Join Cognizant's Workday Student Practice in Australia and New Zealand and help universities transform how they manage the student journey, from first enquiry through to completion. As a Senior Principal Consultant, you'll lead design and configuration across Student Records, including academic structure, enrolment, progression, completion and government reporting, and extend that expertise into Recruiting and Admissions, including prospect management, applications, Tertiary Admissions Centre processes and offers. You'll guide institutions on how Workday Student can best meet their needs and support their strategic goals, lead workstreams and mentor other consultants. This is a real opportunity to grow your career while helping shape how the sector operates.
This role suits a senior practitioner with a background in student records, student administration, admissions or student systems who wants to turn their knowledge of student lifecycle regulations and processes, and their commitment to supporting students, into a consulting career. You'll bring higher education and regulatory expertise to every engagement, working closely with student administration, admissions, future students, international and technology teams. You'll be equally comfortable in functional design sessions and integration discussions, making sure your designs align with Student Financials, Academic Advising, external systems and other areas of the Workday platform.
Key Responsibilities
- Lead discovery and design sessions for academic structure, student records, enrolment, unit and course changes, progression, leave of absence, withdrawal, completion and graduation.
- Lead Admissions design across Tertiary Admissions Centre (TAC) and direct entry channels, including the pathway and alternative entry routes used by international students, transfer and non-traditional applicants, covering application processing, assessment, offers, acceptances and deferrals.
- Configure Student Records and Admissions business processes, rules, eligibility, holds and statuses.
- Design the end-to-end handling of Tertiary Admissions Centre (TAC) applications, preferences, offer rounds and responses, and align and collaborate with integrations and technical teams on the full solution.
- Work with client teams to define how regional CRMs used for student recruitment interact with Workday Student, including the hand-off of prospect and applicant data.
- Define requirements that bridge functional design and integrations, including data mapping, triggers, timing, error handling and ownership, and work closely with integration teams through build and testing.
- Bring an understanding of how Australian or New Zealand universities manage student records to design discussions, so Workday Student is configured for local course structures, terminology, policy settings and reporting obligations.
- Ensure designs capture the data and processes needed for TCSI reporting, Unique Student Identifier (USI) requirements, international student obligations including PRISMS and Confirmations of Enrolment, and related compliance needs.
- Work with Student Financials and finance stakeholders to align the financial impacts of admission, enrolment, changes, withdrawal and completion events.
- Identify data, security, privacy, records management and reporting requirements across the student lifecycle.
- Document requirements, design decisions and configuration.
- Prepare and execute unit testing, support end to end and integration testing and assist with defect resolution.
- Support data conversion of historical student records, cutover preparation, training and go live readiness.
- Provide clear advice on Workday leading practices while recognising institutional context and policy obligations.
- Lead workstreams, coach and review the work of other consultants, and act as a trusted advisor to client process owners.
- Contribute reusable configuration guidance, test assets and delivery methods to the Cognizant Student Practice.
Experience we are looking for
- Senior experience in student records, student administration, admissions, student systems or a related higher education function.
- Understanding of academic structure, enrolment, progression, completion and graduation processes, and how they are reflected in student records.
- Familiarity with Tertiary Admissions Centre processes, such as those run by UAC, VTAC, QTAC, SATAC or TISC, including application preferences, offer rounds and data exchange with institutions.
- Familiarity with CRMs commonly used for student recruitment in the region, such as Salesforce or Microsoft Dynamics 365, and how they connect to a student information system.
- Working knowledge of TCSI reporting, including how student, course and enrolment data is captured, validated and corrected.
- Familiarity with the regulations that relate to student records in Australia or New Zealand, such as the Higher Education Support Act, the ESOS Act and National Code, the Higher Education Standards Framework, USI requirements, privacy and state records legislation, or the Education and Training Act and Single Data Return.
- Ability to work with requirements that bridge functional and integration design, and to communicate confidently with both business and technical teams.
- Proven experience guiding business stakeholders through key operational and policy decisions, including presenting options, explaining trade-offs and securing agreement.
- Experience implementing, supporting or serving as a super-user for student information systems (SIS), with Workday Student experience highly regarded.
- Experience leading a workstream or team and mentoring other consultants or practitioners.
- Experience facilitating workshops, documenting decisions and working across student administration, admissions, international and technology teams preferred.
- Experience with testing, data conversion, training or deployment readiness activities preferred.
About the Cognizant Workday Student Practice
The Cognizant Workday Student Practice is focused exclusively on helping universities across Australia and New Zealand transform the way they support students, faculty and administrators throughout the student lifecycle.
What makes our practice different is the combination of higher education practitioners and Workday specialists working together. Many of our consultants have worked inside universities as academic services professionals before moving into consulting. That experience allows us to bring practical insight into the operational, regulatory and policy considerations that shape solution design.
We work with institutions to design and implement sustainable Workday Student solutions that support local regulatory requirements, align to institutional strategy and remain adaptable as university needs evolve. Our goal is not simply to deploy technology, but to help universities establish a foundation they can continue to own, operate and enhance long after implementation is complete.
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Why choose Cognizant:
- Entrepreneurial environment that welcomes your ideas
- Opportunity to do great work
- Outreach programs that support communities and tap into your volunteer spirit
- Learning opportunities to help current needs and advancement
- Global operations, with opportunities in North America, Europe and Asia Pacific
- An abundance of Affinity groups to meet your needs
Cognizant Core Values:
- Work as One: We think beyond roles, relying on each other’s strengths to win as a team.
- Raise the Bar: We always aim for excellence in how we work and what we deliver.
- Dare to Innovate: We push boundaries and take chances to reimagine what’s possible.
- Do the Right Thing: We all lead with integrity and always make the ethical choice.
- Own It: We own the outcomes for our company, colleagues, and community.
