Sr. IT Business Analyst (Human Resources

At Caribou Coffee we create day-making experiences that spark a chain reaction of GOOD! This is our purpose. Our team brings this to life by focusing on what’s really important around here – TEAM, GUEST, BUSINESS! It’s that simple. If you’re ready to work somewhere you can be yourself while making an impact on your community, creating life-long relationships, and serving the best coffee around, join our herd!

The Sr. IT Business Analyst – Human Resources is a Workday specialist who sits within Information Technology, reports to the Sr. Manager, IT Applications, and serves as the key liaison between HR, IT, and external vendors. This role owns the configuration, delivery, and ongoing technical support of Workday and the HR platforms that surround it, translating HR business needs into scalable, well-tested system solutions and communicating with business users in clear, non-technical language.

The Sr. Analyst leads project-based Workday work, including business process design, configuration, integrations support, testing, and release management, and partners with HR on annual cycles such as performance, merit, and open enrollment. The role supports the technology across the full employee lifecycle, keeping data and process flowing cleanly across handoffs. The Analyst partners with the Payroll Analyst on the Payroll module and with IT peers on integrations, security, and access, and participates in Workday governance to keep priorities aligned across HR, Payroll, IT and business leaders.

• Product Ownership Serve as the primary point of technical accountability for Workday and closely related HR platforms (e.g., applicant tracking, learning, time and attendance, benefits, and recognition and engagement tools), ensuring configuration and delivery align with business objectives and delivering maximum value to stakeholders.
• Partner with HR, Payroll, and IT leadership to shape and execute the Workday roadmap and backlog, prioritizing features, enhancements, and defect resolution based on business impact, technical feasibility, and strategic goals.
• Lead business process design and release management; coordinate governance, change management, documentation, testing, and communication for Workday configuration updates and releases.
• Represent the voice of the customer in solution design, facilitating cross-functional discussions to clarify requirements, manage trade-offs, and build consensus on product direction.
• Monitor product performance and stability, balance scope, timeline, and cost trade-offs, and communicate progress and key decisions to stakeholders at all levels.

• Lead project-based analysis activities associated with process definition and design, performance management, and business operations optimization to support company objectives.
• Maintain deep functional expertise in Workday and its associated business processes, working with business users, IT management, and other stakeholders to determine business objectives, feasibility and cost-benefit analysis of project requests.
• Identify issues and risks and provide strategic alternative courses of action to achieve business and organizational goals and objectives within project scope.
• Mentor junior team members on requirements gathering and analysis best practices.

• Configure and support annual HR processes within Workday — such as performance reviews, merit and bonus cycles, and benefits open enrollment — ensuring accuracy, efficiency, and a seamless user experience.
• Determine configuration and custom development needs and communicate technical concepts to the users in clear, non-technical language.
• Influence solution design decisions and recommend approaches that balance business needs, technical feasibility, and scalability.
• Develop test plans and detailed test scripts; coordinate user acceptance testing and validate results with users to confirm solutions meet business requirements.
• Deliver end user training and procedural documentation, and support ad hoc information and reporting needs.
• Document and transition solution…