Workday Payroll Product Owner

Enterprise Systems is the backbone of GSK’s internal operations in Digital & Tech, enabling GSK Global Functions teams such as Finance, Procurement, HR, Legal, Compliance, WREF, CGA and Corporate Secretariat to run seamlessly. This team designs and delivers cutting-edge digital platforms that power critical processes, ensuring efficiency, compliance, and scalability across the enterprise.     

Our HR Digital & Tech team transforms how GSK attracts, develops, and retains talent through innovative technology solutions. From managing global HR platforms to delivering data-driven insights, this function ensures our people have the tools and experiences they need to thrive. Partnering closely with HR business teams, we create solutions that simplify processes, enhance employee engagement, and enable strategic workforce planning. If you’re passionate about technology that empowers people, this is where you can make an impact. 

The Workday Payroll Product Owner (UK, US & Canada) provides strategic product leadership for Workday Payroll, maximising business value by shaping product direction, prioritising investment, and leading delivery across the full product lifecycle within the strategic and financial guardrails set by the HR Technology SLT. 

The role partners with senior business stakeholders, Associate Product Owners, and delivery teams to translate enterprise priorities into clear product outcomes, ensuring solutions are secure, compliant, scalable, and aligned to business performance, adoption, and operational readiness objectives. 

As the functional and technical SME for Workday Payroll across the UK, US, and Canada, the role owns product design, configuration strategy, and continuous optimisation, combining deep payroll expertise with hands-on Workday capability to enable compliant, resilient, and effective payroll operations.

 

In this role you will

• Partner with business stakeholders to understand functional needs, refine requirements, and define product outcomes that support business priorities, within guardrails set by the HR Technology SLT 

• Lead innovation across the Payroll Product team by identifying opportunities to simplify, optimise, and automate processes through AI agentic solutions, improving ways of working for payroll and technical teams. 

• Own and manage the Product backlog (e.g. Jira, ADO), ensuring requirements (e.g., epics, features, user stories) are well-defined and supported by minimum data inputs (e.g., cost drivers, user volumes, risk/sensitivity, process impact, dependencies). 

• Make prioritisation decisions for the Product backlog based on value, cost, risk, business continuity, and resource capacity, escalating only where strategic trade-offs are required by the HR Technology SLT. 

• Lead the Payroll Product team’s delivery activities, guiding Associate Product Owners and working with Engineers, Architects, and Testers to ensure solutions are fit-for-purpose, secure, compliant, supportable, and aligned to architectural standards. 

• Drive operational readiness by applying a delivery readiness checklist covering support model requirements, training needs, continuity planning, configuration/runbook documentation, release notes, and user onboarding. 

• Define and maintain the Product performance dashboard, tracking adoption, cycle time/throughput, stability/defects, UX signals (e.g., CSAT, SUS, completion rates), and support effort; use performance insights to drive continuous improvement. 

• Ensure product changes follow required security controls, risk assessments, data handling policies, and regulated change processes, obtaining approvals from relevant SMEs where required. 

• Support Solution Architects to assess design options and manage cross-Product dependencies, contract/interface impacts, and sequencing needs to support interoperability and consistent business outcomes. 

• Act as an escalation point for the HR Workday Payroll Product team and business users on functional product issues, guiding decisions within agreed financial, risk, and architectural guardrails. 

• Contribute to the improvement of delivery practices within the Product, promoting agile (SaFe, Scrum, etc.), iterative, value-driven, and data-led ways of working, including meaningful measurement of benefits and operational impact.

Why you?

Basic Qualifications:

We are looking for professionals with these required skills to achieve our goals:

• Experience working in product delivery, digital solutions, business systems, or process-led technology roles, with significant hands-on Workday Payroll configuration experience, including at least one full implementation or major re-configuration project.   

• Ability to work independently, manage multiple tasks, and meet deadlines in a fast-paced environment. 

• Excellent communication skills, both verbal and written, with the ability to clearly articulate complex messages and requirements.   

• Proven experience defining and prioritising functional requirements (e.g., epics, features, user stories) and managing a product backlog.   

• Experience working directly with business stakeholders to translate needs into feasible, value-led technology changes.   

• Demonstrated ability to make prioritisation decisions based on business value, process impact, risk, cost, and technology constraints.   

• Experience leading delivery teams or analysts through the product lifecycle, from refinement and design through testing, release, and adoption; experience with Workday release testing and regression cycles.   

Preferred Qualifications:

If you have the following characteristics, it would be a plus:

• Familiarity with enterprise governance requirements such as change control, security, data protection, and regulatory/compliance considerations. 

• Exposure to continuous improvement approaches (e.g., automation, process simplification, user-centred enhancements) that uplift product adoption, stability, or user experience. 

• Experience working within agile delivery environments and using iterative planning, delivery, and release practices. 

Closing Date for Applications: Tuesday 11th August 2026 (COB)

Please take a copy of the Job Description, as this will not be available post closure of the advert. 
When applying for this role, please use the ‘cover letter’ of the online application or your CV to describe how you meet the competencies for this role, as outlined in the job requirements above. The information that you have provided in your cover letter and CV will be used to assess your application.

During the course of your application, you will be requested to complete voluntary information which will be used in monitoring the effectiveness of our equality and diversity policies. Your information will be treated as confidential and will not be used in any part of the selection process.  If you require a reasonable adjustment to the application / selection process to enable you to demonstrate your ability to perform the job requirements, please contact 0808 234 4391. This will help us to understand any modifications we may need to make to support you throughout our selection process.

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Skills

Business Requirements Analysis, Business Strategies, Information Technology Strategies, Infrastructure Design, Project Implementations, Solution Architecture, Solutions Development, Solutions Management, Stakeholder Management

 

 

Why GSK?

Uniting science, technology and talent to get ahead of disease together.

GSK is a global biopharma company with a purpose to unite science, technology and talent to get ahead of disease together. We aim to positively impact the health of 2.5 billion people by the end of the decade, as a successful, growing company where people can thrive.

We get ahead of disease by preventing and treating it with innovation in specialty medicines and vaccines. We focus on four therapeutic areas: respiratory, immunology and inflammation; oncology; HIV; and infectious diseases – to impact health at scale.

People and patients around the world count on the medicines and vaccines we make, so we’re committed to creating an environment where our people can thrive and focus on what matters most. Our culture of being ambitious for patients, accountable for impact and doing the right thing is the foundation for how, together, we deliver for patients, shareholders and our people.

GSK is an Equal Opportunity Employer. This ensures that all qualified applicants will receive equal consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex (including pregnancy, gender identity, and sexual orientation), parental status, national origin, age, disability, genetic information (including family medical history), military service or any basis prohibited under federal, state or local law.

We believe in an agile working culture for all our roles. If flexibility is important to you, we encourage you to explore with our hiring team what the opportunities are.

Should you require any adjustments to our process to assist you in demonstrating your strengths and capabilities contact us at [email protected] where you can also request a call.

Please note should your enquiry not relate to adjustments, we will not be able to support you through these channels. However, we have created a Recruitment FAQ guide. Click the Link where you will find answers to multiple questions we receive

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