Payroll Consultant, Higher Education

Workday•Atlanta, GA

6d•Hybrid

About The Position

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 The Higher Ed Functional Consulting team partners with colleges and universities to design and deliver Workday Payroll solutions that help them pay their people accurately and on time, so they can stay focused on their missions. We lead implementations end-to-end, balancing scope, milestones, and quality across a steady pipeline of projects. Many of us previously worked in Higher Ed, and we understand the realities of shared governance, academic calendars, and public or public-adjacent organizations. We also value creating sustainable ways of working that fit those environments. Our team is highly educated, curious, and always looking for ways to improve how we work. We actively experiment with Workday’s AI tools to make our implementations high-quality and efficient, and we share what we learn so the entire practice benefits. About the Role We’re looking for an experienced Payroll Consultant to support Higher Education implementations. In this role, you will partner with mission-driven organizations to design, configure, and deploy Workday Payroll solutions built for accuracy and long-term success. You’ll bring Workday product and implementation expertise to client engagements, helping customers translate business requirements into practical solutions. You’ll work closely with clients, project teammates, and the Engagement Manager to move implementations forward with clarity, quality, and strong partnership. You’ll have meaningful ownership over the payroll workstream, with the autonomy to recommend design approaches that set customers up for long-term success. This role is ideal for someone who enjoys solving complex problems, building trust with stakeholders, and helping customers navigate key implementation milestones with confidence. You’ll both learn from experienced teammates and contribute your own ideas and patterns to help evolve how we implement Workday Payroll in Higher Education.

Requirements

Senior Payroll Consultant (P4) 4+ years of experience implementing and/or configuring Workday Payroll
4+ years of experience in a consulting, software, or internal Workday environment with hands-on responsibility for payroll configuration, testing, and partnering with stakeholders
Principal Payroll Consultant (P5) 6+ years of experience implementing and/or configuring Workday Payroll
6+ years of experience in a consulting, software, or internal Workday environment leading complex payroll initiatives that require cross-workstream coordination, stakeholder alignment, and structured testing
Relationship Management: Proven ability to build trusted, long-term relationships with payroll, HR, and/or finance stakeholders in Higher Education and/or Nonprofit environments, including navigating complex governance structures (e.g., committees, unions, shared governance).
Task Management: Ability to manage multiple customers in parallel, estimate effort accurately, surface risks early, and coordinate with Engagement Managers and project teams to keep scope, schedule, and quality on track.
Ability to travel up to 50% based on client and project needs, particularly for key implementation milestones such as design sessions and major testing events

Nice To Haves

Experience working with Higher Education and/or Nonprofit organizations
Ability to implement Absence and/or Time Tracking
Experience with multiple payroll applications

Responsibilities

Design and configure Workday Payroll solutions
Apply deep expertise in the Workday Payroll product across customer engagements
Partner with customers to elicit, clarify, and document business requirements
Configure Workday Payroll to align with customer needs and operational realities
Document solution decisions clearly so customers can support and sustain their environment after go-live
Support data conversion, integrations, and testing
Partner with client and data conversion teams to support legacy payroll data conversion into Workday
Partner with integration teams to support the configuration and testing of integrations between Workday and third-party or custom solutions
Support customers through testing cycles, including issue triage and resolution
Transfer system knowledge to customer teams to support adoption, confidence, and long-term success in production
Drive project execution and stakeholder alignment
Communicate regularly with the Engagement Manager on project status, hours forecasting, time reporting, risks, and mitigation plans
Partner with Delivery Assurance to support compliance with agreed checkpoints and quality standards
Help customers prepare for and navigate key implementation milestones, from design through testing and deployment
Contribute to the practice and mentor others
Mentor consultants who are newer to Payroll, Absence, and/or Time Tracking
Participate in update training and knowledge-sharing opportunities that strengthen team capability
Contribute to the Higher Education consulting practice by identifying opportunities for improvement and leading or participating in internal initiatives