Job Description: HRIS Specialist (Workday – PATT)

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 Payroll, Absence, and Time Tracking (PATT)—owning configuration, payroll run support, reporting, compliance, and continuous improvement to ensure payroll accuracy and a strong employee experience 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 – PATT) supports and optimizes Workday Payroll, Absence, and Time Tracking modules in a fast-paced organization. This role serves as the subject matter expert for PATT-related processes and configuration, partnering with HR, Payroll, Finance, Operations, and Technology to improve system performance, data integrity, and compliance. The ideal candidate is detail-oriented, comfortable owning payroll-adjacent workflows end-to-end, and able to translate Workday concepts into clear guidance for business users.

RESPONSIBILITIES:

• Serve as the Workday SME for Payroll, Absence, and Time Tracking modules.
• Design, configure, test, deploy, maintain, and enhance Workday business processes, including:
• Cutoffs and audit controls
• Condition rules and notifications
• Labor costing and downstream impacts
• Manage Workday payroll operations including semimonthly/biweekly payroll runs, off-cycle runs, audit reports, and year-end activities.
• Own the Certified Payroll Reporting (CPR) solution (Workday and/or third-party), ensuring accurate configuration, data integrity, and timely submission of compliant reports for applicable projects.
• Develop and maintain a Workday PATT roadmap that supports organizational growth and expansion.
• Partner across HR, Payroll, Finance, IT, and Operations to improve process efficiency and system performance.
• Develop and maintain Workday reporting (custom reports, calculated fields), dashboards, and analytics for stakeholders.
• Troubleshoot configuration and integration issues involving Workday and third-party vendors; support vendor relationships where applicable.
• Support Workday releases (impact assessment, testing, upgrades) and continuous improvement efforts.
• Ensure data integrity, security, compliance, and strong HRIS governance.
• Provide end-user support, training, and documentation for new and existing processes.
• Perform other related duties as assigned.

REQUIREMENTS:

• Bachelor’s degree in Human Resources, Information Systems, Business, Computer Science, or related field (or equivalent experience).
• 3–5 years of hands-on Workday experience with a strong focus in Payroll and exposure to Absence and Time Tracking (Projects exposure is a plus).
• Proven Workday Payroll configuration experience (earnings, deductions, pay components, costing, tax setup, period schedules).
• Experience supporting Time Tracking/Absence configuration (time entry codes/templates, calculation tags, eligibility rules, accruals, time off/leave plans).
• Strong understanding of payroll concepts (gross-to-net, overtime rules, garnishments, taxability, retro pay, FLSA).
• Understanding of time & attendance policies (overtime, shift differentials, premiums, meal/rest breaks, rounding rules).
• Familiarity with leave/absence policies (PTO, sick, parental leave, disability, unpaid leaves).
• Experience creating functional requirements, test scripts, and user documentation.
• Strong analytical and troubleshooting skills with high attention to detail and data quality.
• Ability to translate Workday configuration concepts into clear, business-friendly language.
• Proven ability to prioritize and deliver in a fast-paced environment with multiple concurrent requests.

Preferred qualifications

• Workday certification in Payroll, Time Tracking, Absence, and/or HCM.
• Experience supporting a mid-to-large scale Workday environment (multi-state/multi-entity preferred).
• Experience in construction, energy, or other project-based industries with complex pay rules and job costing.
• Knowledge of Prevailing Wage requirements and Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) incentives/regulations as they relate to payroll configuration, job classifications, and compliance reporting.
• Experience supporting Workday integrations and third-party vendor relationships.
• Familiarity with Jira, Agile, or similar project tools.
• HR certification (SHRM-CP, PHR).