all local initiatives with the teams (from Offsites and working with P&P) Org Headcount Planning (keeping us on track) Finance and Budget Spend – Working closely with our finance partners to ensure we are keeping to our operational budgets and setting budgets with the teams Planning for and managing to cross-team organization headcount and financial fiscal budget Lead process and change management initiatives for Student Dev teams Major Organizational Changes - gather feedback and provide input Create Presentations & set operational cadences for the org Collaborate with the other Chief of Staff's in the ecosystem, especially around process change Think like a scientist - forming a hypothesis, running successful experiments or fails fast About You Basic Qualifications Minimum of 15 years in product development experience with a demonstrated track record of - developing and executing on strategic priorities. Minimum of 5 years of experience strategizing and executing change management initiatives Minimum of 15 years of Project and Program Management - leads multiple strategic programs and projects Minimum of 5 years in building and presenting executive level presentations; includes demonstrated gravitas and effectively communicating clear messages across different levels and roles. Minimum of 5 years managing a fiscal budget across multiple teams Other Qualifications Experience with risk mitigation Experience using critical thinking/ problem solving through curating data from multiple sources, assessing multiple viewpoints and making data-driven decisions. Experience building strong connections across cross functional teams, as well as Products, Technology, Services, Sales, etc. Demonstrated business sense - keenness and quickness in understanding and handling business situations in a manner that will lead to a good outcome, and able to quickly connect the dots. Experience managing operational excellence; including the ability to understand details, build and communicate operational metrics, define success measures; as well as measure progress towards goals. Experience leading teams to focusing on outcomes and results Demonstrated ability to influence all levels of leadership Strong facilitation skills; ability to handle difficult situations, conversations and skilled at delivering feedback across multiple levels of the organization. Workday Pay Transparency Statement The annualized base salary ranges for the primary location and any additional locations are listed below. Workday pay ranges vary based on work location. As a part of the total compensation package, this role may be eligible for the Workday Bonus Plan or a role-specific commission/bonus, as well as annual refresh stock grants. Recruiters can share more detail during the hiring process. Each candidate’s compensation offer will be based on multiple factors including, but not limited to, geography, experience, skills, job duties, and business need, among other things. For more information regarding Workday’s comprehensive benefits, please click here . Primary Location: USA.CA.Pleasanton Primary Location Base Pay Range: $196,000 USD - $294,000 USD Additional US Location(s) Base Pay Range: $171,000 USD - $294,000 USD Our Approach to Flexible Work With Flex Work, we’re combining the best of both worlds: in-person time and remote. Our approach enables our teams to deepen connections, maintain a strong community, and do their best work. We know that flexibility can take shape in many ways, so rather than a number of required days in-office each week, we simply spend at least half (50%) of our time each quarter in the office or in the field with our customers, prospects, and partners (depending on role). This means you'll have the freedom to create a flexible schedule that caters to your business, team, and personal needs, while being intentional to make the most of time spent together. Those in our remote "home office" roles also have the opportunity to come together in our offices for important moments that matter. Pursuant to applicable Fair Chance law, Workday will consider for employment qualified applicants with arrest and conviction records. Workday is an Equal Opportunity Employer including individuals with disabilities and protected veterans. Workday is committed to providing reasonable accommodations for qualified individuals during our application process, in order to perform one or more essential functions of their job, as well as regarding the use of AI tools for employment decision-making to any degree. Please see below for more details including how to request an accommodation as a qualified veteran, due to a disability or for religious reasons, or as otherwise provided under applicable law. Workday prohibits taking adverse action against any candidate or employee for reporting a possible violation of this policy, requesting one or more work accommodations, exercising a privacy right, or cooperating in an investigation in accordance with applicable law. Any employee who retaliates against a candidate or employee for doing so may be subject to disciplinary action, up to and including termination of employment, to the fullest extent allowable under applicable law. If you require a reasonable accommodation, you may email , as far in advance as possible. Are you being referred to one of our roles? If so, ask your connection at Workday about our Employee Referral process! At Workday, we value our candidates’ privacy and data security. 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