Senior

Workday Payroll Lead

Melbourne, Australia, Sydney, Canberra · On-site

Accenture is a leading solutions and services company that helps the world’s leading enterprises reinvent by building their digital core and unleashing the power of AI to create value at speed across the enterprise, bringing together the talent of our approximately 786,000 people, our proprietary assets and platforms, and deep ecosystem relationships. Our strategy is to be the reinvention partner of choice for our clients and to be the most client-focused, AI-enabled, great place to work in the world. Through our Reinvention Services we bring together our capabilities across strategy, consulting, technology, operations, Song and Industry X with our deep industry expertise to create and deliver solutions and services for our clients. Our purpose is to deliver on the promise of technology and human ingenuity, and we measure our success by the 360° value we create for all our stakeholders. Visit us at www.accenture.com.

Through Transformation Powered by Workday, we help HR and Finance define their strategy, technology and approach to become agile, strategic advisors that drive critical business outcomes and revenue. By automating day-to-day tasks, then uniting and orchestrating the data and planning abilities of Finance and HR in one seamless system, organizations can better align to business strategy and ensure that the right skills and resources are available when they are needed.

With in-depth specialization in more than 40 industries and an unmatched, global delivery network, Accenture is uniquely positioned to guide its clients in this transformation, tailoring each journey to your specific needs. For more information, please visit Accenture + Workday

The Opportunity

As a member of one of the world’s largest Workday-certified teams, you’ll be part of a team of advisory professionals who deliver more than just technology. From rapid deployments to entire transformations, you’ll deliver integrated source to pay solutions that put organizations on the fast track to a better way to work.

Grow your career with leading-edge technologies, continuous learning opportunities and a global community with deep industry expertise that help to solve clients’ biggest challenges.

Now is the perfect time for you to join the Accenture Workday team, where you’ll:

Assess, strategize and manage Workday deployments for organisations across the globe. Accenture has worked with more than 700 clients to deliver Workday deployments to unlock the potential of their organisations.
Design and deliver future-ready Workday solutions to help organisations optimise their Finance functions and enhance their employees’ experiences.
Join more than 3,200 professionals certified in Workday, collaborating to drive enterprise-wide transformational projects on a global scale.
Expand your Workday skills and advance your career with unparalleled training and professional development opportunities.

Role Summary

As a Workday Payroll Lead, you will lead the design, implementation, and delivery of Workday Payroll solutions for clients. You will act as a trusted advisor, driving payroll transformation initiatives while managing teams, engaging senior stakeholders, and contributing to business growth.

Key Responsibilities

Delivery & Solution Leadership

Lead end-to-end Workday Payroll implementations and transformations, from solution design through deployment and hypercare.
Own solution architecture and payroll process design, ensuring alignment with client business and compliance requirements
Oversee configuration of payroll elements (earnings, deductions, taxes) and ensure data integrity, validation, and reconciliation
Govern payroll testing strategy (SIT, UAT) and ensure quality delivery outcomes
Execute parallel payroll testing and co-ordinate remediation with customer payroll teams
Manage the migration of the payroll solution into a production environment
Support the payroll team with the transition onto the new payroll solution and the operational changes they will need to make

Stakeholder & Client Management

Act as the primary client interface for payroll workstreams, building strong relationships with senior stakeholders
Facilitate workshops and advise on payroll leading practices, transformation strategy, and optimisation opportunities
Provide governance, escalation management, and risk mitigation across engagements

People Leadership

Lead and mentor cross-functional delivery teams (functional, integration, and testing)
Drive team performance, capability development, and Workday Payroll knowledge uplift
Support recruitment, onboarding, and retention of Workday talent

Sales & Business Development

Support sales pursuits, proposals, and RFP responses for Workday Payroll opportunities
Contribute to solutioning, effort estimation, and commercial modelling
Identify and drive add-on opportunities within existing clients (e.g., payroll optimisation, extensions, AMS services)
Build strong relationships with internal stakeholders (e.g., Workday practice leads, sales teams) to grow pipeline

Practice & Capability Development

Contribute to ANZ Workday Payroll practice growth through asset development, accelerators, and reusable solutions
Stay current with Workday Payroll product updates and legislative changes
Support internal training, certification, and knowledge-sharing initiatives

Key Skills & Experience

Extensive experience in Workday Payroll implementations and delivery leadership OR extensive experience in Australian Payroll implementations on other core Payroll solutions
Strong knowledge of end-to-end payroll processes and compliance frameworks
Proven ability to lead large-scale transformation programs and client engagements
Experience managing integration and data migration activities in complex environments
Strong commercial acumen with experience in pre-sales and solutioning
Excellent stakeholder management and communication skills

Qualifications

Workday Payroll Certification (highly preferred)
Degree in HR, Finance, IT, or related discipline
Proven consulting experience in a client-facing environment

Nice to have

Multi-country payroll deployment experience
Exposure to Workday HCM modules (Core HCM, Time Tracking, Absence)
Knowledge of AU/NZ payroll legislation and compliance requirements
Experience working with third-party payroll providers and integrations

Mandatory Requirements

Australian Citizenship with current or ability to gain Baseline Security Clearance

All of our consulting professionals receive comprehensive training covering business acumen, technical and professional skills development. You’ll also have opportunities to hone your functional skills and expertise in an area of specialization. We offer a variety of formal and informal training programs at every level to help you acquire and build specialized skills faster. Learning takes place both on the job and through formal training conducted online, in the classroom, or in collaboration with teammates. The sheer variety of work we do, and the experience it offers, provide an unbeatable platform from which to build a career.

Candidates who are currently employed by a client of Accenture or an affiliated Accenture business may not be eligible for consideration.

Accenture Benefits

To view our Progressive Employee Benefits covering Health, Wellbeing, Progressive Leave Options, Sustainability click on the link below.

Progressive Employee Benefits – Australia

Equal Employment Opportunity Statement for Australia

At Accenture, we recognise that our people are multi-dimensional, and we create a work environment where all people feel like they can bring their authentic selves to work, every day.

Our unwavering commitment to inclusion and diversity unleashes innovation and creates a culture where everyone feels they have equal opportunity. Our range of progressive policies support flexibility in ‘where’, when’ and ‘how’ our people work to ensure that Accenture is an organisation where you can strive for more, achieve great things and maintain the balance and wellbeing you need.

We encourage applications from all people, and we are committed to removing barriers to the recruitment process and employee lifecycle. All employment decisions shall be made without regard to age, disability status, ethnicity, gender, gender identity or expression, religion or sexual orientation and we do not tolerate discrimination. If you require adjustments to the recruitment process or have a preferred communication method, please email exectalent@accenture.com and cite the relevant Job Number, or contact us on +61 2 9005 5000.

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About Accenture

Accenture is a leading global professional services company that helps the world’s leading businesses, governments and other organizations build their digital core, optimize their operations, accelerate revenue growth and enhance citizen services—creating tangible value at speed and scale. We are a talent- and innovation-led company with approximately 791,000 people serving clients in more than 120 countries. Technology is at the core of change today, and we are one of the world’s leaders in helping drive that change, with strong ecosystem relationships. We combine our strength in technology and leadership in cloud, data and AI with unmatched industry experience, functional expertise and global delivery capability. Our broad range of services, solutions and assets across Strategy & Consulting, Technology, Operations, Industry X and Song, together with our culture of shared success and commitment to creating 360° value, enable us to help our clients reinvent and build trusted, lasting relationships. We measure our success by the 360° value we create for our clients, each other, our shareholders, partners and communities.

Visit us at www.accenture.com

Equal Employment Opportunity Statement for Australia:

At Accenture, our intention is to foster a culture and a workplace in which all of our people feel a sense of belonging and are respected and empowered to do their best work.

As part of our talent strategy, we hire and develop people who have different backgrounds, different perspectives and different lived experiences. These differences ensure that we have and attract the cognitive diversity to deliver a variety of perspectives, observations and insights which are essential to drive the innovation needed to reinvent, and we hold our leaders accountable for ensuring we have the most innovative and talented people in our industry.

Learn how Accenture protects your personal data and know your rights in relation to your personal data. Read more about our Privacy Statement

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