Workday Financials Principal Consultant

The Principal Consultant will act as a strategic bridge between business and technical teams, solving complex Workday intersystem challenges. This role leads clients through transformation, implementation, and operational phases of Workday Financial projects, ensuring successful delivery aligned to best practices and client-specific requirements.

Key Responsibilities:  

• Serve as a Workday Financials subject matter expert, with deep expertise across design, configuration, testing, and implementation.
• Lead clients through end-to-end Workday Financials implementations, from discovery and design through deployment and post-go-live support.
• Facilitate design workshops and decision-making sessions, translating business requirements into scalable Workday solutions.
• Provide functional leadership across key areas, including Core Financials, Banking & Cash Management and Order-to-Cash (O2C) / Accounts Receivable.
• Drive tactical direction of project workstreams, ensuring alignment with overall programme goals.
• Identify dependencies and manage integration points across multiple workstreams.
• Lead, mentor, and oversee consultants and analysts; provide guidance, task allocation, and performance feedback.
• Act as a trusted advisor to clients, maintaining strong stakeholder relationships throughout the project lifecycle.
• Support clients through system transition, ensuring smooth migration from legacy systems to Workday.
• Configuration migration between tenants
• Business process and security configuration
• Translate and map data sources into conversion templates and validate data integrity.
• Regularly communicate progress, risks, and changes to stakeholders, project teams, and leadership.
• Take on leadership roles such as Delivery Lead, Product Partner Lead, or Delivery Assurance Reviewer where required.
• Reinforce organisational policies, standards, and best practices.
• Contribute to internal knowledge sharing, training, and capability development across the organisation.

Skills Required:

• Bachelor’s degree or equivalent experience.
• 5+ years of Workday Financials implementation experience
• Strong background in financial operations, accounting, or supply chain processes.
• Strong communication and presentation skills, with the ability to effectively manage customer expectations.  
• Advanced knowledge of Microsoft Office Suite, particularly Microsoft Excel and PowerPoint programs.  
• Functional expertise in one or more Workday Financial Management pillars:
  • Record-to-Report (R2R)
  • Procure-to-Pay (P2P)
  • Contracts-to-Cash (C2C)
• Experience gathering requirements, facilitating workshops, solution design, configuration, testing, and deployment.
• Strong consulting, stakeholder management, facilitation, and communication skills.
• Ability to manage multiple priorities in a fast-paced consulting environment.
• Eligible for SC Clearance - you must have been a UK resident for the last five years and be legally entitled to work in the UK.
• Minimal travel required, but must be willing to travel on-site as needed.

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Why choose Cognizant:

• Entrepreneurial environment that welcomes your ideas
• Opportunity to do great work
• Outreach programs that support communities and tap into your volunteer spirit
• Learning opportunities to help current needs and advancement
• Global operations, with opportunities in North America, Europe and Asia Pacific
• An abundance of Affinity groups to meet your needs

Cognizant Core Values:

• Work as One: We think beyond roles, relying on each other’s strengths to win as a team.
• Raise the Bar: We always aim for excellence in how we work and what we deliver.
• Dare to Innovate: We push boundaries and take chances to reimagine what’s possible.
• Do the Right Thing: We all lead with integrity and always make the ethical choice.
• Own It: We own the outcomes for our company, colleagues, and community.