Senior Functional Partner – HCM

Arriva Group

Workday Senior Functional Partner at Arriva managing HCM processes and continuous improvement initiatives. Collaborating with stakeholders for effective automation and system optimizations.

Posted 5/15/2026full-timeSunderland • 🇬🇧 United KingdomSeniorWebsite

About the role

Key responsibilities & impact

Act as the Subject Matter Expert (SME) for Workday HCM and Absence modules.
Maintain, enhance, and manage change requests and upgrades across these modules.
Deliver the Workday Support Team’s solutions, working closely with key stakeholders to agree and deliver a continuous improvement plan.
Develop and maintain the roadmap for HCM and Absence adoption and future enhancements.
Support business units as a critical enabler to maximise automation and reduce off-system processes.
Identify opportunities to simplify, improve, or redesign processes to enhance user experience.
Own communications for the HCM and Absence workstreams.
Gather and act on feedback from end users across the business.
Host and facilitate workshops and demonstrations (virtual and in-person) to showcase best practice and “what good looks like.”
Assess change impacts in line with the established governance model to reduce risk and identify improvement opportunities.
Manage or oversee testing for new functionality, upgrades, and releases.
Actively support issue resolution, managing escalations, tracking tickets, and working to agreed SLAs.
Configure and maintain reports relating to HCM and Absence.
Support training activities and materials, including: User guides FAQs Recorded demonstrations SharePoint content.

Requirements

What you’ll need

Strong experience with core HR processes and their interaction with payroll and external systems (e.g. time recording, recruitment).
Proven experience working with stakeholders at all levels of the organisation.
Experience in multi-national organisations.
Experience supporting multi-business implementations.
Understanding of sales, divestitures, and their impact on Workday.
Experience working in areas of high innovation, configuration, and consulting within Workday.
Workday Pro certification in HCM and/or Absence (attained or working towards).

Benefits

Comp & perks

Flexible working hours
Professional development opportunities

ATS Keywords

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Applicant Tracking System Keywords

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Hard Skills & Tools

Workday HCMWorkday Absenceprocess improvementchange managementreport configurationissue resolutiontesting managementautomationstakeholder engagementuser experience enhancement

Soft Skills

communicationfacilitationworkshop hostingfeedback gatheringcollaborationproblem-solvingcritical thinkingorganizational skillstraining supportcontinuous improvement

Certifications

Workday Pro certification in HCMWorkday Pro certification in Absence