Senior Workday Functional Analyst

Overview

It is inspiring to work in an organization where individuals are deeply committed to the mission and values that drive our success. We are dedicated to delivering expert pension service to Illinois public educators as they earn their promised retirement security. The Senior Workday Functional Analyst serves as a strategic subject matter expert and thought leader for Workday HCM and Financial modules, driving platform optimization and business transformation across the organization.

This role owns the long-term Workday strategy in partnership with the Product Owner and senior stakeholders, leading cross-functional initiatives from conception through implementation while ensuring compliance, security, and data governance standards. Combining deep technical expertise with strong business acumen, the Senior Analyst translates complex business requirements into sophisticated, multi-module solutions. The role leads change management and adoption strategies for platform enhancements and serves as the primary escalation point for complex system challenges.

The incumbent integrates strategic vision with hands-on execution by assessing emerging capabilities, developing and presenting business cases to leadership, and shaping the platform roadmap, while also designing custom reporting and analytics, optimizing business processes, and providing technical mentorship to end users. The ideal candidate will excel at building collaborative partnerships across HR, Finance, and IT while maintaining a forward-looking perspective on how Workday can enable TRS's strategic growth and operational excellence.

• Serve as a Subject Matter Expert for Workday HCM and Financial modules, ensuring the platform meets business and stakeholder needs.
• Evaluate and present business cases for new Workday functionality and modules to senior level stakeholders.
• Partner with Product Owner and stakeholders to develop a long-term Workday platform strategy aligned with organizational objectives.
• Collaborate with HR, Finance, and Product team to gather, document, and translate business requirements into functional system.
• Design and implement complex, multi-module Workday solutions by translating business requirements into functional specifications and configurations that optimize processes.
• Establish and maintain security protocols, role-based access controls, and segregation of duties.
• Monitor and enforce data governance policies and data quality standards.
• Ensure Workday configurations comply with regulatory requirements.
• Research and evaluate emerging Workday capabilities and industry trends to identify transformation opportunities and lead proof-of-concept initiatives.
• Conduct stakeholder needs assessments to anticipate future requirements and inform platform strategy.
• Support business process optimization by providing Workday expertise and insights, working with stakeholders to identify opportunities for increased automation and efficiency.
• Own the intake of Workday change requests, making strategic recommendations to leadership.
• Lead the evaluation of bi-annual Workday releases and own the adoption strategy.
• Lead cross-functional teams in major Workday initiatives and implementations.
• Mentor and provide technical guidance to end users.
• Design and implement complex, multi-module Workday solutions requiring advanced configuration knowledge.
• Configure and implement system changes, including business process design, to achieve optimized functionality and streamlined processes.
• Design and deliver custom reports, dashboards, and analytics using Workday reporting tools to support data-driven decision making.
• Identify configuration strategies, risks, and options; recommend approaches and mitigations to meet functional requirements.
• Serve as primary escalation point for complex Workday issues requiring senior-level analysis.
• Provide day-to-day system support, including troubleshooting data and system issues, recommending solutions that address root cause, and implementing enhancements and fixes.
• Support and monitor integrations with internal systems and third-party applications.
• Provide end-user support, including ticket management via…