Workday Security Lead & Architect

Key Responsibilities

Security Architecture & Governance

• Own the overall Workday security architecture and security configuration model, including domain security policies, business process security policies, security groups, role-based access, and constrained security.
• Establish and maintain Workday security architecture standards, design principles, policies, procedures, and technical documentation to support consistent administration, knowledge transfer, and audit readiness.
• Lead the design and implementation of new and complex security roles, security groups, and access models using least privilege and role-based access principles.
• Provide architectural review and consultation for security changes across Workday functional areas, integrations, reporting, and emerging capabilities, ensuring designs are scalable, maintainable, compliant, and aligned with the broader Workday architecture.
• Collaborate with Workday program leadership and senior governance forums as needed to communicate security risks, recommendations, and decisions.

Risk, Audit & Compliance

• Own the Workday security risk and control strategy, including Segregation of Duties (SoD), Privileged/Sensitive Access (SA), and User Activity monitoring, as well as the design and ongoing effectiveness of preventative and detective controls.
• Provide leadership and subject matter expertise for internal and external audits involving Workday security and access.
• Partner with Internal Audit, Information Security, functional teams, and other stakeholders to evaluate findings, determine appropriate remediation, and oversee resolution of security-related risks.
• Own the strategy, roadmap, and continued evolution of Kainos SmartAudit and other Workday security monitoring and compliance capabilities.
• Establish standards and oversight for periodic access reviews and security certifications, ensuring appropriate governance, documentation, and remediation.
• Maintain audit-ready security documentation and evidence supporting organizational control and compliance requirements.
• Ensure security architecture and practices appropriately protect sensitive and regulated data, including PII and PHI.

Security Strategy & Delivery

• Lead security impact assessments for Workday R1/R2 releases, new capabilities, projects, integrations, and functional changes; identify required security changes, risks, dependencies, and remediation.
• Provide security architecture and design leadership throughout the lifecycle of Workday initiatives, from requirements and solution design through testing and deployment.
• Design, configure, test, and implement complex Workday security solutions across domain and business process security, security groups, intersection security, integration security, and other advanced configurations.
• Lead security-related projects and initiatives, coordinating activities across functional, technical, audit, and Information Security stakeholders.

Technical Leadership & Security Operations

• Serve as the senior Workday Security subject matter expert and escalation point for complex security issues, troubleshooting, and design decisions.
• Perform hands-on Workday security administration and complex technical work while providing technical direction, coaching, and knowledge transfer to Workday Security Administrators, Tier 1 Security Support, and other team members supporting Workday security.
• Oversee the effectiveness and consistency of Workday security administration, ensuring operational activities align with established architecture, standards, and controls.
• Identify opportunities for continuous improvement, automation, standardization, and simplification of Workday security processes and controls.

Minimum Education and/or Training

Bachelor's degree in computer science, data science, information science, business, or related field required. Master's degree preferred.

Minimum Experience

• Minimum requirement: 5+ progressive years of IT experience including strong database design, data architecture and data transform processes.
• Experience in data architecture and design.
• Some experience with data governance including implementation of a data governance framework.
• Experience with leading industrial tools for data lake, big data, or ETL.
• Some experience and knowledge in Master Data Management and Data Dictionary Standards.
• Experience providing technical guidance and mentorship within Data Engineering.
• Proven performance in earlier role/comparable role.

Highly Preferred Experience

• 5+ years of hands-on Workday Security experience, including demonstrated experience in a senior, lead, or architectural capacity.
• Workday Security certification.
• Deep expertise across the Workday security framework, including domain and business process security, security groups, SoD, intersection/segment/contextual security, integration security (ISU/ISSG), and data privacy/sensitive access.
• Demonstrated experience designing scalable security solutions and assessing security impacts across Workday implementations, enhancements, releases, integrations, and functional areas.
• Experience supporting security audits, access reviews, compliance activities, and remediation, with strong knowledge of least privilege, role-based access, SoD, and security risk management principles.

Preferred Experience

• Experience supporting Workday security within healthcare or another highly regulated environment.
• Experience with Kainos SmartAudit or similar Workday security governance and compliance tools.
• Broad experience across multiple Workday functional areas such as HCM, Financials, Supply Chain, PRISM, Adaptive Planning, Payroll, Time Tracking, Absence, and Reporting.
• Experience with SSO/SAML, authentication, ServiceNow/ITIL processes, and technical leadership or mentoring.

Special Skills, Knowledge and Abilities

• Strong analytical and problem-solving skills with demonstrated ability to troubleshoot complex security and access issues.
• Strong communication and collaboration skills with the ability to translate complex security concepts, work across organizational boundaries, and influence decisions without direct authority.
• Ability to think critically, draw insights and connect the dots.
• Openness to change and adapting to changing times with resilience and flexibility.
• Able to draw insights from different sets of data and quickly understand why issues are happening.
• Solves problems quickly by identifying the root causes.
• Encourages others to see the opportunities ahead amidst changing circumstances even when the details have not been finalized.
• Remains calm in challenging and uncertain times by focusing on the end goals and solving problems.
• Defuses any unforeseen developments and problems by leveraging data analysis and insights.
• Maintains focus on goals.
• Drives engagement and ownership for group to deliver ambitious results and solutions.
• Skills in prioritizing and addressing needs from multiple customers/stakeholders with a focus on efficient, responsive, high quality/fit-for-purpose delivery.
• Ability to take accountability for work outcomes and proactively account for interdependencies across adjacent work areas.
• Thinks holistically and plans for interdependencies and impact of work and processes with other teams within and outside of IT.
• Always focused on quality, costs, sustainability from a complete ownership mindset and approach.
• Demonstrates a strong collaborative style with emotional empathy and is able to work/ negotiate through challenging situations.