Workday Principal Business Analyst

Job Title

Principal Business Systems Analyst

GIA (Gemological Institute of America)

Carlsbad, CA or New York, NY – flexible hybrid arrangement, typically 3 days per week in office.

As a member of the Workday Global Business System team, the Principal Business Systems Analyst will liaise with IT, Finance, and Human Resources to endorse new technology, foster organizational readiness, optimize Workday ERP efficiency, enable continuous process improvement, drive cost reduction, and facilitate organizational growth. The role includes providing technical guidance, overseeing translation of business needs into system solutions, and coaching and mentoring staff.

• Plan and direct the analysis of business problems to be solved with IT solutions.
• Work with the business to determine core issues that need solving and identify opportunities for improvement.
• Develop business cases that align benefits with strategic and tactical objectives.
• Capture functional business requirements by gathering, analyzing, and documenting requirements.
• Ensure system design fits user needs.
• Design, develop, configure, test, maintain, and support system solutions.
• Ensure required outcomes are built, tested, and delivered.
• Identify opportunities for improvement, simplification, standardization, and automation using a strong understanding of processes and technology.
• Assist in developing and maintaining a roadmap for business technology solutions.
• Manage projects/initiatives to ensure delivery of high‑quality solutions on time and within budget.
• Coach and guide staff in business requirements gathering and develop best practices.
• May direct the work of staff.
• Safeguard system access and security and support system audits.
• Partner with business leaders to align objectives and programs.
• Become familiar with GIA’s internal tools and unique development environment to provide superior custom application solutions.
• Drive stability and scalability within the operational support team.
• Provide guidance on best practices for data extraction and analysis.
• Collaborate with others to contribute to the success of our customers.
• Perform other duties as assigned.

• Bachelor’s degree in Information Technology, Computer Science, or related field.
• 6+ years of experience working with Workday.
• Workday Integration Certification preferred.
• Workday Studio Certification preferred.

• Proficiency with Workday SaaS architecture, design, configuration, and testing.
• Experience in Organizational Structure, Business Process Configuration, Domain and Business Process Security Policies.
• Knowledge of Reporting (Simple, Advanced, Matrix, Composite) and Calculated Fields.
• Experience with Workday Studio, Workday Web Service Framework, Core Connector, Document Transformation.
• Experience with Workday Enterprise Interface Builder (EIB) and Workday Business Intelligence Reporting Tool (BIRT).
• Familiarity with XML, XPATH, XSLT.
• Experience with Workday administrative functions such as tenant configuration, data loads, payroll configurations, and maintenance.
• Ability to define business requirements, map current vs. future processes, and create functional and technical specifications.
• Experience with capacity planning, timelines, test scenarios for upgrade cycles, and implementation phases.
• Ability to communicate changes and enhancements to impacted users.
• Experience coordinating systematic testing and delivering end‑user training.
• Skill in designing dashboards, scorecards, and reports to evaluate workforce efficiency.
• Collaboration with global stakeholders to adopt new functionality.
• Identify business process improvement and standardization opportunities for cost reduction.
• Analyze incidents/requests, document issues, and ensure timely resolution.
• Maintain constructive stakeholder relationships with executive, HR, IT, etc.
• Manage multiple competing demands and work cooperatively with others.
• Experience in HR, IT, and Finance communications and meetings.

• Flexibility, supporting a global enterprise including non‑standard hours.
• Acuity for organizational change practices and behavior.
• Comfortable with ambiguity and…