Senior Workday Payroll Architect

About the Role

Lambda is moving from Rippling to Workday as our HRIS. We are hiring a Senior Workday Payroll Architect (Workday Payroll, Time Tracking & Absence Lead) to own these modules end to end, from implementation design through go-live and into steady-state operations. You will be our resident expert on how Workday calculates, accrues, and pays for US employees running on Workday Payroll and our international workforce.

*Note: This position requires presence in our San Francisco or San Jose office location 4 days per week (Lambda's designated work from home day is currently Tuesday).*

What You'll Do

• Implementation: Serve as the functional lead for Payroll, Time Tracking, and Absence in our Workday implementation: drive design sessions, own configuration decisions, build and test the tenant alongside our implementation partner, and sign off on readiness for cutover, parallel testing, and hypercare.
• US Payroll Configuration: Configure and maintain Workday Payroll for US & Canada employees: pay groups, earnings and deductions, pay component groups, federal, state, and local tax setup, garnishments, payroll accounting, and period-end and year-end processing (W-2s, quarterly filings) with our tax filing provider.
• International Payroll: Design and operate the flow between Workday and our international payroll providers (Workday Global Payroll Connect or PECI/PICOF-based integrations): payroll input files, results return, GL posting, and reconciliation.
• Time Tracking: Configure Time Tracking for hourly and non-exempt populations, including work schedules, time entry codes, time calculations (overtime, meal and rest break compliance, shift differentials), approvals, and state-specific rules.
• Absence: Build and maintain Absence plans across US and international populations: flexible PTO, sick leave accruals by jurisdiction, statutory leave, and leave-of-absence types with appropriate eligibility, accrual, carryover, and payout rules.
• Integrations & Data: Own the payroll-adjacent integration footprint (benefits carriers, 401k, tax filing, equity compensation, GL to NetSuite) and data validation.
• Payroll Operations Partnership: Partner with Payroll Operations and Accounting on retro calculations, off-cycle payments, pre- and post-payroll audits, and root-cause analysis.
• Compliance & Controls: Design payroll processes and Workday security to satisfy SOX ITGC and payroll control requirements (segregation of duties, approval workflows, audit trails, and evidence capture).
• Releases & Roadmap: Stay current on Workday's semi-annual releases, assess impact on Payroll, Time tracking, and Absence, run regression testing, and adopt new functionality.
• Enablement: Write documentation, train HR, managers, and Payroll, and build self-serve reports and dashboards.

Qualifications

• Experience: 10+ years in HRIS or payroll systems, with at least 6+ years hands-on configuring Workday Payroll, Time Tracking, and Absence. Led at least one Workday Payroll implementation live as functional lead.
• Workday Depth: Fluent in payroll business processes, calculation engine (calculated fields, pay component logic, custom reports), tax configuration, retro processing, and payroll accounting.
• Global Payroll: Experience running or integrating international payroll through Workday (Global Payroll Connect partners or custom integrations).
• Payroll Knowledge: Strong foundation in US payroll fundamentals (multi-state taxation, FLSA, California wage and hour rules, garnishments, imputed income, equity compensation/RSU withholding, year-end).
• Compliance & Controls: Experience operating in a SOX or audit-facing environment.
• Operating Rigor: Thorough testing and documentation practices; disciplined parallel runs.
• Cross-functional Partnership: Ability to translate complex calculations and setup to controllers, recruiters, and engineering.

Nice to Have

• Experience configuring Workday HCM, Benefits, and Compensation.
• Experience migrating from Rippling or another all-in-one platform to Workday.
• Workday Pro certifications in Payroll, Time Tracking, Absence, or Integrations.
• Experience with international payroll providers (ADP Celergo, CloudPay, Papaya Global, Deel) and employer-of-record arrangements.
• Familiarity with NetSuite, Okta, Lumos, Workato, BigQuery.
• IPO readiness experience (payroll control design and equity compensation processing).
• Experience using AI tooling to accelerate testing, documentation, or reconciliation.