West Virginia University · 11 hours ago
Workday Financials Lead - Information Technology Services, Modernization Program
United States
Full-time
Remote
Senior Level
7+ years expWest Virginia University is currently accepting applications for a remote Workday Financials Lead. This role provides functional leadership for the design, implementation, and stabilization of Workday Financial Management, ensuring it serves as the institution’s financial system of record while supporting complex sponsored research administration and compliance requirements.
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Responsibilities
Lead the end-to-end functional design and configuration of Workday Financial Management, including: General Ledger and Foundation Data Model (FDM), Accounts Payable, Accounts Receivable, Asset Management, Expenses, Procurement and Supplier Accounts, Banking, Cash, and Settlement, Grants-adjacent financial processes (in coordination with Research Administration)
Define and enforce financial business processes that balance institutional consistency with unit-level operational needs
Ensure financial design supports R1-specific complexity such as restricted funds, sponsored awards, cost sharing, auxiliaries, capital projects, and multi-entity reporting
Serve as the primary Finance counterpart to HCM, Payroll, Adaptive Planning, Student, and Research Administration leads
Ensure alignment between financial and HCM data structures (e.g., cost centers, positions, workers, supervisory organizations)
Partner with Adaptive Planning leads to ensure accurate financial modeling, budgeting, forecasting, and reporting
Collaborate with integration and data teams to ensure accurate, timely, and secure data flows between Workday and downstream/upstream systems (e.g., banks, research systems, student systems, reporting platforms)
Act as Finance lead for enterprise integration design, partnering closely with: Workday Integrations and Security teams, Research Administration systems teams (Huron Research Suite), State system technical and functional counterparts
Participate in defining enterprise data governance, master data ownership, and reconciliation strategies across Workday, Huron, and state systems
Ensure financial data supports institutional reporting, analytics, and audit needs across platforms
Serve as the primary Finance functional partner for integration with the Huron Research Suite, including alignment of: Award, project, and fund structures, Cost sharing, effort-related financial data, and expenditures, Financial transactions and balances required for sponsored research reporting
Collaborate with Research Administration, Sponsored Programs, and IT to define clear system-of-record boundaries between Workday Financials and Huron
Ensure financial configurations and business processes support federal and sponsor compliance requirements while minimizing manual reconciliation
Lead financial design decisions that accommodate integration with the State financial system, including: Chart of accounts and reporting alignment, Transaction interfaces, balances, and reconciliations, State-mandated controls, reporting cycles, and compliance requirement
Partner with central finance, compliance, and state oversight entities to ensure Workday Financials meets statutory and regulatory obligations
Support testing and validation of state interfaces and reporting during implementation and post-go-live stabilization
Design Workday Financials with future Workday Student implementation in mind, ensuring: Financial structures support student financials, billing, and receivables, Alignment with future student-related integrations and data flows, Avoidance of design decisions that would constrain or require rework during the Student implementation
Partner with Student, Finance, and IT stakeholders to document dependencies and assumptions for the future Student phase
Design financial controls, approval hierarchies, and audit-ready processes that meet internal policy and external regulatory requirements
Partner with Internal Audit, Compliance, Sponsored Programs, and Treasury to ensure Workday Financials supports federal, state, and sponsor requirements
Define security roles and segregation-of-duties controls in collaboration with Workday Security and IT teams
Act as the functional owner for Workday Financials during implementation, including: Requirements validation, Configuration decisions, Data conversion strategy and validation, Testing strategy (unit, end-to-end, parallel, and UAT), Cutover planning and go-live readiness
Serve as the primary liaison to the system integrator for Financials-related workstreams
Identify and manage functional risks, issues, and dependencies
Partner with Organizational Change Management (OCM) team to support adoption across Finance and distributed business offices
Translate technical and functional concepts into clear, actionable guidance for finance leaders, central offices, and departments
Support training strategy, curriculum design, and end-user readiness
Define the future-state Workday Financials support model, including tiered support, decision rights, and escalation paths
Establish standards for configuration governance, enhancements, and Workday releases
Mentor and develop internal Finance and systems staff to ensure long-term institutional ownership
Qualification
Required
Bachelor's degree in Finance, Accounting, Business Administration, Information Systems, or a related field
A minimum of seven (7) years of progressive experience in financial systems, ERP implementations, or financial operations within a large, R1 higher education institution
Hands-on experience leading or significantly contributing to a Workday Financial Management implementation
Hands-on experience with Workday FDM design
Deep understanding of core financial processes and controls
Experience operating in a matrixed, highly governed environment with diverse stakeholders
Any equivalent combination of related education and/or experience will be considered
All qualifications must be met by the time of employment
Preferred
Experience in higher education, research universities, or other complex, fund-accounting environments
Experience with Workday Adaptive Planning
Knowledge of sponsored research financial management and compliance
Prior experience working with external system integrators
Experience integrating Workday Financial Management with: Research administration systems (e.g., Huron Research Suite, Cayuse, Kuali), State or external governmental financial systems
Experience supporting or preparing for a phased Workday implementation strategy (e.g., Financials/HCM first, Student later)
Familiarity with R1 sponsored research compliance, fund accounting, and multi-system financial environments
Workday Financial Management certification(s)
CPA, MBA, or similar advanced credential
Benefits
37.5-hour work week
13 paid holidays (staff holiday calendar)
24 annual leave (vacation) days per year or more based on years of service (employee leave)
18 sick days per year (for when you’re ill, for when you need time to care for sick family, for your own, or your family’s, regularly scheduled medical appointments. Who is family for the purpose of this leave? A lot of people in your life including immediate relatives and in-laws as well as others considered to be members of your household living under the same roof)
WVU offers a range of health insurance and other benefits
401(a) retirement savings with 6% employee contribution match, eligibility to continue health insurance, and other retiree perks. Looking for more retirement benefits information? Check out retirement health insurance benefits, retirement income, and FAQ’s.
Wellness programs
Company
West Virginia University
West Virginia University offers academic programs in order to earn bachelor’s, master’s, or doctoral degrees.
5001-10000 employees
H1B Sponsorship
West Virginia University has a track record of offering H1B sponsorships. Please note that this does not
guarantee sponsorship for this specific role. Below presents additional info for your
reference. (Data Powered by US Department of Labor)
Distribution of Different Job Fields Receiving Sponsorship
Represents job field similar to this job
Trends of Total Sponsorships
2025 (247)
2024 (108)
2023 (115)
2022 (108)
2021 (72)
2020 (53)
Funding
Current Stage
Late StageTotal Funding
$20.97MKey Investors
National Institute of Nursing ResearchU.S. Department of AgricultureU.S. Department of Commerce
2025-02-01Grant· $2.7M
2024-10-29Grant· $7.82M
2024-09-17Grant· $0.72M
Leadership Team
Lori Hazlehurst
Professor Pharmaceutical Sciences
Michael Benson
President and Professor of History
Recent News
2025-12-12
Company data provided by crunchbase