Executive recruitment company Monroe Consulting Group is recruiting on behalf of an innovative provider in speciality chemicals (raw materials) and the food ingredients industry. Our distinguished client is currently seeking for a Workday Product Owner who will lead and contribute to global ownership, optimisation, and continuous improvement of Workday's platform - (Total Compensation & Payroll) and its integrations with payroll systems (including ADP). The role ensures stable, accurate, and compliant execution of all compensation processes.
This role combines strategic ownership of compensation architecture with hands-on operational execution, including daily ticket management, integration troubleshooting, and cycle support. It serves as the technical advisor to Total Rewards, Payroll, HRIS, and Finance teams globally.
Scope & Region Coverage
- Global role covering all regions No direct reports (matrix collaboration with HRIS, C&B, and Payroll teams)
Key Responsibilities
- Workday Compensation Ownership (Core & Advanced)
- Serve as the global owner for Workday Core and Advanced Compensation, ensuring consistent governance and alignment with global compensation strategy.
- Maintain and optimize foundational compensation frameworks, including:
- Grade profiles
- Salary ranges and structures
- Compensation steps
- Allowance plans
- Eligibility rules
- Benefits
- Lead the end-to-end redesign of merit, bonus, and long-term incentive (LTI) cycles to align with global best practices.
- Implement compensation enhancements, including compensation statements, cycle automation, and localisation of pay rules.
- Manage ongoing configuration requests, new plan setups, and process adjustments to support evolving business needs.
Workday-to-Payroll (ADP) Integration Management
- Act as the primary technical owner of the Workday-to-ADP integration (including PECI/PI).
- Resolve integration errors, data transmission failures, and synchronization issues between Workday and ADP (GlobalView/Freedom).
- Identify improvements to strengthen the payroll bridge, reduce manual interventions, and increase the accuracy and frequency of data flows.
- Implement rigorous audit controls to ensure 100% accuracy of compensation data transmitted to payroll.
- Partner with IT, Payroll, and Finance to maintain compliance with global and local payroll requirements.
Operational Support & Ticket Management
- Act as Tier 3 escalation point for all Compensation and Payroll-related tickets.
- Manage daily ticket queues, ensuring timely resolutions, high quality, and thorough documentation.
- Troubleshoot configuration issues, calculation errors, cycle failures, eligibility discrepancies, and integration misalignments.
- Perform root-cause analyses of recurring issues and propose long-term preventive solutions.
- Support compensation cycles by providing expert guidance to HR, C&B, and Payroll stakeholders.
Workday Release & Testing Leadership
- Evaluate the impact of Workday's semi-annual releases on Compensation and payroll integrations.
- Lead regression testing, UAT, and deployment activities related to compensation and integration updates.
- Ensure all configuration changes are documented, validated, and compatible with downstream payroll processes.
Continuous Improvement & Stakeholder Advisory
- Identify opportunities to automate, simplify, and improve compensation processes within Workday.
- Serve as technical advisor to Total Rewards and Payroll leadership, translating business requirements into scalable Workday solutions.
- Build and maintain detailed documentation, SOPs, and configuration guides for compensation and payroll-related processes.
- Contribute to compensation governance and audit readiness (including SOX).
Key Requirements
- Bachelor's degree in HR, Business, Finance, Information Systems, or related field.
- 6+ years of hands-on Workday Compensation configuration experience, covering both Core and Advanced Compensation.
- Extensive experience with Workday-to-ADP integrations (PECI/PI preferred).
- Strong proficiency in Calculated Fields, Condition Rules, EIBs, Business Processes, and Workday reporting.
- Demonstrated experience leading compensation cycle redesigns and system optimisation projects.
- Exceptional analytical skills with high attention to detail and financial accuracy.
- Experience working with compensation governance frameworks, pay structures, and audit controls (SOX experience preferred).
- Strong communication skills and ability to translate technical complexity for non-technical stakeholders.
