Workday Solutions Lead (Job ID: 2025-3584) - The Brookings Institution

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The Brookings Institution is a nonprofit public policy organization based in Washington, DC. Our mission is to conduct in-depth research that leads to new ideas for solving problems facing society at the local, national and global level.  

We bring together leading experts in government and academia from all over the world, rooted in open-minded inquiry and representing diverse points of view, who provide the highest quality research, policy recommendations, and analysis. Research topics cover a full range of public policy issues in economics, foreign policy, development, governance and metropolitan policy. 

With fair and transparent business practices, clear communication, mutual respect, and a collaborative atmosphere that offers both professional and personal development opportunities, Brookings offers an inclusive and welcoming workplace that values the efforts of all contributors. 

Brookings Technology Services provides a variety of services and support to Brookings employees, whether resident or non-resident, including:

• Providing support for Brookings-issued hardware, software, and phones
• Managing a pool of loaner equipment including laptops, tablets, and mobile phones
• Providing and supporting standard office and email software in addition to a variety of useful business tools and software
• Setup of user accounts and providing access (in-house and remotely) to documents, software and email

Position Location:This position is hybrid. Hybrid positions combine regular in-person presence at our Washington, DC office with the option of at least two days of remote work each week.

Ready to contribute to Brookings success?

The Workday Solutions Lead will be directly responsible for designing, delivering, and supporting Workday solutions across Brookings—with a focus on configuring modules and developing integrations—and ensuring that the Workday platform delivers a secure and exceptional experience for Brookings staff. The Workday Solutions Lead will serve as a key member of the overall Workday Team, working closely with the Brookings Workday leader, Workday partners, BTech staff, and other stakeholders to ensure that Workday related development, configuration, and administration is executed to support governance policies and Workday roadmap initiatives. The ideal candidate will possess excellent Workday technical skills, particularly around configuring Workday modules, developing and managing integrations; project management and business analysis skills; and the ability to work effectively with multiple groups of stakeholders, both internal and external.

Workday Configuration and Development (60%)

• Work closely with Brookings Workday leadership, Workday partners, Brookings Finance and HR staff, BTech staff, and third-party vendors on full configuration and development life cycle for Workday (iterative rounds of requirements, design, build, test, and deploy). 

• Configure workday modules like HCM, Payroll, and Financials to meet the specific needs of the organization.

• Develop and manage integrations between Workday and other systems using tools like Workday Studio, EIB (Enterprise Interface Builder), Workday Web Services, custom solutions.

• Create custom reports and dashboards to provide insights and analytics for business users.

• Ensure data security and compliance by configuring security groups and roles.

• Participate in business requirements and design meetings and recommend and provide input on proposed system solutions. Work closely with Finance and HR technical and functional leads to confirm system designs meet stated business requirements.

• Conduct unit testing, system testing, and performance testing.

• Support Finance and HR leads in troubleshooting issues during user acceptance testing (UAT) and other types of end-to-end testing.

• Create and maintain detailed technical documentation to support design and ongoing maintenance of solutions.

• Coordinate closely with and support Finance and HR leads by performing project management functions including, but not limited to, providing level of effort estimates and target dates for technical deliverables; developing and adjusting technical plans, tasks, and overall workload to meet deadlines; reporting on project status; and raising/addressing issues and risks that may impact timelines, budgets, and quality.

• Serve as main point of contact with third-party vendors to coordinate all technical work.

• Work closely with Finance and HR technical and functional leads to continually assess business outcomes and technical metrics of existing integrations to identify and deliver performance improvements while reducing complexity.

Application Administration, Support, and Technical Coordination (40%)

• Coach and train other BTech staff to serve as backup for Workday technical duties.

• Provide Tier 2 & 3 support and troubleshooting on complex or critical issues escalated by HR and Finance technical leads (Tier 1).

• Manage and communicate comprehensive tenant management strategy for Workday (e.g. align project activities with specific tenants, manage refresh schedule).

• Oversee Workday release process and work with HR and Finance technical leads and vendors to respond to business impacts and opportunities of new features/upgrades.

• Support management and execution of Workday change control board and project pipeline: Coordinate with HR and Finance technical leads to determine project priorities; evaluate, communicate, and address potential conflicts from proposed changes (configuration or development) that have downstream impacts across different Workday modules and functional areas.

• Stay abreast of opportunities to innovate and help define technology standards, practices, and strategy for Workday platform. Work with HR and Finance technical leads to understand Workday security role requirements and to serve as a backup, when needed, for configuring, assigning, and auditing functional security roles.

Ready to make an impact? In this role, you will support Brookings values of collegiality, respect, inclusion, diversity and community, and bring the following qualifications: 

Education/Experience Requirements

Required: Minimum of five years’ experience as a Workday developer supporting Workday HCM, Financials, and/or other Workday modules. Setting up and customizing modules like HCM, Payroll, and Financials to meet the specific needs of the organization. Proficiency in scripting and programming languages such as Java, Python, Ruby, XML, XSLT or similar. Must be authorized to work for any employer in the U.S.

Preferred: Hands-on experience developing and managing integrations using one or more Workday tools (e.g. EIB, Core Connectors, Cloud Connect, Workday Web Services, Workday Studio). Experience creating custom reports and dashboards using Workday Report Writer. Experience with Workday date data security models and configuring security groups and roles. Experience working on large, cross-functional project teams that implemented a medium to large scale enterprise-level HCM, Payroll, and/or Financial ERP cloud platform. Experience in maintaining and developing Workday Adaptive Planning. Workday certification(s) is a plus.

Knowledge/Skills Requirements

Required: Strong ability to connect functional/business needs to optimal technical solution. Strong written, oral, and people skills to effectively build relationships and communicate with stakeholders at all levels, particularly to bridge gap between technical and functional staff. Excellent analytical and problem-solving skills. Ability to implement needed solutions and see projects through to completion in face of rapid priority shifts and at times potentially ambiguous needs. Sound judgment, creativity, resourcefulness, agility, and a growth mindset.

Highly Desired:

Ability to prioritize workload and execute tasks independently, particularly to meet deadlines. Ability to identify risks before they evolve into issues and ability to solve issues when they arise. Knowledge and comfort with project management and business analysis techniques, concepts, and tools. Working knowledge of core financial, HR, and payroll principles and business processes. Ability to mentor and coach others on Workday trends and solutions.

Additional Information 

What can we offer you? Brookings provides a generous benefit package that is comprehensive and includes both traditional benefits and unique offerings.Our comprehensive benefits package includes medical, dental, and vision benefits, generous time off, and workplace flexibility. For more information, please visit Brookings Benefits.   

Brookings requires that all applicants submit a cover letter and resume. Please attach your cover letter and resume as one document when you apply. Please Note: if you have applied to more than one Brookings job opening you should add a position-specific cover letter as a separate attachment. 

Successful completion of a background investigation is required for employment at Brookings. 

Brookings welcomes and celebrates diversity in all its forms. We welcome applications that reflect a variety of backgrounds based on ideology, race, ethnicity, religion, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, disability, veteran status, first generation college goers, and other factors protected by law. Brookings is proud to be an equal-opportunity employer that is committed to promoting a diverse and inclusive workplace.