HRIS Workday & Data, Team Lead

Are you looking to have an impact on the daily life of millions of entrepreneurs in France (and tomorrow in Europe)?

Are you looking for a work environment that values trust, proactivity, and autonomy?

Then Pennylane is the right place for you !

Our vision

We aim to become the most beloved financial Operating System of French SMEs and Accounting Firms (and soon, European ones).

We help entrepreneurs rid themselves of time-consuming tasks related to accounting and finance while providing them with access to key financial information to assist in making the best decisions for their business.

About us

Pennylane is one of the fastest growing Fintechs in France (and soon to be in Europe!)

In 6 years of existence, we’ve managed to :

💻 Make ourselves known as a groundbreaking accounting and financial software for small businesses and their accountants

💰 Raise a total of €400 millions, including from Sequoia, the famous fund from the Silicon Valley who invested early in companies like Google, Facebook, Airbnb, Stripe, Paypal and much more...

👨‍👩‍👧‍👦 Grow from 7 cofounders to 1000 happy Pennylaners : we’re now recognized as one of the greatest places to work in France (and also remotely), with a 4.6/5 rating on Glassdoor.

🌍 Build an international environment with more than 25 nationalities, with a strong remote-friendly culture, where 30% of the employees are already working from all parts of Europe

🤝 Earn the trust of thousands of customers and accounting firms and obtain outstanding ratings

🚀 Already more than 1 500,000 small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and over 8000 accounting firms use Pennylane in France!

About the role

We are a fast-growing scale-up in the midst of an exciting international expansion. Following the successful launch of Workday as our core HCM platform, we are now looking for an HRIS Workday & Data Lead to own the post-launch journey and drive the continuous improvement of our HR tech ecosystem.

This is a strategic and hands-on manager role within the HR function, working in close collaboration with IT, Finance, and Business teams. You will lead a small but high-impact team of two Workday HRIS Experts and one HR Data Analyst, ensuring our HR systems are scalable, secure, and aligned with the company's growth trajectory.

You will be the go-to expert and decision-maker for everything related to Workday configuration & evolution, HR data & integrations with our HR tools – acting as a true functional project lead

Key responsibilities

Team leadership & organization

• Manage, mentor, and develop a team of 2 Workday HRIS Experts and 1 HR Data Analyst

• Organise team work using project plans and agile sprint methodologies

• Prioritize the team backlog based on business impact, urgency, and capacity

• Foster a culture of documentation and knowledge sharing (Notion)

• Ensure team members grow in expertise and are continuously upskilled on Workday releases and new features

Workday post-launch excellence

• Own the Workday post-go-live roadmap: continuous improvement, optimization, and adoption

• Challenge and rechallenge existing Workday configurations: identify gaps, inefficiencies, and opportunities to better leverage the platform

• Act as the internal functional project lead: translate HR business needs into functional and technical requirements, lead solution design, UAT, and deployment

• Stay ahead of Workday product updates and bi-annual releases; assess and implement relevant new features

• Maintain and improve Workday security: role-based access control, data privacy, audit compliance

Stakeholder collaboration & prioritization

• Collaborate closely with IT, Finance, HR Leadership, Talent Acquisition and Business teams to gather needs, align on priorities, and communicate roadmap decisions

• Facilitate prioritization workshops and steering committees with key stakeholders

• Serve as the main point of contact between HR Operations and the broader tech organization

• Challenge stakeholder requests and provide expert recommendations grounded in Workday best practices

Integrations & HR Tech Ecosystem

• Oversee and manage integrations between Workday and third-party tools (Ashby for recruiting, Silae for payroll, and others)

• Identify opportunities to connect or improve connections with new tools as the company scales

• Partner with IT to ensure integration architecture is robust, secure, and maintainable

• Maintain an up-to-date map of the HR tech stack and integration landscape

AI & automation innovation

• Explore and assess Workday’s emerging AI and extensibility capabilities, including Workday Extend, and translate relevant use cases into a pragmatic roadmap

• Evaluate how Sana Learn and other AI-enabled learning solutions can complement the Workday ecosystem and improve employee and manager experiences

• Map the automation and AI tools already used at Pennylane and identify secure, scalable opportunities to connect them with Workday processes, data, and integrations

• Lead experimentation, business-case assessment, governance, and deployment of selected AI and automation use cases in partnership with IT and relevant stakeholders

• Build the team’s capabilities on Workday AI, automation, and extensibility through training, hands-on experimentation, documentation, and knowledge sharing

HR Data & Analytics

• Work with the HR Data Analyst to ensure data quality, consistency, and governance across the HR ecosystem

• Drive the development of HR dashboards, KPIs, and reporting capabilities (headcount, attrition, workforce planning, etc.)

• Champion a data-driven HR culture across the People team and leadership

• Ensure compliance with data protection regulations (GDPR, etc.) across all HR data flows

International Expansion Support

• Support the HRIS configuration and deployment efforts tied to the company's international growth (new countries, legal entities, payroll connectors, local compliance)

• Ensure Workday configurations scale with the organization as headcount and geographic footprint grow

Your Profile

Must-Haves

• 8+ years of experience with Workday HCM, including post-go-live ownership and functional configuration (HCM Core, Time tracking, Absence, Learning, Talent, Compensation, Peakon)

• Strong understanding of Workday security model (role-based access, domain/business process security)

• Experience acting as AMOA or functional project lead on HRIS projects: requirements gathering, solution design, change management, UAT

• Proven experience managing a team or leading a project team, with a collaborative and empowering leadership style

• Strong project management skills: ability to run sprints, manage a backlog, and deliver in an agile environment

• Excellent communication and stakeholder management skills – comfortable influencing without authority across IT, Finance, and HR Leadership

• Experience managing or overseeing HR system integrations (APIs, middleware, integration studio, etc.)

• Experience with AI and automation applied to Workday, HR, or Data, with the ability to assess use cases, risks, and business value

• Fluent in both French & English

Nice-to-Haves

• Familiarity with tools such as Ashby (ATS), Silae (payroll), Deel (payroll), Google package

• Experience in a scale-up or high-growth environment

• Exposure to international HRIS rollouts (multi-country configurations, payroll connectors)

• Knowledge of HR data governance frameworks and GDPR compliance

Recruitment Process

1. Screening Interview with Nathalie, Talent Acquisitio - 30 mins

2. Manager Interview with Mathilde, Head of People Ops - 45 mins

3. Business Case Interview with Mathilde & Marine, VP People - 60 mins

4. Last Round Interview - 45 mins

5. Team Fit Interview - 30 mins

6. Offer 🎉

What do we do to make your work life easier

🌴 Wherever you are based, you will get 25 vacations days paid by Pennylane

💵 You’ll have a competitive compensation package

📈 You'll get company shares to enjoy a piece of the success story you're building with us

🏡 You’ll have a budget to turn your home into a more comfortable workspace, as well as a monthly allowance to work from a coworking space whenever you feel like it

⛹️ Through our partner Gymlib, you’ll have access to 8000 fitness spaces in Europe and more than 300 activities related to wellness

💻 You’ll get the latest Apple equipment

🏢 Depending on the teams and the requirements of the position - you'll be able to work remotely from your country of residence, as long as it is in Europe and within a maximum time difference of two hours from the CET time zone

🎉 We are committed to regularly coming together for company events such as Tech Days (which bring remote Pennylaners together every 3 months) or our annual company seminar, fostering significant moments of cohesion for everyone.

If you are based in France, you will have a French contract following French regulation on top of the additional perks : 6 to 12 RTT, 5 weeks PTOs, lunch credits (Swile), Alan Blue healthcare cover and regular events in cities where Pennylaners are mostly presents (Lyon, Bordeaux, Nantes…)

We're working on providing those last advantages to our people based outside of France as well, but it can be quite more complex depending on different countries.

Who are we looking for ?

To thrive at Pennylane, you need :

-To speak English (level is assessed and appreciated according to the department you’re applying to)

-To be energized by an ever-shifting work environment

-To be highly collaborative (within your team or other stakeholders)

-Sufficiently experienced to prioritize business-led actions on your day to day activity

We know that some people are less likely to apply than others, if they don’t feel like they meet the full list of criteria.

If you’re hesitating, we encourage you to apply : who knows, it might be the start of a meaningful and long-lasting collaboration.

Important information for candidates

Recruitment scam attempts are on the rise. We invite you to remain vigilant during your exchanges.

Applications through official channels only : apply exclusively through our job postings published on our official platforms (career site, official partner pages).

We will never ask you for payment or financial information

(bank details, payment for an interview, equipment purchases, etc.) as part of the recruitment process. If such a request is made to you, it is fraudulent. We invite you to not respond and to report it to us immediately.

We also want to emphasize that we fully embrace diversity, equity and inclusion and that we’re doing our best to create a safe and inclusive environment.

We are committed to providing an equal employment opportunity regardless of gender, sexual orientation, origin, disabilities, or any other traits that make you who you are. If anything, diversity makes us a more fun place to work at.

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