Principal, Strategic Customer Engagement - AI

Workday

2d•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 AI GTM Strategy team is a high‑impact organization within the Global Revenue organization, reporting to the SVP of AI Strategy. Our mission is to be the "connective tissue" between Product, Sales, and our customers, ensuring the biggest challenges in the future of work and money are solved with Workday AI and achieve meaningful business impact. This team acts as a force multiplier, accelerating revenue and adoption of Workday AI across our customers’ enterprises. Workday is in a pivotal moment of scaling AI across our platform and customer base, and our AI GTM Strategy team sits at the heart of this transformation. This is a highly cross‑functional team, translating AI innovation into scalable, repeatable commercial impact. If you are energized by building something new, moving fast, and shaping how enterprises adopt AI at scale, this is the place to do it. About the Role As a Strategic Customer Engagement Manager – AI, you will be a key driver of Workday’s growth across our AI solutions. This role fuels AI revenue growth with our world‑class GTM team and requires a blend of commercial acumen, strategic vision, and deep product and market understanding in a rapidly evolving AI landscape. You will guide strategic enterprise AI opportunities through critical portions of the sales journey for Workday AI Agents, Platform AI solutions, and broader AI capabilities. From sharing our AI vision, to uncovering opportunities, to shaping complex solutions and helping close impactful deals, you will engage with C‑level executives including CHRO, CIO, CFO, and other key leaders who are seeking to transform their enterprises through AI‑powered solutions. You will also help the broader sales organization adapt to fast‑shifting market dynamics and customer needs. In this role, you will:

Requirements

7+ years in relevant roles (e.g., AI Sales, AI Product Strategy, AI Sales Strategy, Customer Strategy, Management Consulting, or similar customer‑facing strategic roles).
Demonstrated experience leading executive‑level conversations, public speaking, and producing strategic content (presentations, narratives, or thought leadership).
Experience in or with regulated industries; HR technology experience strongly preferred.
Strong background in sales strategy, AI‑related sales or GTM strategy, or similar roles focused on technology or AI‑driven solutions.
Proven ability to map AI capabilities to business value (e.g., revenue growth, cost savings, experience improvements, operational efficiencies) and to build compelling business cases.
Solid technical understanding of AI concepts (LLMs, generative AI, data platforms, ML, copilots/agents) sufficient to partner credibly with product and engineering in a senior, business‑facing capacity.
Deep understanding of the end‑to‑end customer lifecycle (Sales, Deployment, Post‑Go‑Live / Adoption / Expansion).
Experience working in entrepreneurial or high‑growth environments and with global, cross‑functional teams.
Strong executive presence with the ability to influence and align senior stakeholders, both externally with customers and internally.
BA / BS / BE degree or higher.

Nice To Haves

Experience working with Fortune 500 or large enterprise clients.
Deep understanding of the AI market, including copilots, agents, ML, and LLMs, with demonstrated curiosity and a willingness to continuously learn new AI solutions.
Proficiency with Workday (or similar HCM/ERP platforms), including experience with intelligent features such as agents, copilots, or AI‑powered workflows.
Passion for revenue impact, commercialization, and scaling customer adoption.
Strong program and project management skills; able to self‑manage, prioritize, and deliver complex cross‑functional initiatives end‑to‑end.
Excellent written and verbal communication skills, including the ability to simplify complex AI concepts into clear, business‑oriented narratives.
Interest in AI and the future of work, including emerging trends in talent, productivity, and organizational design.

Responsibilities

Lead strategic AI engagements and serve as the architect of the joint AI roadmap with senior customer stakeholders.
Partner with sales and account teams to drive AI opportunities through evaluation and decision phases in the sales process.
Shape and scale how Workday shows up in the AI market: what we say, where we play, and how we prove value.
Maintain and deepen relationships with account teams, customers, and channel partners to connect their challenges with the Workday AI product suite.
Lead executive‑level AI conversations to help customers define an AI vision, roadmap, and operating model grounded in Workday’s capabilities; facilitate executive workshops, advisory sessions, and briefings to align on AI strategy and secure buy‑in across the C‑suite and functional leaders.
Act as a consultative advisor, diving deep into a customer’s business to diagnose problems and position Workday’s AI solutions to unlock value; translate customer priorities (e.g., revenue growth, cost optimization, productivity, employee experience) into concrete AI use cases and value hypotheses.
Serve as a Workday AI solutions expert, clearly articulating how our AI products, agents, and platform capabilities solve real problems and deliver business outcomes.
Maintain deep, current expertise on the AI market—including LLMs, generative AI, copilots, agents, deployment approaches, and competitive dynamics—and use this to sharpen how we position Workday AI.
Execute AI GTM programs and plays that can be scaled across regions, segments, and industries.
Collaborate closely with internal stakeholders across Product, Sales, Engineering, Marketing, and Strategy to ensure our offerings address the evolving challenges of leading global enterprises.
Provide structured, customer‑backed feedback on needs, competitive dynamics, and emerging use cases, acting as a connector between field and product teams so learnings from pilots and lighthouse customers inform how we build and position Workday AI.
Maintain accurate and timely customer/prospect, pipeline, and service forecast data in alignment with Workday standards.
Contribute to developing and refining field‑ready assets (narratives, pitch materials, case studies, playbooks, talk tracks) to support Sales, Solution Consulting, and Customer Success.
Contribute to thought leadership efforts (e.g., blogs, events, webinars, customer forums) to strengthen Workday’s voice in the AI market.