Workday Product and Configuration Lead

American Electric Power•Columbus, OH

1d•$116,255 - $151,133•Onsite

About The Position

The Workday Product and Configuration Lead serves as AEP’s senior functional expert and solution designer for Workday Human Capital Management. The role combines deep HR knowledge with broad Workday configuration expertise to create solutions that are effective for users, scalable for the organization, and sustainable for the support team. The lead partners with HR stakeholders to understand underlying needs, discuss options and trade-offs, and determine whether the best solution is a Workday configuration, a process change, or both. The position provides technical and functional leadership across the Workday HCM ecosystem, with expertise in one or more functional areas and working knowledge of the broader platform. In partnership with the HR Information Systems Manager and functional subject matter experts, the lead evaluates requirements, assesses impacts, guides solution design and releases, supports continuous improvement, and mentors less-experienced team members. The role leads complex design, configuration, testing, deployment, production troubleshooting, and release evaluation, while promoting user-centered design, enterprise standards, data protection, sound controls, and maintainable documentation. This is an on-site position at AEP headquarters in Columbus, Ohio, or Tulsa, Oklahoma. The role requires seven years of progressively responsible HRIS, Workday, or HR technology experience, including at least five years of hands-on Workday HCM configuration and application support. A bachelor’s degree in a related field or an equivalent combination of education and relevant experience is required.

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree in human resources, business, information systems, computer science, or a related field; or an equivalent combination of education and relevant experience.
Seven years of progressively responsible HRIS, Workday, or HR technology experience.
At least five years of hands-on Workday HCM configuration and application support experience.
Experience leading complex solution design and partnering directly with HR or business stakeholders.
Demonstrated Workday functional and configuration expertise across multiple HCM areas, with understanding of how configuration decisions affect the broader platform.
Strong knowledge of HR processes and data, and ability and motivation to learn unfamiliar functional areas.
Experience designing and configuring Workday business processes, condition rules, validations, notifications, calculated fields, reports, and related functional components.
Ability to move fluently among business process, user experience, and system design considerations and explain their implications.
Consultative communication skills, including discovery, facilitation, negotiation, expectation setting, and constructive challenge of requests.
Curiosity, initiative, and self-directed learning, including a record of independently building expertise and applying new knowledge.
Strong analytical thinking, troubleshooting, and root-cause analysis skills for complex cross-functional issues.
Ability to lead through influence, mentor peers, and establish credibility with technical teams, HR professionals, and business leaders.
Ability to manage competing priorities while maintaining design quality, documentation, and follow-through.
High standards for data accuracy, system controls, confidentiality, and sustainable solution design.

Nice To Haves

Deep configuration experience in several of the following: Core HCM, Compensation, Advanced Compensation, Recruiting, Time Tracking, Payroll, Learning, Talent, and Workday Help.
Workday Pro accreditation or Workday certification in one or more HCM functional areas.
Experience with Workday release management, feature adoption, tenant management, regression testing, and production support.
Experience with Workday reporting, calculated fields, dashboards, and report design.
Working knowledge of Workday security, integrations, EIBs, data conversion, and downstream impact analysis.
Experience supporting a large, complex, or regulated organization with cross-functional HR, payroll, finance, compliance, and technology dependencies.
Experience leading design authorities, configuration reviews, communities of practice, or similar mechanisms that improve solution consistency and team capability.

Responsibilities

Serve as the senior functional and configuration lead for Workday HCM, providing hands-on expertise across multiple Workday modules.
Partner with HR process owners, subject matter experts, employees, managers, and other stakeholders to understand business problems, user experience, and desired outcomes.
Facilitate design discussions explaining solution options, trade-offs, risks, and downstream impacts.
Translate business requirements into scalable Workday configurations, including business processes, condition rules, validations, notifications, security considerations, calculated fields, reports, and related functional setup.
Recommend process changes, simplification, or delivered Workday functionality when they offer a more sustainable solution.
Negotiate scope and design decisions when requests conflict with platform standards, controls, user experience, supportability, or enterprise priorities.
Lead solution design, configuration, prototyping, testing, deployment, and post-production evaluation for enhancements, releases, and projects.
Assess end-to-end impacts across HR processes, security, integrations, reporting, payroll, finance, data, controls, and downstream systems.
Troubleshoot complex production issues, perform root-cause analysis, and develop solutions that address underlying causes.
Lead Workday release review and feature evaluation, recommend adoption decisions, coordinate impact assessments, and support testing and implementation planning.
Advise on Workday capabilities and identify opportunities to simplify processes, improve employee and manager experience, strengthen controls, and increase automation.
Develop and maintain reports, calculated fields, and operational analytics to support functional areas and validate system performance.
Maintain design documentation, configuration standards, decision records, testing evidence, and support materials.
Partner with the HR Information Systems Manager to organize work, guide the team, review designs, resolve escalated issues, and maintain consistent solution standards.
Mentor and coach HRIS team members through design reviews, paired configuration, troubleshooting, and knowledge sharing, providing functional leadership without direct people-management responsibility.
Continue learning about Workday releases, product documentation, community content, training, and emerging practices, and apply and share relevant knowledge.
Protect HR data and ensure configurations comply with applicable privacy, security, records-management, audit, and company requirements.