Principal Business Analyst, Source to Pay

Description

Your work days are brighter here.

We’re obsessed with making hard work pay off, for our people, our customers, and the world around us. As a Fortune 500 company and a leading AI platform for managing people, money, and agents, we’re shaping the future of work so teams can reach their potential and focus on what matters most. The minute you join, you’ll feel it. Not just in the products we build, but in how we show up for each other. Our culture is rooted in integrity, empathy, and shared enthusiasm. We’re in this together, tackling big challenges with bold ideas and genuine care. We look for curious minds and courageous collaborators who bring sun-drenched optimism and drive. Whether you're building smarter solutions, supporting customers, or creating a space where everyone belongs, you’ll do meaningful work with Workmates who’ve got your back. In return, we’ll give you the trust to take risks, the tools to grow, the skills to develop and the support of a company invested in you for the long haul. So, if you want to inspire a brighter work day for everyone, including yourself, you’ve found a match in Workday, and we hope to be a match for you too.

The Finance Transformation Office (FTO) drives the modernization and optimization of Workday’s global finance function. At the heart of this effort is the Finance Process Ownership team: responsible for governing and transforming the end-to-end processes that enable scale, control, and efficiency across the Finance organization. By integrating strategic process design with technology innovation, automation, and continuous improvement, this team ensures Finance operates with simplicity, accuracy, and insight. This empowers Workday to be its own best Customer Zero.

About the Role

We are seeking a Principal Business Analyst, Source to Pay to enable the optimization, governance, and transformation of Workday’s global Source to Pay value stream. Reporting to the Director, Finance Process Owner Source to Pay, this individual will perform end-to-end design, performance, and evolution of processes spanning supplier onboarding, sourcing, contract management, procurement, purchasing, invoicing, travel & expense management, and payments. You will partner with cross-functional workstream leads to execute on critical milestones, including activities such as process development, business requirements gathering, UAT test script development and coordination, among others. You will drive day-to-day execution and focus on delivering a frictionless, compliant, and scalable experience for employees, suppliers, and Finance. This role blends deep domain expertise with digital transformation, partnering closely with Business, Technology Teams, and Program/Portfolio Management teams to showcase world-class use of Workday Financial Management and related capabilities.

Responsibilities

• Partner with the Finance Process Owner to define and evolve current-state and future-state process flows across the Source to Pay lifecycle, including supplier lifecycle management, contract lifecycle management, requisitioning, sourcing, purchasing, receiving, invoicing, expense management, and payment execution.
• Support global e-invoicing initiatives and ensure compliance with regional regulatory requirements.
• Independently identify and resolve gaps, dependencies, and conflicting requirements across workstreams.
• Translate complex business, policy, and regulatory requirements into clear, scalable process designs, functional requirements, and Jira stories.
• Own requirements traceability and change management, documenting changes, assessing downstream impacts, and maintaining alignment through design, build, testing, and release.
• Facilitate requirements walkthroughs and sign-off sessions with business and technical stakeholders to confirm scope and reduce rework.
• Ensure requirements account for global process consistency while accommodating local business, tax, statutory, and payment considerations.
• Develop and maintain Source to Pay test scripts, scenarios, expected results, requirements traceability, and testing evidence.
• Execute end-to-end transaction testing across Workday Financials (Spend Management, Accounting Center) and connected systems, validating both business process and downstream accounting outcomes such as invoices, AR/AP balances, journal entries, and GL postings.
• Lead Source to Pay UAT ceremonies, driving testing progress, priorities, blockers, defects, and actions to closure.
• Track execution, requirements coverage, defects, retesting, and business sign-offs through Jira.
• Provide critical testing capacity during quarter-end, Q4 blackout, and year-end periods when Finance SME availability is constrained.
• Champion, test, and pilot new Workday features and AI capabilities across Procurement, Expenses, Supplier Accounts, and Financial Management, providing actionable feedback to Product Management
• Drive team adoption of AI tools to produce more consistent and higher quality outputs across transformation projects.
• Support design, configuration, and adoption of scalable, system-driven Source to Pay processes powered by Workday, including intelligent supplier onboarding, guided buying, automated invoice matching, payment controls, exception management, and real-time analytics.
• Own the development and monitoring of KPIs that measure process health, such as requisition-to-purchase-order cycle time, purchase-order compliance, touchless invoice rate, invoice exception rate, on-time payment performance, early-payment discount capture, and cost per invoice.
• Partner with controllership, internal audit, tax, and compliance teams to drive process integrity, SOX compliance, audit readiness, and appropriate segregation of duties.
• Act as a trusted subject matter expert and role model for the team, setting the standard for behavior, quality, and ways of working.
• Mentor and coach other Business Analysts, providing structured development and guidance even without formal management authority.
• Advocate for and actively drive change and solution adoption across the team and the broader business.
• Proactively expand scope beyond the core role, taking on adjacent domains and pursuing leadership-level, cross-functional opportunities.
• Operate with full independence, taking on calculated risk and simplifying complex, ambiguous issues rather than escalating or waiting for direction.
• Drive executive communications and align requirements and stories across multiple Finance teams, including Procurement, Treasury, Tax, and Controllership, to ensure complete end-to-end coverage.
• Communicate testing status, risks, and dependencies clearly to the Finance Process Owner and program stakeholders.

Requirements

• Required Qualifications:
• At least 8 years of progressive experience in Source to Pay, Finance Transformation, or a related discipline, including ownership of complex end-to-end processes in a global environment.
• Deep functional knowledge of supplier management, sourcing, procurement, purchase orders, invoice processing, expense management, payments, and the related accounting, tax, controls, and working-capital implications.
• Proven experience using or deploying ERPs/Sourcing/Procurement Platforms (Workday Financial Management, Workday Strategic Sourcing, Evisort a plus).
• Bachelor’s degree in Finance, Accounting, Supply Chain, Business, or a related field. CPA, CIPS, CPSM, PMP, Lean Six Sigma, or comparable certification is preferred.
• Other Qualifications:
• Ability to translate complex business requirements, policy needs, and global regulatory considerations into simple, scalable, and measurable digital process flows.
• Outstanding ability to collaborate with senior stakeholders across Finance, Procurement, Treasury, Tax, Legal, Technology Teams, and Product.
• Demonstrated success leading change in digital transformation, moving from decentralized or manual processes to standardized, automated, and insight-driven operations.
• Strong understanding of financial controls, risk management, audit requirements, and the importance of data integrity throughout the Source to Pay lifecycle.
• Passion for being a power user and advocate for Workday technology, using internal operational excellence to help refine and influence the product.
• Workday Pay Transparency Statement
• The annualized base salary ranges for the primary location and any additional locations are listed below. Workday pay ranges vary based on work location. As a part of the total compensation package, this role may be eligible for the Workday Bonus Plan or a role-specific commission/bonus, as well as annual refresh stock grants. Recruiters can share more detail during the hiring process. Each candidate’s compensation offer will be based on multiple factors including, but not limited to, geography, experience, skills, job duties, and business need, among other things. For more information regarding Workday’s comprehensive benefits, please click here .
• Primary Location: USA.CA.Pleasanton
• Primary Location Base Pay Range: $163,400 USD - $245,000 USD
• Additional US Location(s) Base Pay Range: $137,900 USD - $245,000 USD
• Our Approach to Flexible Work
• With Flex Work, we’re combining the best of both worlds: in-person time and remote. Our approach enables our teams to deepen connections, maintain a strong community, and do their best work. We know that flexibility can take shape in many ways, so rather than a number of required days in-office each week, we simply spend at least half (50%) of our time each quarter in the office or in the field with our customers, prospects, and partners (depending on role). This means you'll have the freedom to create a flexible schedule that caters to your business, team, and personal needs, while being intentional to make the most of time spent together. Those in our remote "home office" roles also have the opportunity to come together in our offices for important moments that matter.
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