Manager, Employee Experience Technology

Guidewire Software•Toronto, ON

About The Position

We are seeking a technically strong and execution-focused Manager, Employee Experience Technology to provide functional and technical leadership in the development, optimization, and support of our people systems, primarily Workday. Serving as a hands-on subject matter expert, this role requires deep experience with Workday, focusing on advancing the design, integration, and scalability of core Workday modules - HCM, Talent, Learning, Peakon and Recruiting. Guidewire is hyper-focused on leveraging Generative AI to build intelligent agents and to redesign business processes—and this role is expected to actively experiment with, apply, and scale GenAI-driven solutions that enhance the employee experience. Highly collaborative by nature, this role plays a critical part in driving technical and operational excellence while managing a high-performing team.

Requirements

8+ years of hands-on Workday technical experience, including 3+ years of team management.
5+ years of experience working with modern software development technologies (e.g., Python or similar languages), with adaptability to evolving toolsets.
Proven expertise with Workday HCM, Talent, Learning, and Recruiting modules, including Reporting, Dashboards & Security.
Deep knowledge of Workday’s integration frameworks, including Workday Studio, EIB, Core Connectors, and APIs.
Experience managing secure, high-performing Workday tenants in global enterprise environments.
Strong problem-solving, architecture, and system design skills in a cloud-first, scalable environment.
Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Information Systems, or a related field.

Nice To Haves

Workday certifications in one or more relevant modules (e.g., HCM, Talent, Recruiting).
Familiarity with Workday PRISM Analytics, Worksheets, or similar tools.
Experience with other enterprise systems such as ADP, SAP, LumApps, Glean, JIRA, Concur, or ServiceNow.

Responsibilities

Serve as the primary owner of Workday and all downstream integrations, ensuring the system is configured, maintained and optimized for business needs across Workday HCM, Talent, Learning, Peakon and Recruiting.
Lead cross-functional Workday projects, from gathering requirements and designing solutions to testing, deployment, and change management.
Implement secure and scalable solutions aligned with systems best practices and Guidewire’s internal engineering and security standards.
Help translate business requirements into system solutions, oversee and develop Workday team as needed.
Drive Workday tenant management, including version updates, change control, regression testing, and release adoption.
Lead the design and delivery of AI-enabled employee experience solutions, partnering with HR, IT, and business stakeholders to improve personalization, efficiency, and usability across the employee lifecycle.
Present architectural design, integration strategy, security controls and governance plan at EARB for securing technical approval for new vendors or tools.
Lead continuous improvement initiatives focused on automation, data integrity, and performance tuning within Workday.
Collaborate with internal partners (e.g., Total Rewards, Talent Acquisition, Payroll, Finance, IT, HR Ops) to optimize employee lifecycle processes and recommend system enhancements—whether delivered through Workday or complementary tools.
Maintain awareness of current trends and new Workday functionality, providing recommendations to HR Leadership and functional departments on how to take advantage of these new functionalities.
Manage license structure and ensure compliance.
Oversee and submit compliance audits to ensure data integrity.
Ensure user access and permissions are managed correctly.
Train, guide, and actively share knowledge across all team members, HR staff, and end users to enhance in-house expertise.
Manage and mentor a team of Workday professionals, including developers, analysts, interns, administrators and contractors.
Define clear performance expectations, promote career development, and foster a collaborative technical excellence culture.
Oversee work allocation, capacity planning, and adherence to engineering standards.
Oversee backlog management respective to resource capacity.
Build and maintain a documentation-first, test-driven environment across all Workday technical efforts.
Serve as a player-coach who builds GenAI capability across the team by coaching direct reports, sharing best practices, and fostering hands-on experimentation with Generative AI in support of employee experience initiatives.