Job Description: HRIS Specialist (Workday – Advanced Compensation)

Company: Client

Location: Fort Lauderdale, FL

Our client is a national, privately held construction firm delivering award-winning projects across construction management, solar EPC, and design-build. This HRIS role is a hands-on Workday specialist position focused on Workday Advanced Compensation—owning configuration, annual compensation cycles, job catalog architecture, reporting, and compliance support for merit, bonus, equity, and long-term incentive programs in a project-driven environment.

About Us (Octagon Talent Solutions):

Octagon Talent Solutions is a full-service technology recruitment and staffing company based in South Florida. We humanize technical recruitment by identifying candidates' long-term career goals and assessing cultural fit when presenting opportunities. Our focus on long-term relationships helps ensure placements that last.

Job Overview:

The HRIS Specialist (Workday – Advanced Compensation) is a Workday subject matter expert responsible for supporting, optimizing, and enhancing Workday HCM with a primary focus on Advanced Compensation. This role serves as the functional lead for compensation configuration and program execution—supporting merit cycles, bonus plans, equity/stock awards, and long-term incentive programs. Partnering with Compensation, Finance, HR, and IT, the HRIS Specialist ensures scalable, compliant compensation processes, strong data integrity, and a high-quality end-user experience during annual cycles.

RESPONSIBILITIES:

• Serve as the functional lead and SME for Workday Advanced Compensation.
• Design, configure, maintain, and optimize the Advanced Compensation module, including:
• Merit cycles, budgets, and guidelines
• Bonus plans and eligibility rules
• Equity/stock awards and long-term incentive plans
• Compensation matrices (including prevailing wage considerations where applicable)
• Lead end-to-end annual compensation cycle activities: planning, configuration, testing, launch, support, and post-cycle analysis.
• Partner closely with Compensation, Finance, HR, and IT to ensure compensation processes are scalable, compliant, and aligned with organizational strategy.
• Design and maintain eligibility rules, budgets, guidelines, and other compensation structures.
• Design, govern, and continuously improve the Workday Job Catalog architecture (job profiles, job families, levels) to ensure structures are consistent, scalable, and aligned to organizational needs.
• Support market pricing integrations and compensation benchmarking processes where applicable.
• Develop and maintain compensation reports, dashboards, and analytics for leadership insights.
• Support audit and compliance requirements related to compensation programs and processes.
• Identify opportunities for automation and process optimization to improve efficiency and user experience.
• Lead and support User Acceptance Testing (UAT) for compensation-related enhancements.
• Troubleshoot complex compensation issues and provide Tier 2/3 support.
• Develop, validate, and maintain advanced/matrix reports, calculated fields, dashboards, and analytics to support business decision-making.
• Support Workday semiannual release cycles including impact assessment, configuration updates, regression testing, documentation, and stakeholder communication.
• Follow established documentation, change control/change management, testing, and release protocols to ensure stable deployments.
• Perform other related duties as assigned.

REQUIREMENTS:

• Bachelor’s degree in Human Resources, Information Systems, Computer Science, or related field (or equivalent work experience).
• 3–5+ years of Workday experience with strong expertise in Advanced Compensation and solid understanding of Core HCM data structures.
• Strong understanding of HR business processes, organizations, employee lifecycle transactions, and compensation processes.
• Experience supporting annual compensation planning cycles at scale.
• Strong understanding of compensation strategy, structures, and market data.
• Hands-on experience designing and maintaining Workday Job Catalog architecture and aligning it with compensation, recruiting, and organizational structures.
• Experience with Workday reporting (advanced/matrix, dashboards, calculated fields) and comfort analyzing data.
• Demonstrated ability to troubleshoot complex system issues, perform root-cause analysis, and deliver scalable solutions.
• Ability to translate business needs into technical/functional requirements.
• Strong analytical, problem-solving, and critical thinking skills; able to manage multiple priorities in a fast-paced environment.

Preferred qualifications

• Workday certifications in HCM, Advanced Compensation, and/or Reporting.
• Workday certification in Compensation or Advanced Compensation (preferred).
• Exposure to equity administration tools or Total Rewards systems.
• Experience supporting HR systems in a large, project-driven workforce environment.
• Experience in large-scale organizations with complex compensation structures.
• Experience with Prevailing Wage and IRA (Inflation Reduction Act) considerations.
• Familiarity with Agile practices and tools such as Jira (or similar backlog management tools).