The Workday Financial Systems Manager owns the strategic vision, roadmap, and value realization of the Workday Financials (FINs) platform. This role blends product ownership, project management, and stakeholder engagement to guide Workday-related investments and drive business outcomes across finance operations. The Manager builds and maintains the Workday roadmap, leads company- and system-driven projects, develops a collaborative user-group structure to surface and prioritize ideas, and briefs the FINs Steering Committee (Controllers and CFO-level leadership) to drive decisions.
JOB RESPONSIBILITIES:Product Ownership:- Own and communicate the Workday roadmap and vision. Track Workday's release calendar and evaluate new SKUs/agents as they are released.
- Develop relationships with individuals across the business segments to understand gaps in the current environment, and assess whether SKUs not yet purchased would benefit Nelnet.
- Partner with teams outside the Workday environment to understand existing integrations and how changes to the Workday environment could impact them.
- Build a strategic roadmap based on identified needs and system usage; present the roadmap for approval by the FINs Steering Committee.
- Continuously improve finance processes and maintain and enhance the FINs technology landscape.
Project Management:- Lead large, complex projects - both roadmap-driven Workday initiatives and company-driven projects that impact Workday.
- Establish and monitor project plans, including identifying responsible individuals for each area of a project.
- Build technical accounting knowledge to help inform Workday conclusions.
- Track progress, report key metrics, and run effective meetings and sprint planning.
Stakeholder Engagement & Change Management:- Build the Workday user group into a structured, collaborative forum (or forums) that can surface new projects and help shape roadmap priorities, creating a steady pipeline of prioritized ideas.
- Build trust with finance teams; translate stakeholder needs into requirements and user stories.
- Drive user enablement and feature adoption; support training and rollout of new capabilities.
Governance & Collaboration:- Brief the FINs Steering Committee (Controllers and CFO-level leadership): present the proposed roadmap, discuss benefits and recommended prioritization order, and incorporate available capacity based on the impact of large projects.
- Drive the Steering Committee to decisions on roadmap and project priorities.
- Represent FINs in governance forums and executive meetings.
- Collaborate with developers, integration teams, and other platform owners; work with global process owners to improve service delivery.
EDUCATION:4-year degree in accounting, finance, or information systems management, or equivalent experience.
EXPERIENCE:- 5+ years of progressive experience in Finance, Accounting, or Financial Systems roles.
- Hands-on experience with Workday Financials preferred; deep configuration expertise is not required and will be developed in the role.
- Experience coordinating or leading projects; formal Agile or product-ownership experience is preferred.
COMPETENCIES:- Business-Savvy & Strategic: Understands financial processes and prioritizes initiatives that deliver business value; growing into full ownership of roadmap trade-offs.
- Emerging People Leader: Leads and motivates others; developing the skills to manage team members' work product and support their professional development.
- Decisive & Accountable: Makes decisions and manages competing priorities, even amid ambiguity; takes ownership of outcomes and contributes to companywide initiatives.
- Confident Communicator: Drives meetings and clearly delivers key messages to audiences ranging from peers to Controllers and CFO-level leadership.
- Collaborative & Adaptable: Works well with cross-functional and cross-segment teams and adapts to Nelnet's evolving business.
- Curious & Improvement-Minded: Brings genuine curiosity about Workday's technology and capabilities, and a drive to identify process improvements and efficiencies.
QUALIFICATIONS:- Familiarity with Workday Financials modules (Financial Accounting, Procurement, Expenses, Reporting & Analytics, Prism, Adaptive); deeper hands-on expertise is expected to build over time in this role.
- Experience coordinating or leading projects; formal project-management certification not required.
- Developing product-ownership and Agile knowledge.
- Background in accounting or finance; working knowledge of GAAP, financial reporting, and internal controls.
- Strong communication and change-management skills; comfortable presenting to and engaging leadership.
- Experience supporting multiple concurrent initiatives within a complex organization.
Our benefits package includes medical, dental, vision, HSA and FSA, generous earned time off, 401K/student loan repayment, life insurance & AD&D insurance, employee assistance program, employee stock purchase program, tuition reimbursement, performance-based incentive pay, short- and long-term disability, and a robust wellness program. Click here to learn more about our benefits: Benefits & Perks - Nelnet Inc.
