Workday

Student Financial Aid Consultant, Higher Education & Nonprofit

Workday$111K — $197K *
Education, Government & Non-Profit
5 - 7 years of experience
Job Overview by Ladders

Qualifications

  • 6+ years of experience with Workday, Banner, PeopleSoft, PowerFAIDS, or similar Financial Aid/Student Information Systems
  • 6+ years of leadership in Financial Aid operations, compliance, and staff management
  • Strong technical skills for system configuration, testing, and troubleshooting
  • Familiarity with AI-powered tools to enhance client services (2+ years)
  • Preferred consulting experience, particularly from higher education Financial Aid leadership roles

Responsibilities

  • Become familiar with Financial Aid and Student Financials integrations within Workday
  • Gather client business requirements for financial aid processes and tuition billing
  • Configure the Workday solution to enhance user and administrator experience
  • Develop prototype systems to demonstrate configurations to clients
  • Assist clients in testing the implemented Workday solution
  • Support integration consulting for third-party system configurations
  • Work with clients on converting legacy data into Workday

Benefits

  • Flexible work arrangements combining remote and in-office collaboration
  • Opportunity for travel up to 50% based on project needs
  • Engagement in ongoing training and events to enhance consulting skills
  • Supportive team culture that prioritizes sustainability and improvement
  • Access to Workday AI tools for efficient and high-quality solutions
Full Job Description
About the Team
The Higher Ed/Nonprofit Functional Consulting team partners with colleges, universities, and nonprofit organizations to design and deliver Workday solutions. We lead implementations end-to-end, balancing scope, milestones, and quality across a steady pipeline of projects.

Many of us previously worked in higher education or nonprofit organizations, and we understand the realities of shared governance, academic calendars, and public or public-adjacent organizations. We also value creating sustainable ways of working that fit those environments. Our team is highly educated, curious, and always looking for ways to improve how we work. We actively utilize Workday's AI tools to make our implementations high-quality and efficient, and we share what we learn so the entire practice benefits.

About the Role

As a Student Financial Aid Consultant, you will be responsible for ensuring the successful implementation of Workday's Student solution, with a primary focus on Financial Aid and the flexibility to support Student Financials as project needs require. You will work with customers to understand their challenges, business goals, and requirements around financial aid administration, packaging, compliance, and disbursement, as well as related billing and payment processes within Student Financials. Using Workday's implementation methodology, you will be responsible for designing, configuring, and testing the Workday solution. This job may be located anywhere in the continental United States within reasonable distance to a major airport.

Working with our Higher Education Customers, you will be responsible for:

  • Becoming familiar with the touchpoints between Financial Aid, Student Financials, and other areas of the Workday product suite
  • Gathering client business requirements related to financial aid packaging, awarding, compliance, and disbursement, as well as tuition billing and payment processes when supporting Student Financials
  • Configuring the Workday solution to help improve the user, student, and administrator experience across Financial Aid and Student Financials
  • Demonstrating the configurations through the development of prototype systems
  • Assisting the client in testing the Workday solution
  • Assisting the integration consulting team in configuring and testing integrations between Workday and third-party/custom solutions (e.g., federal aid systems, payment processors)
  • Understanding the Workday Implementation Methodology and using it on all engagements
  • Working with the client to help convert legacy financial aid and student financials data into Workday
  • Partnering with the Engagement Manager to plan project activities and time frames, and ensuring project work is tracked and produced on time and within budget
  • Participating in update training and other events to share product skills with other consultants


About You

You bring strong Student Financial Aid expertise and leadership experience. The role of a consultant requires sound judgment, and a collaborative approach to delivery. You know how to balance customer needs, project realities, and solution quality. You communicate clearly, build trust quickly, and work well across teams and workstreams. Previous Workday experience as a consultant, user, or administrator is strongly preferred but not required.

Basic Qualifications:

  • Experience (6+ years) with Workday, Banner, PeopleSoft, PowerFAIDS, or similar Financial Aid/Student Information Systems
  • 6+ years of functional experience in Financial Aid, ideally including leadership experience (e.g., Director of Financial Aid, Associate Director, or similar) overseeing financial aid operations, compliance, and staff
  • Strong technical aptitude (6+ years) with systems and software, beyond functional/policy knowledge alone - comfort with system configuration, testing, and troubleshooting is essential, not just an understanding of financial aid rules and processes
  • Demonstrated curiosity and comfort (2+ years) with AI-powered tools, with a willingness to incorporate AI into daily workflows to improve efficiency and client outcomes

Other Qualifications (preferred):

  • Prior consulting experience is a plus but not required - candidates coming directly from higher education Financial Aid leadership roles are strongly encouraged to apply
  • Working knowledge of Student Financials processes (tuition billing, payment plans, refunds) and the ability to flex into this area as project needs require
  • Deep knowledge of Title IV federal regulations, Return to Title IV (R2T4), Satisfactory Academic Progress (SAP), and financial aid packaging methodologies
  • Experience with federal and state financial aid systems (e.g., COD, NSLDS, FAFSA, state grant/scholarship portals)
  • Industry experience in Higher Education
  • Strong client-facing communication, presentation, and consulting skills, with the ability to translate complex regulatory requirements into system configuration

  • Relationship Management: Proven ability to build trusted, long-term relationships with Financial Aid and other cross-functional stakeholders in higher education and/or nonprofit environments, including navigating complex governance structures
  • Task Management: Ability to manage multiple customers in parallel, estimate effort accurately, surface risks early, and coordinate with Engagement Managers and project teams to keep scope, schedule, and quality on track.
  • Ability to travel up to 50% based on client and project needs, particularly for key implementation milestones such as design sessions and major testing events

Encouragement to Apply

If you're excited about this role but your experience doesn't align perfectly with every qualification, we encourage you to apply. We're especially interested in people who bring strong judgment, learning agility, and a collaborative approach to solving complex customer problems.

Posting End Date

Applications are accepted for this position on an ongoing basis through 10/31/26.

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.GA.Atlanta

Additional US Location(s) Base Pay Range: $111,000 USD - $197,300 USD

Additional Considerations:

The application deadline for this role is the same as the posting end date stated as below:

10/31/2026

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.

About Workday

Workday, Inc. is a provider of enterprise cloud applications for finance and human resources. The Company delivers financial management, human capital management and analytics applications designed for various companies, educational institutions and government agencies. As part of its applications, the Company provides embedded analytics that capture the content and context of everyday business events, facilitating informed decision-making from wherever users are working. Its applications include Workday Financial Management, Workday Human Capital Management (HCM) and Other Applications. It also provides open, standards-based Web-services application programming interfaces, and pre-built packaged integrations and connectors. Workday, Inc. is headquartered in Pleasanton, California.
Learn more about Workday
Size
15,932 employees
Market Cap
$42.2 billion
Industry
Net Income
-$282.4 million
Founded
2005
5 Year Trend
+26.7%
Revenue
$4.3 billion
NASDAQ

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