Workday Financials Test Lead
5 - month initial contract
London – Hybrid
Excellent day rate
Umbrella engagement
We are seeking an experienced Workday Finance Test Lead to define, manage and deliver the end-to-end testing strategy for a major Workday Finance transformation programme. This role will cover Workday Financials, Workday Accounting Centre, integrations, and data migration, ensuring the solution is fully validated and ready for go-live.
Reporting to the Programme Manager, you will lead all testing phases, including Systems Integration Testing (SIT), User Acceptance Testing (UAT), regression testing, and cutover readiness activities. You will work closely with implementation partners, technology teams, finance stakeholders, data specialists, and business users to deliver a structured and controlled testing approach across the programme.
Key Responsibilities
- Own and deliver the overall testing strategy for the Workday Finance implementation programme, aligned with governance requirements and programme milestones.
- Define testing scope, approach, environments, tools, and resource requirements across all test phases.
- Plan and coordinate testing activities, including:
- SIT1 (System Integrator-led with client shadowing)
- SIT2 (client-led with System Integrator support)
- User Acceptance Testing (UAT)
- Regression testing
- Cutover and go-live testing
- Establish and manage test entry and exit criteria, ensuring alignment with programme stage gates.
- Develop and maintain an integrated test plan, managing dependencies across finance, data, integration, and technology workstreams.
- Coordinate test scenario creation to ensure comprehensive end-to-end coverage across:
- Record-to-Report (R2R)
- Procure-to-Pay (P2P)
- Order-to-Cash (O2C)
- Industry-specific finance processes
- Lead defect management activities, including triage, prioritisation, resolution tracking, and reporting.
- Define and manage the test data strategy, ensuring appropriate data quality and availability throughout testing.
- Oversee test environments and tenant management in collaboration with technology and Workday teams.
- Produce regular test status reports, including progress against plan, defect metrics, risks, issues, and readiness assessments.
- Facilitate test governance forums, including defect triage meetings and testing status reviews.
- Engage stakeholders across Finance, Technology, Data, and Change teams to ensure participation and readiness.
- Coordinate UAT execution, including business engagement, training support, and sign-off management.
- Support cutover planning and go-live readiness assessments, ensuring all testing criteria are met.
- Identify and manage testing risks, issues, and programme interdependencies.
Essential Skills & Experience
- Proven experience leading testing for large-scale Workday Finance implementation programmes.
- Strong knowledge of end-to-end testing methodologies, including SIT, UAT, regression testing, and cutover testing.
- Experience developing and implementing comprehensive test strategies and integrated test plans.
- Demonstrated ability to manage testing across complex finance, data, and integration workstreams.
- Strong defect management and test governance experience.
- Experience coordinating business stakeholders and managing UAT execution and sign-off.
- Excellent stakeholder management, communication, and reporting skills.
- Experience managing testing within cloud ERP transformation programmes.
- Ability to identify and mitigate testing risks while driving delivery to programme timelines.
Desirable Skills & Experience
- Experience with Workday Accounting Centre (WAC), Workday Prism, and complex integration landscapes.
- Experience working alongside System Integrators within a collaborative delivery model.
- Knowledge of test automation tools and approaches within cloud ERP environments, ideally using Azure DevOps.
- Understanding of data migration, reconciliation, and validation testing methodologies.
- ISTQB certification or equivalent testing qualification.
- Experience supporting cutover, hypercare, and transition into business-as-usual support models.