Finance Workday Systems Analyst – Finance Operations & Control

Finance Workday Systems Analyst – Finance Operations & Control

Reports to: Finance Systems Lead

This is a fixed term position for six months on Crick terms and conditions of employment.

Summary

The Finance Workday Systems Analyst reports to the Finance Systems Lead and works with the Finance Functional Leads in FP&A, Sourcing, Accounts Payable, Grants and Financial Accounting.

Essentially the second line of BAU support for Workday from a Finance Systems perspective, taking full responsibility for the management and successful resolution of all BAU issues raised by Functional Leads and users alike, as well as the investigation and resolution of tactical fixes. This covers issues with the system itself as well as its interaction with other core systems. The Finance Workday Systems Analyst will also support the Finance Systems Lead on work related to larger enhancements and in the strategic planning of the long-term evolution of the Workday ERP solution, which will include strengthening relationships with colleagues in HR, IT and the wider organisation.

Key responsibilities

These include but are not limited to:

• Ownership of day to day administration of Workday Financials

• Managing discrete projects/ ongoing initiatives for further development of Workday Financials and Workday Adaptive Planning system, including input into business cases for approval by Committee(s)

• Logging of L3 development or incident tickets with our AMS provider and Workday directly and overseeing these to conclusion while ensuring correct change management / testing protocols are followed

• Supporting continuous improvement in Workday and being the system governance champion

• Carrying out periodic system checks including utilisation reviews and making recommendations on potential issues or possible improvements

• Troubleshooting and prioritising systemic issues raised by our business users and tracking these via ServiceNow

• In conjunction with I.T. Operations, carrying out integration and upgrade testing as and when needed and help to resolve integration issues with internal data warehouse team, as well as managing appropriate communications around such upgrades

• Where appropriate, and in conjunction with the Finance Systems Lead and Business Process Owners, making changes to business processes as required, including appropriate documentation and communication

• Where required, creating and troubleshooting new or tailoring existing EIBs to provide guidance to users to help their understanding and to resolve data load errors

• Maintaining and, where applicable, creating standing data in Workday as per business requirement and in conjunction with the relevant data owner, including but not limited to projects, cost centres, spend categories, Purchase items with relevant hierarchies, custom work tags, etc

• Maintaining and ensuring process control of security access in conjunction with requesting managers and in line with business evolutionary requirements

• Where necessary, liaising with Workday and the Finance Systems Lead on configuration changes, ensuring appropriate CAB methodology is followed for any changes implemented

• Supporting the Finance Subject Matter Experts (SMEs) in reviewing their team and process documentation in all key areas of Finance including Financial Accounting, Accounts Payable, Accounts Receivable, Expenses, Grants, Sourcing and Financial Planning & Analysis

• Working with the Finance Systems Lead to capture impactful recommendations for process improvements, and drive further system changes and enhancements as appropriate

• Curating and providing guidance to SMEs, enhancing their knowledge and producing suitable system guides to retain organisational memory and knowledge base

Key experience and competencies

The post holder should embody and demonstrate our core Crick values: bold, imaginative, open, dynamic and collegial, in addition to the following:

Essential

• Relevant and up-to-date knowledge of Workday Finance systems administration

• Demonstrate initiative, a positive attitude and the ability to work unsupervised, and when required to stand in for the Finance Systems Lead

• Be innately collaborative with a curious nature and strong customer focus

• Able to foster professional relationships with customers and colleagues

• Can articulate abstract ideas to ‘non-technical’ colleagues and simplify complex system concepts

• Have a comprehensive understanding of Workday security domain processes and governance

• Willing to work in and sometimes lead mini projects in a collaborative environment as and when required

• Able to write reports at Simple and Advanced levels including calculated fields (Matrix and Composite reports also desirable)

• Be comfortable in troubleshooting and diagnosing technical system issues using a structured methodology

• Genuine interest in becoming more than a Workday expert, looking to continue to grow value in influencing and collaboration at all levels

Desirable

• Relevant and up-to-date knowledge of Adaptive Planning, Service Now, Worktribe, Power BI Finance systems administration

• Finance background / part or fully-qualified accountant

• Recognised Workday qualifications

• Evidence of having led Workday projects or other Finance Systems projects

• Previous experience of working with not-for-profit / charity reporting requirements.

• Previous experience of working in an academic environment.