Senior Workday Security Lead – Product Ownership & Governance

Job Title: Senior Workday Security Lead – Product Ownership & Governance

Job Location: 100% Remote India

Job Duration: 3-4 months

Candidates will only be online for about 3-4 hours a day at the same time as other team members due to the time difference.

If based in India, they will need to be flexible to work UK hours to overlap.

A hands-on Workday Security SME with strong audit/compliance and access governance experience, who can additionally function as a Technical Product Owner.

The ideal candidate should have strong Workday Security experience and be able to support responsibilities including:

• Administration and governance of Workday security
• Security groups, domain security policies, and business process security
• Role-based access controls and Workday Security administration
• Assessment of security impacts resulting from organizational changes and system enhancements
• Security governance and continuous improvement initiatives
• Experience supporting for quarterly and annual audit and compliance activities, including evidence collection, control execution, compliance reviews, and response management.

Key Responsibilities

Workday Security Administration & Governance

• Lead the design, configuration, administration, and governance of Workday security groups, domain security policies, business process security policies, and role-based access controls.
• Serve as the lead administrator for Workday Security, Custom Central Administration, and Extend Development Administration.
• Design and maintain scalable security frameworks and compliant solutions that meet technical, security, data privacy, audit, and business requirements.
• Evaluate security impacts associated with organizational changes, new functionality, system enhancements, releases, and strategic initiatives.
• Serve as the subject-matter expert and escalation point for security-related questions, configuration, incidents, and production support.

Product Ownership & Delivery Leadership

• Define and maintain the product roadmap based on business strategy, risk priorities, compliance requirements, application roadmaps, vendor releases, industry trends, and product performance.
• Categorize and organize work for the product area and define Epics and Features aligned to business objectives.
• Oversee user story creation, acceptance criteria, prioritization, backlog management, and configuration documentation to ensure clarity and consistency.
• Partner with analysts to identify and use operational metrics to plan and evaluate work and communicate product performance to stakeholders.
• Coordinate the product delivery team, business stakeholders, vendors, managed services partners, and other DTS teams through solution design, configuration, testing, implementation, measurement, and ongoing maintenance.
• Protect delivery team capacity from competing priorities and collaborate with other product owners and solution architects to identify dependencies and potential impacts.
• Drive timely delivery of effective solutions by identifying and mitigating risks, barriers, and resource constraints.
• Own product functionality, changes, roadmap decisions, and product documentation, and provide review or sign-off for configuration delivered by support partners when appropriate.

Audit, Compliance & Risk Management

• Own audit documentation, evidence collection, audit coordination, and responses for internal and external audits.
• Lead User Access Reviews, Privileged Access Reviews, and Year-End Audit activities, including issue tracking and remediation support.
• Maintain security governance processes, segregation-of-duties controls, access certification practices, and audit-ready documentation.
• Maintain a comprehensive Security Matrix with role overviews, access descriptions, role owners, and governance information to support timely responses to auditors and business stakeholders.
• Partner with Security, Legal, Privacy, Compliance, and business stakeholders to evaluate risks and develop practical, compliant solutions.

Automation & Operational Excellence

• Identify and implement opportunities to reduce time spent on audit, access review, evidence collection, and security administration using Workday Extend, Power Automate, and other approved technologies.
• Apply creativity, design thinking, and structured problem solving to improve efficiency and user experience without compromising controls or compliance.
• Develop reporting, metrics, dashboards, and monitoring approaches that improve visibility into access, controls, product performance, and operational health.
• Drive continuous improvement across security administration, product delivery, documentation, and support processes.

Configuration, Support & Vendor Management

• Use in-depth knowledge of Workday functionality, vendor releases, features, and roadmaps to recommend and develop solutions across supported modules and technologies.
• Provide hands-on configuration and unit testing for strategic initiatives, enhancements, operational improvements, and production support.
• Drive resolution of major system outages and critical P1/P2 issues, coordinating across internal teams and external partners as needed.
• Manage Purchase Order activities for technology solutions within Coupa, including creating and maintaining requests within appropriate timeframes.
• Maintain strong industry knowledge through Workday Community, user groups, vendor resources, and professional networks, and translate relevant insights into the product roadmap.

Communication, Documentation & Leadership

• Create and present clear documentation tailored to technical teams, business stakeholders, auditors, and executive leaders, including education on security design and executive overviews of security approaches.
• Communicate product strategy, security governance, risks, decisions, roadmaps, and recommended solutions in a clear and audience-appropriate manner.
• Provide leadership, direction, and day-to-day guidance to augmented staff resources, including contractors, managed services partners, and external support personnel.
• Set clear priorities, delivery expectations, quality standards, and compliance requirements for augmented resources; review work products and provide coaching and feedback.
• Ensure effective knowledge transfer, accountability, and timely escalation and resolution of issues across internal and augmented teams.
• Provide development opportunities, mentoring, and support for analysts, administrators, and other team members to strengthen capabilities and drive outcomes.

Required Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in Information Technology, Human Resources, Business Administration, Computer Science, Cybersecurity, or a related field, or equivalent relevant experience.
• 5+ years of technical experience with Workday, including hands-on Workday Security administration across multiple modules or technologies.
• Demonstrated experience with security groups, domain and business process security policies, role-based access, access governance, audit support, User Access Reviews, and Privileged Access Reviews.
• Product ownership or technical product leadership experience, including roadmap development, backlog management, agile delivery, business analysis, metrics, and cross-functional solution implementation.
• Strong communication, stakeholder management, and influencing skills, with the ability to translate between business and technical audiences and create executive-ready documentation.
• Proven ability to develop creative, solution-focused approaches, make informed decisions, and solve complex problems while keeping compliance, security, data privacy, and risk management at the forefront.

Preferred Qualifications

• Workday Security, Workday Pro, or related Workday certification, plus experience with Workday Extend, Power Automate, design thinking, change management, vendor management, or workflow automation.

Key Competencies

• Workday Security Expertise
• Product Ownership & Roadmap Management
• Creative, Solution-Focused Problem Solving
• Compliance & Risk Management
• Audit Readiness & Security Governance
• Agile Delivery & Backlog Management
• Stakeholder Influence & Executive Communication
• Data Analysis & Decision Making
• Automation & Continuous Improvement
• Change Management & Design Thinking
• Team Leadership & Resource Management
• Vendor & Managed Services Oversight
• Coaching, Mentoring & Talent Development
• Cross-Functional Collaboration