When you join Sunrise Senior Living, you will be able to use your unique skills to empower residents to live longer, healthier, and happier lives. Not only will you build meaningful relationships with residents, their families, and team members alike, you will also gain joy in serving others and deep fulfillment in your work. Explore how you can follow your passions and shed light on meaningful ways to serve, grow, and shine together.
Sunrise Senior Living was again certified as a Great Place to Work® by Activated Insights. This is the 8th time Sunrise has received this top culture and workplace designation, highlighting the special place Sunrise is to be a part of.
COMMUNITY NAME Community Support Office Job ID 2025-236489 JOB OVERVIEWThe Workday Engineer serves as a technical expert for Payroll (U.S. and CA), Absence and Time Tracking. The role is responsible for designing, configuring and optimizing the Workday platform while ensuring payroll accuracy, compliance and efficient workforce processes. The position partners with Human Resources (HR), Payroll, Finance, Operations and Information Technology (IT) to translate requirements into scalable Workday solutions.
RESPONSIBILITIES & QUALIFICATIONSEssential Duties
As a part of the Sunrise team, supporting our Mission, Principles of Service and Core Values is a fundamental part of this job. Our foundational belief is the sacred value of human life. The unique responsibilities for this role include but are not limited to the essential functions listed as follows:
Workday Payroll US and Canada
Configure and support Payroll, including earnings, deductions, pay component related calculations, taxes, balances and payroll processing rules.
Manage pay groups, period schedules, run categories, payroll calculations, retro processing, wage attachments, audits and payroll result validation.
Act as subject matter expert (SME) and escalation point for payroll issues, compliance, and production troubleshooting.
Manage quarterly/year-end activities and tax configuration reviews.
Time Tracking and Absence
Configure Time Tracking: time entry codes, time calculations, schedules, meal/rest rules, validations and overtime/compliance rules.
Configure Absence: plans, accruals, time off, eligibility, carryover rules and balance calculations.
Ensure policies comply with organizational, state/provincial and federal regulations (e.g., FMLA, sick leave, overtime).
Troubleshoot issues related to time entry, accruals, balances and schedules.
Business Processes and Operations
Design and maintain Payroll, Absence and Time Tracking business processes with routing, conditions, validations and security.
Build and maintain data quality audits, exception handling workflows and operational monitoring.
Provide functional operations support for payroll runs, retro events, schedule changes and time/absence processing cycles.
Integrations and Data Loads
Build and maintain inbound/outbound Enterprise Interface Builder (EIBs) for mass updates (time corrections, retro loads, balance loads and job changes).
Partner with integration developers on Studio, Cloud Connect and vendor interfaces (tax agencies, benefit providers, payroll vendors and time devices).
Troubleshoot integration errors impacting payroll, time or absence.
Cross-Functional Design and Collaboration
Gather requirements with Payroll, HR, Benefits, Finance and IT and convert them into scalable Workday configurations.
Recommend best practices to improve compliance, minimize risk and streamline processes.
Participate in design reviews, regression assessments and configuration governance.
Testing, Documentation and Release Management
Lead testing activities: scenario creation, execution support and User Acceptance Testing (UAT) coordination.
Analyze Workday release notes; identify relevant changes for Payroll, Absence and Time Tracking and propose adoption.
Document configuration decisions, workflows, year-end processes, payroll calendars and operational procedures.
Training and Enablement
Provide knowledge transfer to Payroll, HR and Operations teams.
Develop job aids, runbooks, troubleshooting guides and self-service documentation.
Maintain compliance in assigned required training and all training required by state/province or other regulating authorities as applicable to this role to ensure that Sunrise standards are always met.
Perform other duties as assigned.
Core Competencies
Deep expertise in Workday configuration across Human Capital Management (HCM), Payroll, Talent and Compensation, with strong understanding of cross-module dependencies and downstream impacts
Proven experience configuring Workday Business Process Framework, including condition rules, validations, approvals, notifications and security-driven workflow design
Strong capability in calculated fields, custom reports and dashboards to support eligibility rules, analytics and operational reporting
Hands-on experience managing tenant configuration and governance, including tenant setup, feature enablement, release readiness and sandbox-to-production migration
Effective communicator and stakeholder partner, translating business requirements into scalable, Workday-native configuration solutions
Experience and Qualifications
To perform this job successfully, an individual must be able to perform each essential duty satisfactorily. The requirements listed throughout this job description are representative of the knowledge, skills, and abilities required.
Required Qualifications
Bachelor’s degree in Information Systems, Business Administration or related field
5+ years Workday configuration experience, including 3+ years with Workday Payroll, Absence and Time Tracking
Hands-on expertise in:
Payroll configuration and processing
Time calculation rules
Absence plans and accruals
Strong troubleshooting skills across payroll results, retro calculations, time entry issues and absence balances
Broad understanding of Workday business processes, eligibility rules, security and integrations
Strong analytical and communication skills with the ability to convert requirements into technical solutions
Preferred Qualifications
Workday Pro or Partner Certification in Payroll, Absence or Time Tracking
Experience with Workday Studio, Cloud Connect or Workday Extend
Experience with Agile delivery and sprint-based work
Ability to build dashboards, audits and custom reports for payroll/time/absence compliance and operations
Experience with multi-jurisdictional payroll or union-specific rules
ABOUT SUNRISEReady to take the next step and make a bigger impact than you ever imagined? As part of our team, you will help brighten the future for everyone at Sunrise and beyond. That is why we make it a priority to celebrate the unique ways you bring moments of togetherness and joy to everyone you serve. And when combined with the support, benefits, and growth opportunities we offer, the result is a career that PositivelyShines with everything you need to reach your goals – at work and in your life.
We also offer benefits and other compensation that include:
Medical, Dental, Vision, Life, and Disability PlansRetirement Savings PlansEmployee Assistant Program / Discount ProgramPaid time off (PTO), sick time, and holiday paymyFlexPay offered to get paid within hours of a shift Tuition ReimbursementIn addition to base compensation, Sunrise may offer discretionary and/or non-discretionary bonuses. The eligibility to receive such a bonus will depend on the employee’s position, plan/program offered by Sunrise at the time, and required performance pursuant to the plan/program.Some benefits have eligibility requirementsApply today to learn why Sunrise Senior Living is a certified Great Place to Work®
PRE-EMPLOYMENT REQUIREMENTSSunrise considers the health and safety of its residents, family members, and team members to be one of its highest priorities. Employment with Sunrise is conditioned on completing and passing a drug test (which does not include marijuana), participating in testing requirements (e.g. Tuberculosis Test, Physical Evaluation). Covid-19 and Influenza vaccination is only required to the extent mandated by applicable federal, state, and local laws and authorities.
COMPENSATION DISCLAIMERSelected candidates will be offered competitive compensation based on geographic location of community/office, skills, experience, qualifications, and certifications/licenses (where applicable).
SEARCH FIRM REPRESENTATIVES PLEASE READ CAREFULLY:
Sunrise Senior Living is not seeking assistance or accepting unsolicited resumes from search firms for this employment opportunity. Regardless of past practice, all resumes submitted by search firms to Sunrise Senior Living by any means, be it via email, the Internet or directly to hiring managers at Sunrise Senior Living in any form without a valid written search agreement in place for that position will be deemed the property of Sunrise Senior Living, and no fee will be paid in the event a candidate is hired by Sunrise Senior Living as a result of such unsolicited referral or through any other means.