At The Obama Foundation, our mission is to inspire, empower, and connect people to change their world. We seek to build an active democratic culture where people are equipped and motivated to make change in the communities where they live, work, and play. Right here on the South Side of Chicago, we’re building a home for this vision, a global center for change with a range of opportunities - coordinated programming, community outreach events, educational moments, and more - that invite visitors from down the block or across the globe to turn hope into action.
Achieving our ambitious goals starts with an exceptional team built on our Hope to Action Values - Courage, Empathy, Integrity, Accountability, Community, Inclusivity, Pragmatism, Resilience, Imagination, and Hope. A Framework that anyone, anywhere, can use to build trust, activate participation, and expand opportunity in their community.
Purpose of the Role
As the Lead Workday Product Owner, you will serve as the strategic bridge between the business teams and our Workday platform. Rather than serving solely as the primary technical builder, you will be the strategic partner to the People Team, Finance, Operations, and IT, ensuring the system aligns with organizational goals. You will own the strategic Workday roadmap, manage sprint priorities, lead stakeholder discussions, and direct both internal Workday resources and our external AMS partners to execute configurations and complex builds.
Core Job Responsibilities
- Strategic Partnership & Stakeholder Management: Lead regular discussions with leaders across the People Team, Finance, Payroll, and Operations to gather business requirements, translate them into technical objectives, and ensure cross-functional alignment.
- Roadmap & Backlog Management: Create and own the Workday strategic roadmap. Utilize Agile methodologies to manage the system backlog, plan sprints, and prioritize feature rollouts and fixes based on business value and current pain points.
- Resource Triaging & Technical Oversight: Direct internal Workday administrators and external AMS partners. Evaluate business requests and effectively triage work to determine what should be configured personally, assigned to the internal engineer, or outsourced to the AMS partner.
- Project Scoping & Vendor Management: Scope and manage external deliverables, including drafting and reviewing Statements of Work (SOWs) for well-defined, large-scale projects handled by AMS partners.
- Governance & Accountability: Define, implement, and maintain a clear RACI (Responsible, Accountable, Consulted, Informed) matrix across all Workday modules to establish strict ownership of data inputs, process flows, and system updates.
- Change Management & Adoption: Ensure business partners and end-users are prepared for bi-annual Workday releases and internal feature rollouts through clear communication and user acceptance testing (UAT) coordination.
- Training & Enablement: Develop and execute comprehensive training programs and documentation to ensure organizational readiness and support the successful adoption of new Workday features and releases.
Key Deliverables / Outcomes
- A transparent, prioritized Workday roadmap and Agile sprint cycle that consistently delivers high-value enhancements to Finance, HR, and Operations.
- Efficient resource allocation, successfully triaging tasks between yourself, the internal resources, and AMS partners to maximize efficiency and ROI.
- Clearly defined SOWs and robust vendor management that results in rapid issue resolution and compliant configurations for our diverse workforce (full-time, hourly, and unionized).
- A well-defined and widely adopted RACI matrix that eliminates ambiguity regarding system governance and data ownership.
Required Qualifications
- 5+ years of progressive experience in Workday product management, with a strong emphasis on strategic roadmap development, business analysis, and stakeholder alignment.
- Preferred: Current Workday Pro Platform Certification
- Experience operating within an Agile/Scrum environment; proven ability to manage a product backlog, run sprint planning, and prioritize technical deliverables.
- Strong functional proficiency across core Workday modules (HCM, Payroll, Time Tracking, Absence, Projects, Adaptive) and Custom Reporting, with demonstrated capability to execute hands-on technical configurations while guiding teams on complex implementations.
- Experience directing technical resources (internal engineers and external AMS partners) and evaluating when to build in-house versus outsource.
- Experience scoping technical requirements and drafting Statements of Work (SOWs) for well-defined Workday projects.
- Exceptional communicator, verbal and written; track record of facilitating discussions, negotiating priorities, and driving consensus among cross-functional teams.
The salary range for this role is between $101,840 and $127,344.
This is a hybrid role based at the Obama Presidential Center in Jackson Park, Chicago.
For an overview of our benefits package, including insurance, paid time off, retirement & more, please visit https://www.obama.org/careers/.
Don’t check off every box in the requirements listed above? Please apply anyway! If you’re excited about this role but your past experience doesn’t align perfectly with every qualification in the job description, we encourage you to still consider submitting an application. You may be just the right candidate for this role or another one of our openings!
Equal Opportunity Employer
The Foundation is committed to creating a diverse work environment and is proud to be an equal opportunity employer. The Foundation does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, national origin, sex, gender identity, religion, sexual orientation, age, disability, parental status, veteran status, or any other protected status under applicable laws. We encourage individuals of all backgrounds to apply. If you are a qualified candidate with a disability, please e-mail us at careers@obama.org if you require a reasonable accommodation to complete this application.
