Department:People
Job Description:As a Sr HR Product Project Manager, you'll help shape how Workday solutions are planned, prioritized, and delivered across Southwest's HR technology portfolio. Serving as the central connection between HR Product, Technology, project Teams, and Business Leaders, you'll turn Workday needs into a clear, sequenced roadmap and keep functional, technical, testing, and reporting changes aligned through deployment. You'll oversee intake, portfolio health, release readiness, risks, dependencies, and adoption for Workday deployments, system enhancements, and ongoing production needs while bringing transparency to priorities, progress, and results. Working across US and India-based Teams and external partners, you'll strengthen accountability, delivery quality, and consistency across the Workday portfolio. Through disciplined governance, thoughtful planning, and cross-functional influence, you'll enable scalable, well-managed Workday solutions that better support Southwest Employees and Leaders and create lasting value across the Company.
Additional Details
- The culture of Southwest Airlines means we value the camaraderie, collaboration, and innovation that occurs when we come together and interact face-to-face at our vibrant Corporate Campus. Due to the nature of this role, you would be required to work from our Dallas, TX Headquarters facility during business hours.
- U.S. citizenship or current authorization to work in the U.S. required and no current or future work authorization sponsorship available.
Responsibilities
- Own the HR Product Management intake and the portfolio demand, capturing and triaging incoming requests and applying structured prioritization to produce a transparent, backlog that serves as a source of accuracy for portfolio status
- Run the cross-portfolio prioritization and roadmap delivery, sequencing work and influencing direction across a matrixed structure, and escalating unresolved cross-functional conflicts to HR Product Management and leadership
- Track intake and delivery status across the portfolio and facilitate the weekly tactical delivery sync, maintaining tracking documents and status reporting and driving alignment across the product team, product owners, and technology partners
- Review user stories and release-tracking documentation for completeness and readiness, confirming work is staged correctly across the tiered environment promotion path
- Support release management for the scheduled production release window, coordinating regression, validation, and migration readiness with the responsible teams and partners
- Produce and present portfolio and delivery metrics, including throughput, cycle time, and value-realization callouts, for recurring status and leadership reviews
- Lead increment and sprint planning preparation, targeting incoming demand, aligning delivery commitments, and confirming that team-level plans roll up to the portfolio roadmap
- Own user experience, change management, and adoption for HR Product releases, partnering with HR Product Management team to deliver communications, enablement, and adoption measurement
- Support access certification and audit-control activity during the release cycle under the accountability of HR Product Management leadership, maintaining audit-ready evidence
- Serve as liaison across multiple internal work teams and external partners, including application management services support, directing support intake, coordinating Workday review and research, and leading project planning for partner-supported work against the backlog and release calendar
Knowledge, Skills and Abilities
- Knowledge of Workday HCM product capabilities and configuration concepts across core domains, sufficient to assess intake, scope work, and review functional design.
- Knowledge of product management practice, including intake governance, structured prioritization frameworks, backlog management, and roadmap development
- Knowledge of Agile and SAFe delivery methods, including sprint cadence, Program Increment planning, and release management within a tiered environment promotion path
- Knowledge of SOX and access-control governance sufficient to support certification activity and maintain audit-ready documentation
- Skill in building and presenting delivery and portfolio metrics that translate operational data into decision-ready status for leadership
- Skill in facilitation and stakeholder alignment across multiple product owners without direct reporting authority, driving consensus through governance and influence
- Skill in producing clear, executive-ready written status and governance communications
- Ability to review user stories, requirements, and release documentation for completeness, readiness, and traceability
- Ability to coordinate release activity and change management across functional and technical teams, including user experience, communications, and adoption
- Ability to operate within the Workday environment promotion path, supporting feature-release regression and the weekly production window
Education
- Required: High School Diploma or GED
Experience
- Required: Demonstrated experience leading cross-functional delivery and governance
- Required: Expert-level experience, expansive and far-reaching knowledge in:
- Workday HCM product capabilities and configuration concepts across core HR domains
- HR product management, intake governance, and structured prioritization frameworks
- Agile and SAFe delivery, including Program Increment planning, sprint management, and release management
- Release coordination across a tiered Workday environment promotion path
- Stakeholder alignment and cross-functional facilitation in a matrixed structure without direct authority
- Preferred: Experience leading client governance meetings, executive status reviews, and strategic planning discussions with stakeholders and senior leaders
- Preferred: Experience managing projects, including Workday implementations and optimization initiatives, while ensuring project documentation, deliverables, and governance artifacts meet quality and compliance standards
Licensing/Certification
Physical Abilities
- Ability to perform work duties from limited space work station/desk/office area for extended periods of time
- Ability to communicate and interact with others in the English language to meet the demands of the job
- Ability to use a computer and other office productivity tools with sufficient speed and accuracy to meet the demands of the job
Other Qualifications
- Must maintain a well-groomed appearance per Company appearance standards as described in established guidelines
- Must be a U.S. citizen or have authorization to work in the United States as defined by the Immigration Reform Act of 1986
- Must be at least 18 years of age
- Must be able to comply with Company attendance standards as described in established guidelines
Pay & Benefits:
- Competitive market salary from $132,200 to $146,900 per year* depending on qualifications and experience. For eligible Leadership and individual contributor roles, additional bonus opportunities are available and awarded at the discretion of the company.
Benefits you'll love:
- Fly for free, as a privilege, on any open seat on all Southwest flights (your eligible dependents too)
- Southwest will help fund your Retirement Savings Plan with Company contributions up to 9.3% of your eligible earnings**
- Potential for annual ProfitSharing contribution in the Southwest Retirement Savings Plan- when Southwest profits, you profit***
- Competitive health insurance for you and your eligible dependents (including pets)
- Southwest offers health plan coverage options that start from the very first day of employment. You will have 30 days to select and enroll in your health plan with coverage retroactively available to your first day of employment.
- Explore more Benefits you'll love: Benefits | Southwest Careers
*Pay amount does not guarantee employment for any particular period of time.
**401(k) match contributions are subject to Retirement Savings Plan vesting schedule and applicable IRS limits
***ProfitSharing contributions are subject to Retirement Savings Plan vesting schedule and are made at the discretion of the Company.
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