Workday People Experience (PEX) Principal Consultant

Role Summary

The Workday People Experience (PEX) Principal Consultant is a senior functional consultant responsible for leading the design, configuration, and delivery of Workday People Experience solutions. Acting as a trusted advisor, this individual helps organisations create personalised, engaging, and intuitive employee experiences across the workforce lifecycle.

The Principal Consultant combines deep PEX expertise with delivery leadership, pre-sales support, and mentoring responsibilities. They work closely with clients to design experiences that drive user adoption, employee engagement, productivity, and self-service through capabilities such as Workday Today, Journeys, Help, and other employee experience functionality.

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.

Responsibilities

• Serve as a Workday People Experience (PEX) subject matter expert, providing guidance on employee experience strategy and Workday best practices.
• Lead client workshops and design sessions to define personalised employee experiences aligned to business objectives.
• Design and configure Workday PEX solutions, including Workday Today, Journeys, Help, and related employee experience capabilities.
• Advise clients on improving employee engagement, user adoption, productivity, and self-service experiences.
• Lead PEX workstreams on medium to large Workday implementations, managing solution decisions, risks, and dependencies.
• Partner with HCM, Talent, Learning, Recruiting, Change Management, Reporting, Security, and Integrations teams to deliver cohesive employee experiences.
• Support testing, deployment, cutover, and post-go-live transition activities.
• Provide guidance on persona-based experiences, employee journeys, communications, and critical moments that span the employee lifecycle.
• Mentor consultants and analysts, providing coaching, quality reviews, and functional leadership.
• Support business development activities including solutioning, estimations, proposals, demonstrations, and customer presentations.
• Contribute to practice development through internal training, asset creation, methodology enhancement, and knowledge sharing.
• Maintain expertise in Workday PEX functionality, employee experience trends, AI-driven experiences, and new product innovations.

Skills & Requirements

• Bachelor's degree or equivalent experience.
• Active Workday People Experience (PEX) Certification preferred.
• 5+ years of Workday implementation experience.
• Experience leading Workday PEX, HCM, Talent, Learning, or Employee Experience workstreams on end-to-end implementations.
• Strong understanding of employee experience, workforce engagement, self-service, onboarding, career development, and talent processes.
• Experience with Workday Today, Journeys, Help, and related employee experience capabilities.
• Experience gathering requirements, facilitating workshops, solution design, configuration, testing, and deployment.
• Experience supporting pre-sales activities including estimations, proposals, and solution presentations.
• Strong consulting, stakeholder management, facilitation, and communication skills.
• Ability to mentor team members and provide functional leadership across projects.
• Ability to manage multiple priorities in a fast-paced consulting environment.
• Eligible for SC Clearance – you must have been a UK resident for the last five years and be legally entitled to work in the UK.
• Minimal travel required, but must be willing to travel on-site as needed.