Financial Systems – Workday Architect

William & Mary•Mount Vernon, NY

4d•Hybrid

About The Position

The Financial Systems Workday Architect serves as the senior functional and solution architect for Workday Financials, providing strategic oversight, system design, and operational leadership to ensure Workday effectively supports financial operations, payroll accounting, grants, and compliance activities. This role functions as the primary architectural authority for Finance related Workday configuration, integrations, reporting, data governance, and feature adoption. The Architect partners closely with Finance leadership, Financial Operations, Budget, Payroll, Supply Chain Services, Internal Audit, and IT to ensure the Workday platform is secure, scalable, compliant, and aligned with institutional financial strategy.

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree in Finance, Accounting, Information Systems, Business Administration, or an equivalent combination of education, experience, and training.
Extensive experience configuring, supporting, and maintaining Workday Financials in a complex organizational environment.
Strong understanding of accounting principles, financial controls, audit readiness, and compliance requirements.
Demonstrated experience designing end‑to‑end business processes and cross‑functional solutions.
Ability to translate complex systems and technical concepts into clear guidance for senior leadership.
Proficiency with a variety of software applications, including advanced use of Microsoft Excel and Word, automated accounting systems, enterprise applications, and reporting tools.
Strong interpersonal, written, and verbal communication skills, with a demonstrated ability to collaborate effectively as a team player.
Strong organizational skills, with the ability to work independently while successfully managing multiple projects with competing priorities and tight deadlines.
Strong work ethic and demonstrated commitment to high performance in a collegial, team‑oriented workplace.
Customer‑focused mindset with a strong service orientation.
Demonstrated consensus‑building skills and the ability to work collaboratively in a team environment.
Ability to work with minimal supervision and exercise sound professional judgment in carrying out assigned responsibilities.

Nice To Haves

Master’s degree or equivalent combination of education, experience, and training.
Experience in higher education, research administration, or similarly regulated environments.
Workday Financial Management certification(s).
Experience leading enhancement roadmaps, change management efforts, and small project teams.

Responsibilities

Serves as the architectural owner for Workday Financials business process design, configuration, and optimization across record‑to‑report, projects, grants, fixed assets, and related modules.
Designs and governs complex business processes, approval frameworks, security roles, and financial controls to ensure audit readiness, segregation of duties, and compliance with accounting standards.
Resolves complex system issues involving business process framework (BPF), accounting impacts, workflow failures, and cross‑module dependencies.
Partners with Integration and Reporting teams to design and optimize Finance‑related integrations and data flows.
Documents Finance Workday architecture, configurations, controls, and key design decisions.
Maintains deep expertise in Workday Financials data structures, business objects, and the Foundation Data Model (FDM).
Monitors and resolves data quality issues, balancing discrepancies, and reporting errors in partnership with Finance and IT.
Advice on financial reporting solutions, including dashboards, composite reports, and analytics supporting leadership, audit, and compliance.
Ensures financial data governance, integrity, and consistency across transactions, reporting, and integrations.
Serves as the Finance Workday Operations representative, ensuring Finance needs and risks are represented in cross‑platform operational discussions.
Maintains expert knowledge of the Workday Financials roadmap and evaluates upcoming features for operational, compliance, and accounting impact.
Prepare clear recommendations and decision support materials for Finance leadership and governance bodies.
Acts as a strategic advisor, aligning Workday capabilities with institutional financial objectives and regulatory requirements.
Serves as the primary Workday Finance consultant and liaison to Finance, Payroll, Budget, Supply Chain, Internal Audit, and IT.
Leads requirements definition, solution design, and business case development for Finance enhancements and initiatives.
Provides leadership on change management and training strategy for Finance modules to support adoption and operational readiness.
Escalates enterprise‑level risks, decisions, and conflicts to governance and executive forums.
Manages the intake, prioritization, and tracking of Finance enhancement requests in partnership with Finance leadership.
Leads small enhancement initiatives from design through deployment and post‑implementation validation.
Actively participates in Workday Community; evaluates best practices, peer use cases, and brainstorm opportunities.
Communicates enhancement progress, outcomes, and continuous improvement opportunities to stakeholders.
Owns functional quality for Finance‑related Workday solutions, including test scenario development, regression testing, and validation.
Leads and participate in sandbox and implementation testing to ensure accounting accuracy, reporting integrity, and process stability.
Evaluates biannual feature releases and weekly service updates for Finance impact.
Coordinates risk mitigation and recommend roadmap adjustments to Finance leadership and the Workday Governance Team.
Serves as a designated Workday Named Support Contact for Finance functionality, coordinating vendor support and escalations as needed.