HCM Program Lead & Strategic Advisor Consultant

Possible contract to hire

Could have some travel to the offices  On-site for key implementation milestones and executive governance meetings.

Workday HCM Program Lead & Strategic Advisor Consultant #1064497

Job Description:

Detailed Description:

This consultant will combine experienced Workday HCM program leadership with strategic Workday advice. This role will coordinate the client-side HCM workstream, partnering closely with internal HR project managers and SMEs to align HR activities with the broader Workday program. They will challenge implementation- partner recommendations, identify risks and downstream impacts, and us make decisions that support business strategy and the future operating model.

The consultant will work with the CHRO, Executives, HR Sponsors, HR functional leaders, HRIS, IT, Finance, Change Management, implementation partners, and other third parties. The role will not configure Workday or own the overall Financials/HCM program.

The ideal candidate has lead multiple full-cycle Workday HCE implementations and has both the client-side Workday experience and prior implementation-partner or consulting experience. This individual must be able to manage execution while distinguishing between what Workday can do, what the implementation partner recommends, and what we should do.

Job Expectations:

• Serve as the client-side lead for the Workday HCM workstream and a trusted strategic advisor to the Executives, HR Sponsors, HR leadership team, and HR functional leads, CHRO, Executives.
• Maintain the detailed HCM workstream plan, milestones, deliverables, dependencies, risks, issues, and decision calendar in alignment with the enterprise program plan.
• Coordinate HR functional owners and subject-matter experts across Core HCM, compensation, benefits, recruiting, talent, HR operations, HRIS, analytics, security, integrations, payroll, compliance, data, and change readiness.
• Prepare HCM issues and decisions for appropriate governance and ensure recommendations, decisions, rationale, owners, and follow-through are documented.
• Review and constructively challenge implementation-partner recommendations, assumptions, estimates, sequencing, and proposed HCM designs.
• Translate Workday capabilities and technical alternatives into business choices, including tradeoffs, risks, costs, employee impact, operating-model implications, and long-term support requirements.
• Evaluate alignment of proposed designs with HR strategy, employee and manager experience, service delivery, data governance, reporting, controls, compliance, and sustainable post-go-live ownership.
• Anticipate cross-functional and downstream impacts across HCM domains and connected Finance, payroll, identity, reporting, integration, and enterprise systems.
• Identify avoidable customization, unnecessary complexity, control gaps, deferred decisions, and design debt; recommend practical mitigation and escalation paths.
• Coordinate client-side readiness for discovery, design, data conversion, testing, deployment, hypercare, and transition to operations without performing configuration or replacing functional owners.
• Provide periodic executive assessments of HCM implementation health, material risks, implementation- partner concerns, readiness, and decisions requiring attention.
• Assess and help develop the internal roles, capabilities, governance, support model, release management, and continuous-improvement practices required to own Workday after go-live.
• Provide targeted coaching and knowledge transfer to HR leaders, HRIS, people analytics, and functional workstream owners.

Desired Skills and Experience:

• Bachelor’s degree in Human Resources, Business Administration, Information Technology, or a related field, or equivalent relevant experience.
• 12-15+ years of progressive HR technology, HR transformation, enterprise HCM, or Workday consulting experience.
• Leadership role across at least three full-cycle Workday HCM implementations, preferably including complex or multi-workstream deployments.
• Demonstrated client-side Workday ownership, HCM program leadership, HRIS leadership, or post-go-live operating experience.
• Prior Workday implementation-partner or consulting-firm experience strongly preferred.
• Broad functional knowledge of Core HCM, Compensation/Advanced Compensation, Benefits, Talent/Performance, Recruiting, security, reporting and analytics, integrations, data governance, and related payroll dependencies.
• Demonstrated experience advising CHROs and senior HR leaders and communicating complex technical and functional issues in business terms.
• Ability to manage HCM execution while constructively challenging senior implementation-partner personnel and internal stakeholders.
• Strong judgment regarding standardization, configuration, process redesign, controls, employee experience, governance, and sustainable post-go-live ownership.
• Strong facilitation, prioritization, decision-management, risk-management, and executive-communication capabilities.
• Ability to work effectively through ambiguity, changing priorities, and cross-functional dependencies.
• No current relationship with the selected implementation partner that would impair objectivity; disclosure of relevant commercial relationships required.

Success Measures:

• HCM milestones, deliverables, decisions, dependencies, and risks are actively managed and aligned with the enterprise program.
• Material HCM decisions are made with clear options, tradeoffs, costs, risks, and downstream implications understood.
• Implementation-partner recommendations receive appropriate client-side review and challenge.
• Significant risks, design concerns, and capability gaps are surfaced early enough to influence outcomes.
• The HCM design supports our future HR operating model and avoids unnecessary customization and complexity.
• HR leaders maintain a clear view of HCM implementation health, readiness, and decisions requiring attention.
• The internal organization is prepared to govern, support, and continuously improve Workday following go-live.

Additional Info:

At FastTek Global, Our Purpose is Our People and Our Planet. We come to work each day and are reminded we are helping people find their success stories. Also, Doing the right thing is our mantra.  We act responsibly, give back to the communities we serve and have a little fun along the way.

We have been doing this with pride, dedication and plain, old-fashioned hard work for 24 years!

FastTek Global is a financially strong, privately held company that is 100% consultant and client focused, operating in nearly half of the states in the U.S., Europe and India.

We've differentiated ourselves by being fast, flexible, creative and honest. Throw out everything you've heard, seen, or felt about every other IT Consulting company. We do unique things and we do them for Fortune 10, Fortune 500, and technology start-up companies.

Our benefits are second to none and thanks to our flexible benefit options you can choose the benefits you need or want, options include:

• Medical and Dental (FastTek pays majority of the medical program)
• Vision
• Personal Time Off (PTO) Program
• Long Term Disability (100% paid)
• Life Insurance (100% paid)
• 401(k) with immediate vesting and 3% (of salary) dollar-for-dollar match

Plus, we have a lucrative employee referral program and an employee recognition culture.

FastTek Global was named one of the Top Work Places in Michigan by the Detroit Free Press in 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, and 2023!

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