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Agent guide: [/agents.md](https://www.wearedevelopers.com/agents.md). --- # Workday Functional Lead - Human Capital Management / Payroll - **Company:** The Football Association - **Location:** Wembley, UK - **Experience:** Expert - **Contract:** Permanent contract - **Skills:** Agile Methodology, Data Analysis, Confluence, JIRA, Software as a Service, System Configuration, Data Architecture, Digital Technology, Systems Analysis, Scrum Methodology, Workday HCM, 3-tier Architectures, Interactive Whiteboards, Workday - **Published:** September 18, 2026 - **Apply:** https://www.totaljobs.com/job/functional-lead/football-association-limited-job107995034 ## About the Role * Deep Workday expertise across HCM, Payroll, Absence and Compensation modules. * Experience with Workday feature release cycles and SaaS platform update adoption. * Functional knowledge of HCM and Payroll processes, including employee lifecycle, absence, compensation and pay. * Proven experience as a Product Owner, Functional Lead or Business Analyst working with Agile teams and methodologies. * Significant experience in defining and managing requirements using recognised techniques. * Strong experience of backlog ownership, prioritisation and refinement aligned to business value and strategy. * Strong Agile delivery experience, particularly within Scrum and/or Kanban. * Ability to translate business needs into clear, prioritised and value-driven outcomes. * Strong stakeholder management skills, including negotiation of competing priorities. * Experience working closely with Product Managers, Delivery Managers, Business Analysts and technical teams in cross-functional delivery environments. * Ability to define and refine user stories and acceptance criteria to ensure sprint readiness. * Strong analytical, problem-solving and decision-making skills in complex environments. * Ability to support delivery through QA/UAT, sign-off and deployment. * Strong communication, collaboration and presentation skills. * Highly organised, self-disciplined with strong planning and time management skills. * Consistent approach with solid attention to detail. * Experience of working with Agile development teams, including third parties and offshore colleagues where applicable. * Experience using tools such as Jira, Confluence, Teams and Miro. Beneficial to have: * Experience acting as a functional SME or domain lead. * Experience of supporting or overseeing system configuration and tenant administration responsibilities. * Experience with HR reporting and analytics. * Experience working with Managed Service Providers (AMS) or implementation partners. * Understanding of tiered support models and live-service environments. * Experience in HR transformation, enterprise system implementation or large-scale digital transformation programmes. * Experience mentoring Product Owners or Business Analysts. * Familiarity with business architecture, end-to-end process design and change management in enterprise system environments. * Product Owner, Agile BA or relevant Workday certifications. * Any systems analysis experience is useful, e.g. logical data design or understanding of schemas and workflows. ## Description At The FA, we're continuing our transformation journey following the successful implementation of Workday across HR and Finance. As ownership of the platform transitions into our Digital Technology team, we're looking for an experienced Workday Functional Lead to lead the future evolution of one of our most business-critical enterprise platforms. This is a unique opportunity to play a key role in shaping future Workday investment priorities and product delivery for a platform used across The FA. Working closely with Finance, HR, Digital Technology and external partners, you'll ensure Workday continues to deliver measurable business value, supports organisational priorities and enables future growth. The Workday HCM/PY Functional Lead works within FA Digital Technology and is responsible for owning and optimising the product backlog across the Workday HCM and Payroll product areas, ensuring alignment with business priorities, product strategy and the wider Corporate Workday roadmap. The role acts as the primary interface between business stakeholders, Product Management and delivery teams, translating business needs and strategic objectives into prioritised, value-driven outcomes. This role also provides functional leadership across the FA Workday platform for relevant SKUs including HCM, Absence, Compensation and Payroll. It is responsible for ensuring platform capabilities are effectively leveraged to meet business needs, that system changes are delivered effectively, and that product decisions align with broader platform, operational and service objectives. In addition to core Product Owner responsibilities, the role includes accountability for Workday HCM/PY backlog execution, business process understanding, support of testing and deployment, feature release validation, reporting insight, tiered support, relevant administrative responsibilities across the Workday tenant, and championing an ethos of 'why not Workday' when tackling ongoing and future HR challenges. What will you be doing? * Own and continuously refine the Workday HCM/PY backlog in collaboration with Product Managers, business stakeholders and delivery teams, ensuring alignment to business priorities, product strategy and the wider Corporate Workday roadmap. * Work closely with stakeholders to understand business needs and translate them into effective Workday solutions, maintaining strong end-to-end knowledge across HCM, Absence, Compensation and Payroll. * Act as the Functional Lead for Workday HCM/PY, supporting backlog execution, configuration coordination, feature adoption and the assessment and validation of bi-annual Workday releases. * Act as an HR Reporting and Analytics SME, helping ensure business decisions, operational needs and improvement opportunities are reflected appropriately in product priorities and solutions. * Champion and operate a tiered support model across Workday HCM/PY, including Tier 0 support materials, Tier 1 upskilling, Tier 2 support and escalation to Tier 3 / AMS where required. * Fulfil relevant administrative responsibilities across the Workday tenant, including support for HCM, Org, Position, Compensation and Business Process Administration, ensuring effective governance, configuration and operational continuity. * Champion an ethos of 'why not Workday' for ongoing and future HR challenges, ensuring the platform is used effectively and consistently to meet business needs. * Create sprint plans, ensure backlog items and user stories are prioritised, clearly defined and sprint-ready, and lead refinement, estimation and delivery support across the product area. * Provide ongoing clarification to delivery teams and support quality assurance, functional testing, user acceptance testing, sign-off and deployment to ensure delivery of valuable, high-quality outcomes. * Act as a key interface between business stakeholders, Product Management, delivery teams and third-party partners, balancing priorities and ensuring external delivery aligns with FA standards and ways of working. * Maintain clear, concise and up-to-date documentation across the relevant delivery and support tools, and contribute to continuous improvement of Digital Technology processes, standards and Product Owner practices. * Keep up to date with developments in Product Ownership, Business Analysis and Workday practice, support colleagues where appropriate, and consistently demonstrate FA values and behaviours. * Executes additional tasks as required to meet the FA's changing priorities. * Comply with all company policies and procedures to ensure that the highest standards of health, safety, and well-being can be maintained. * As part of the FA's commitment to ensuring a safe environment for everyone in football, every employee will be required to complete a DBS check. The level of the check required will be based on the activity of the specific job role and in line with legislation and government guidance. ## Related Videos - [Improving quality with Agentic AI with Rovo Dev and Xray](https://www.wearedevelopers.com/videos/2005-improving-quality-with-agentic-ai-with-rovo-dev-and-xray) - [What if your HR software adapted to you, not the other way around?](https://www.wearedevelopers.com/videos/100259-what-if-your-hr-software-adapted-to-you-not-the-other-way-around) - [Destigmatizing the Workplace: Building Real Inclusion](https://www.wearedevelopers.com/videos/1492-destigmatizing-the-workplace-building-real-inclusion) - [42 x 2 Canvases Later: Two Years, Two Minds, Many Lessons](https://www.wearedevelopers.com/videos/1458-42-x-2-canvases-later-two-years-two-minds-many-lessons) - [A Founder's Journey : From Startup Chaos to Purposeful Growth](https://www.wearedevelopers.com/videos/1926-a-founder-s-journey-from-startup-chaos-to-purposeful-growth) - [What If We Designed Employee Experience Like a Customer Journey?](https://www.wearedevelopers.com/videos/1824-what-if-we-designed-employee-experience-like-a-customer-journey) ## Related Articles - [Data Analyst Salary in the UK](https://www.wearedevelopers.com/magazine/278-data-analyst-salary-in-the-uk) - [Top HR Tech Conferences in 2024](https://www.wearedevelopers.com/magazine/303-top-hr-tech-conferences-in-2024) - [Data Engineer Salary UK](https://www.wearedevelopers.com/magazine/253-data-engineer-salary-uk) - [Best Companies to work for in London: Top 25 Companies in 2023](https://www.wearedevelopers.com/magazine/187-best-companies-to-work-for-in-london-top-25-companies-in-2023) - [UK Business Culture and Etiquette](https://www.wearedevelopers.com/magazine/326-uk-business-culture-and-etiquette) - [Software Engineer Salary London](https://www.wearedevelopers.com/magazine/252-software-engineer-salary-london)