Job Description

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What You';ll Do
The Workday Security Lead will design, implement, and maintain Workday security models, ensuring that data integrity, privacy, and compliance requirements are consistently met. This role requires deep knowledge of Workday security frameworks and collaboration with HR, Payroll, and IT to manage end-to-end access governance.
What Your Responsibilities Will Be
1. Design, configure, and maintain Workday security roles, domains, and business process security policies.
2. Implement security controls in alignment with organizational policies and regulatory requirements.
3. Manage role assignments, segregation of duties, and user provisioning processes.
4. Provide day-to-day security administration and troubleshooting within Workday through Jira and maintain documentation.
5. Monitor system security for unauthorized access, errors, and compliance violations.
6. Partner with HRIS and IT teams to ensure adherence to internal compliance standards (SOX, GDPR, etc.).
7. Partner with HR, Finance, Payroll, and IT teams to gather requirements and recommend security solutions.
8. Translate business needs into Workday security configuration and ensure least-privilege access.
9. Conduct impact analysis for new features, releases, or configuration changes.
10. Develop and execute security test plans, including role validation and regression testing.
11. Validate new security features delivered in Workday releases and provide recommendations.
12. Develop automated solutions for access provisioning, reporting, and auditing.
13. Create and maintain security design documents, process guides, and standard operating procedures.
What You’ll Need To Be Successful
An experienced Workday Security Developer / Analyst / Lead with 8+ years of overall experience and significant hands-on expertise in Workday Security Administration, Governance, and Compliance. This level of seniority emphasizes technical mastery, design leadership, and strategic alignment with enterprise HR and IT goals.
Reports To: Senior Manager, People Technology
Location: Remote
Mastery of Workday Security Framework

• Deep understanding of Workday domains, business process security policies, and role-based access control (RBAC).
• Skilled in designing least-privilege models and ensuring segregation of duties (SoD) compliance.
• Capable of troubleshooting complex role inheritance and intersection issues.

Compliance and Risk Mindset

• Fluent in SOX, GDPR, and data privacy standards.
• Treats compliance as a continuous process, not a checklist.
• Anticipates audit questions and maintains an always-audit-ready posture.
• Understands risk frameworks and can articulate the business impact of security exceptions.

Analytical &; Problem-Solving Orientation

• Root-cause thinker: Doesn';t just resolve incidents but investigates why they happened.
• Skilled in mapping access issues to process design flaws or configuration drift.
• Leverages audit logs, reports, and Workday diagnostics effectively.
• Uses data to proactively identify security gaps before they become incidents.

Cross-Functional Collaboration

• Communicates fluently with HR, Payroll, Legal, and IT teams — translating technical security jargon into business impact.
• Builds trust with stakeholders by balancing security needs and user experience.
• Excellent at influencing without authority — often leading governance discussions across departments.
• Acts as a partner, not a gatekeeper.

Avalara is an AI-first Company
AI is embedded in our workflows, decision-making, and products.  Success here requires embracing AI as an essential capability.
You’ll bring experience using AI and AI-related technologies, ready to thrive here.
You’ll apply AI every day to business challenges - improving efficiency, contributing solutions, and driving results for your team, our company, and our customers.
You’ll grow with AI by staying curious about new trends and best practices, and by sharing what you learn so others can benefit too.
How We’ll Take Care Of You
Total Rewards 
In addition to a great compensation package, paid time off, and paid parental leave, many Avalara employees are eligible for bonuses. 
Health &; Wellness 
Benefits vary by location but generally include private medical, life, and disability insurance. 
Inclusive culture and diversity 
Avalara strongly supports diversity, equity, and inclusion, and is committed to integrating them into our business practices and our organizational culture. We also have a total of 8 employee-run resource groups, each with senior leadership and exec sponsorship. 
What You Need To Know About Avalara
We’re defining the relationship between tax and tech.
We’ve already built an industry-leading cloud compliance platform, processing over 54 billion customer API calls and over 6.6 million tax returns a year. Our growth is real - we';re a billion dollar business - and we’re not slowing down until we’ve achieved our mission - to be part of every transaction in the world.
We’re bright, innovative, and disruptive, like the orange we love to wear. It captures our quirky spirit and optimistic mindset. It shows off the culture we’ve designed, that empowers our people to win. We’ve been different from day one. Join us, and your career will be too.
We’re An Equal Opportunity Employer
Supporting diversity and inclusion is a cornerstone of our company — we don’t want people to fit into our culture, but to enrich it. All qualified candidates will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, creed, religion, age, gender, national orientation, disability, sexual orientation, US Veteran status, or any other factor protected by law. If you require any reasonable adjustments during the recruitment process, please let us know.

Skills Required