Senior Director of People Business Partner, Workday
Product
$263.7-395.5k
Office located in Pleasanton, CA
Enterprise AI platform for managing HR and finance
Open for applications
Enterprise AI platform for managing HR and finance
1001+ employees
Open for applications
$263.7-395.5k
Office located in Pleasanton, CA
1001+ employees
Company mission
To leverage the power of AI to elevate humans and supercharge work, moving business forever forward.
Role
Who you are
- You are not just a manager, but a strategic thought leader with a deep, practical understanding of modern HR best practices and an authentic passion for developing, empowering, and maximizing the potential of both your team and the leaders you support
- Exceptional Leadership & Influence: You possess superior leadership and communication skills, with a demonstrable ability to influence and build strong, trusted relationships across all levels, particularly with executive leadership teams
- Results Orientation: You are fiercely results-oriented and excel in fast-moving, high-stakes environments where priorities can shift, yet strategic focus remains paramount
- Champion of Culture and Values: You are an unwavering champion for diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI), and are personally committed to fostering a workplace where every employee feels valued, respected, and empowered to contribute their best work
- Strategic Vision Translator: You share a conviction that HR is an indispensable strategic business function and possess the practical ability to translate this vision into a concrete, executable plan that drives measurable business outcomes
- 12+ years of progressive, demonstrable experience in a strategic HR role, with a proven ability to materially enhance business performance through the design and execution of impactful People Strategies
- Proven track record of supporting Product leadership at the executive level, driving culture, performance, and talent management within a product-led organization
- 4+ years of experience successfully managing people, coaching, and leading high-performing business partner teams in a global, matrixed organization
- Resilience and Clarity: Proven ability to thrive in ambiguity, possessing a motivated drive to create clarity, alignment, and actionable direction for the team and the business
- Communication Excellence: Exceptional communication skills, both written and verbal, with a facility for breaking down complex organizational concepts for all audience levels and delivering informed, educated, and engaging presentations with executive confidence
- Executive Trust and Influence: A track record of easily building trusted relationships and possessing the sophisticated ability to influence senior leaders—knowing precisely when to courageously challenge the status quo and when to decisively disagree and commit to the final path forward
- Data-Informed Strategy: A clear track record of using quantitative data and qualitative insights from both internal HR systems and external market sources to inform, shape, and validate opinions and strategic recommendations
- Team Development: Proven experience coaching, mentoring, and leading high-performing, geographically dispersed teams
- Bias for Action: Possesses a fundamental bias for action; this team creates tangible results and strategically leans in where Workday needs the highest impact
- Organizational Acuity: Highly organized with the critical ability to ruthlessly prioritize work based on business impact and strategic importance
- Adaptability and Learning: Demonstrated ability to handle adversity, apply critical learnings quickly, and maintain strategic composure under pressure
- Connector Mindset: A strong desire to continuously learn, grow, and operate as an essential connector across the business, seamlessly integrating and leveraging HR Centers of Excellence (COEs) when needed for specialized support
- Investigative & Analytical Prowess: Strong investigative, analytical, and sophisticated interpersonal communication skills, with the ability to work effectively both independently and as a highly collaborative team member
What the job involves
- This is a marquee leadership opportunity to guide and mentor a team of PBPs dedicated to supporting the Product organization, a function central to Workday's continued success and innovation leadership
- We are seeking a highly accomplished Senior Director who not only operates comfortably but thrives in a relentlessly fast-paced, outcome-focused environment, demonstrating a strong, consistent bias for action
- The ideal candidate is deeply business-oriented and possesses the proven ability to lead, develop, and inspire a high-performing PBP team with both speed and uncompromising quality
- This role requires the essential equilibrium between profound strategic thinking and flawless execution—recognizing that value is only created through ideas that can be successfully delivered and operationalized
- The Senior Director of HRBP for Product is a pivotal, hands-on leadership role with the following core responsibilities:
- Executive Team Leadership and Partnership:
- Leads, coaches, and develops a team of high-performing People Business Partners who strategically support senior and executive leaders across the entire Product organization
- Consultative & Strategic Partnership:
- Proactively cultivates robust, high-trust relationships with executive stakeholders
- Facilitates thoughtful, data-informed dialogue and leverages a strategic mindset to advise on the full spectrum of People & Talent matters, including organizational design, change management, and leadership effectiveness
- Data-Driven Problem Solving and Solution Implementation:
- Identifies the root causes of complex organizational challenges, leveraging internal and external data, insights, and predictive analytics
- Develops comprehensive, evidence-based solutions and drives their successful implementation in close collaboration with the integrated ecosystem of HR Centers of Excellence (COEs), including Compensation, Benefits, Talent Acquisition, and Learning & Development
- Executive Coaching and Talent Strategy Custodian:
- Serves as a hands-on executive coach, providing confidential counsel and development guidance to top-tier leaders
- Spearheads critical Talent Management initiatives across the Global Product and Technology function, including rigorous Workforce Planning, robust Succession Planning, and targeted Leadership Development programs designed to build the pipeline for tomorrow's executive roles
- Business Acumen and Cultural Stewardship:
- Thinks and acts like a business leader, possessing a deep and current understanding of the Workday’s business model, key performance indicators (KPIs), and market challenges
- Applies this business knowledge with a profound understanding of HR fundamentals and consistently embodies and champions Workday’s distinct culture and core values
Our take
Workday is a cloud-based software vendor that provides management of workforces and finances. The company uses a single database for workforce management and financial management to offer integration and optimize business intelligence across companies. It has added to the packages and tools it offers over the years, providing analytic options that allow companies to combine third-party data with information collected by Workday.
The company has also grown through acquisitions and partnerships to broaden its capabilities.. Most recently, in 2025 it purchases Sana, an AI-driven enterprise knowledge and learning platform, to create a "new front door for work". This acquisition allows Workday to integrate Sana's AI-powered search, agents, and learning capabilities with its own data and workflows, allowing employees to access information, automate tasks, and complete their day entirely within Workday.
Through a combination of strategic acquisitions and in-house development, WOrkday has built a comprehensive suite of HR, financial, and enterprise tools. By focusing on innovation and AI-driven workflows, the company continues to push productivity and decision-making for organizations worldwide. Building on this track record, Workday is very much positioned for even more growth, reinforcing its status as a leader in shaping the future of work.
Kirsty
Company Specialist at Welcome to the Jungle
Insights
16% employee growth in 12 months
Company
Funding (last 2 of 5 rounds)
Oct 2011
$85m
SERIES F
Apr 2009
$75m
SERIES E
Total funding: $215.3m
Company HQ
Pleasanton, CA
Leadership
Aneel Bhusri
(Co-Founder & Executive Chair)Annel began his career at Morgan Stanley as a Corporate Finance Analyst. He then spent nearly 6 years at PeopleSoft as a Senior VP before co-founding Workday in 2005, where he has served as the CEO ever since.
Carl Eschenbach
(CEO)Carl joined Workday in 2022 as Co-CEO, becoming CEO in 2024. He has also been a Partner at Sequoia Capital since 2016. Previously, he spent 14 years at VMware as President and COO and 3 years at Inktomi Corporation as the VP of North America Sales.
Peter Bailis
(CTO)Prior to joining Workday in 2025, People was a VP of Engineering at Google. He also previously founded Sisu Data, where he served as the CEO for over 5 years.
Salary benchmarks
We don't have enough data yet to provide salary benchmarks for this role.
Submit your salary to help other candidates with crowdsourced salary estimates.
Share this job
View 111 more jobs at Workday