Workday Payroll Consultant (No C2C, Only W2)

Role: Workday Payroll Transition Consultant
Location: Remote
Duration: Long Term
Contract Type: W2 Only

If you are interested, please share the resume with contact details to

Job Description:
Client is seeking experienced Payroll Consultants to support the company s transition from a semi-monthly to a bi-weekly payroll processing cycle. The ideal consultant will have hands-on experience leading or executing similar transitions within complex organizations and across multiple functional areas of the Workday HCM ecosystem. This role requires deep practical understanding of payroll configuration, testing, and change management, along with cross-functional coordination across time tracking, absence management, and integrations.
Key Responsibilities:

• Lead and advise on the end-to-end transition from semi-monthly to bi-weekly payroll, ensuring a seamless experience for employees and compliance with all relevant regulations.
• Conduct a current-state assessment and design a future-state configuration roadmap, including testing, validation, and deployment activities.
• Collaborate closely with internal Payroll, HRIS, Time & Absence, Compensation, and Benefits teams to ensure downstream impacts are well understood and managed.
• Provide strategic and tactical guidance on Workday configuration, parallel testing, payroll cutover planning, and stakeholder communication.

1. Payroll Configuration & Operations

• Extensive hands-on experience configuring and running Workday Payroll, preferably with prior exposure to cycle frequency transitions.
• Deep understanding of payroll elements affected by pay frequency change, including earnings, deductions, retroactive calculations, off-cycle payments, costing allocations, and accruals.
• Ability to guide the business through parallel testing, reconciliation, and cutover readiness activities.
• Knowledge of compliance and taxation nuances across federal, state, and local jurisdictions impacted by pay frequency changes.

1. Absence & Time Tracking

• Proven experience aligning time tracking and absence plans to a new payroll schedule, including calendar alignment, accrual recalculations, and validation of time entry and payout rules.
• Understanding of how changes to pay periods impact overtime calculations, time entry deadlines, and absence accrual synchronization.
• Familiarity with Workday time off plans, time entry templates, and time calculation groups.

Complementary Skill Areas

HCM / Core HR

• Awareness of how payroll frequency changes affect position management, job profiles, and compensation eligibility rules.
• Ability to partner with HR stakeholders to ensure data integrity and effective change communication throughout the transition.

Compensation & Benefits

• Experience identifying downstream impacts on benefit deductions, employer match cycles, bonus calculations, and leave pay.
• Coordination with benefits vendors and carriers to ensure correct alignment of deduction timing and premium remittance schedules.

Integrations (Secondary Priority)

• Working knowledge of Workday integrations (inbound and outbound) to ensure alignment with third-party systems, such as benefit carriers, payroll tax filing vendors, and financial systems.
• Ability to identify and document any required updates to interface logic, transmission schedules, or file formats driven by the new pay calendar.

Qualifications & Experience

• 5 10 years of Workday Payroll experience, with at least one end-to-end payroll frequency transition project completed successfully.
• Strong functional and technical understanding of Workday Payroll, Absence, and Time Tracking modules.
• Demonstrated ability to collaborate cross-functionally with HR, Finance, and IT stakeholders.
• Excellent communication and documentation skills, with a focus on change enablement and user readiness.

Deliverables

• Comprehensive transition plan and timeline, including testing and validation milestones.
• Detailed configuration documentation and system update recommendations.
• Updated process maps and standard operating procedures (SOPs) reflecting the new payroll cycle.
• Training and knowledge transfer sessions for internal Payroll and HRIS teams.
• Post-go-live stabilization support and reconciliation assistance.

Primary Skills:

• Workday Payroll Transition
• Payroll Configuration and Operations
• Absence and Time Tracking
• HCM OR Core HR
• Compensation and Benefits
• Workday Integrations