Associate Director – Workday HCM Solution & Service delivery

Prudential’s purpose is to be partners for every life and protectors for every future. Our purpose encourages everything we do by creating a culture in which diversity is celebrated and inclusion assured, for our people, customers, and partners. We provide a platform for our people to do their best work and make an impact to the business, and we support our people’s career ambitions. We pledge to make Prudential a place where you can Connect, Grow, and Succeed. Roles & Responsibilities:     Workday HCM Services Leadership Own the operating rhythm and service performance of the Workday HCM functional service, leading the team to manage request fulfilment, incident resolution, problem management, maintenance, release readiness, and continuous improvement. The ideal candidate should be able to establish clear ownership, service expectations, escalation paths, and performance reporting. Demand Shaping & Delivery Planning Partner with Process Owners, COEs, LBUs, and governance leads to clarify demand, assess functional and operational impacts, provide delivery estimates and dependencies, and convert approved priorities into executable delivery and release plans. Functional Solution Integrity & Oversight Provide functional leadership across Core HCM modules and the wider Workday HCM portfolio. Review proposed configurations and detailed designs to confirm that solutions are supportable, scalable, standardised, secure, and consistent with enterprise architecture and Workday design principles. Escalate material design decisions to the Solution Architect and relevant governance forums. End-to-End Solution Delivery Lead delivery of Workday HCM enhancements and initiatives from approved demand and detailed design through configuration, testing, deployment, hypercare, and transition to steady-state support. Ensure delivery remains aligned to agreed scope, design guardrails, priorities, quality standards, and business outcomes. Quality Assurance Direct and assure the quality of Workday configuration and functional deliverables from the team. Ensure peer review, configuration traceability, design-to-build alignment, and completion of required artefacts including configuration workbooks, test evidence, deployment plans, and change records. Own and scale automated testing for myHR — establishing a governed test-data library and automated regression coverage to reduce manual testing effort and post-deployment defects, and to improve release readiness and speed. Service Operations & Issue Resolution Oversee investigation and resolution of complex Workday issues, coordinating functional, integration, security, data, and technology teams as required. Drive root-cause analysis, corrective actions, knowledge capture, and preventative improvements for recurring or high-impact issues. Controls, Risk & Audit Readiness Ensure delivery and support activities comply with HR technology governance, security, privacy, risk, change-management, and audit requirements. Maintain complete and current evidence for approvals, access, testing, deployments, production changes, and operational controls. . Stakeholder & Partner Management Align HR and Technology stakeholders on delivery status, service performance, risks, decisions, dependencies, and recovery actions. Manage delivery commitments with internal teams and external partners, challenge constructively when quality or timelines are at risk, and maintain transparent communications. Workday Releases & Continuous Improvement Assess Workday releases, product enhancements, and service trends with functional leads and stakeholders. Prioritise relevant opportunities, coordinate release impact assessment and regression testing, and deliver improvements that enhance user experience, process efficiency, resilience, and platform value. AI & Agentic Capability Enablement   Assess, prioritise and embed Workday AI and agentic capabilities into HCM processes where there is a proven use case and data