Director of Human Capital Management (HCM)

The Commonwealth of Massachusetts Executive Branch is one of the state's largest employers with over 46,000 employees that span 11 secretariats and 70 plus agencies.  From Accountants to X-Ray Technicians and hundreds of titles in between, we are one employer with many career opportunities.  The Commonwealth is looking for leaders, thinkers, creators, and innovators. We are a diverse workforce that reflects the diverse population that we serve. 

The Human Resources Division (HRD) is an agency within the Executive Office for Administration and Finance. HRD provides support to state agencies in all matters relating to the Commonwealth's classification, compensation, benefits, recruitment, training & employee development, civil rights, collective bargaining and workers compensation.

HRD is seeking an experienced, strategic HCM leader to serve as our first Director of Human Capital Management (HCM) and play a leading role in the Commonwealth’s HR technology transformation.

Reporting to the Director of Strategy, Applications & Research, you will serve as HRD’s HCM Lead for BEST (Business Enterprise Systems Transformation) Phase 2, the statewide initiative to replace our legacy PeopleSoft HR and payroll platform with Workday.

The Opportunity

Initially, your focus will be to lead HRD’s HCM work through Workday design, testing, go-live, and stabilization. You will coordinate HRD’s engagement across Core HCM, Compensation, Recruiting, Absence/Leave, Learning, and Performance Management, partnering with HRD leadership, the Office of the Comptroller, BEST program leadership, IT teams, vendors, and departments across the Commonwealth.

You will also help design how Workday HCM will operate after implementation. Following stabilization, you will become the product owner for Workday HCM, leading the teams, roadmap, governance, and continuous improvement strategy supporting statewide HR operations.

What You Will Do

• Serve as HRD’s senior functional leader for Workday HCM throughout BEST Phase 2.
• Lead HCM design decisions, configuration review, testing, readiness, cutover, and stabilization.
• Bring together stakeholders across HR, payroll, IT, departments, and project teams to drive timely decisions and resolve complex issues.
• Partner closely with the Office of the Comptroller to align HCM with Payroll and Time Tracking.
• Ensure the needs of Commonwealth departments are accounted for in the Workday solution.
• Help design the future Workday operating and governance model, including support, releases, enhancements, testing, and change management.
• After go-live, own the Workday HCM strategy, roadmap, and enhancement priorities and lead teams responsible for statewide HCM operations.

What We Are Looking For

Our ideal candidate combines deep HCM expertise, enterprise Workday experience, and an understanding of complex public-sector environments.

Strong candidates will have:

• 7 years of professional or managerial experience in human resources, HCM product leadership, or enterprise systems implementation.
• Experience leading a large, complex Workday HCM or similar cloud HCM implementation.
• Knowledge across multiple HCM domains and their connection to payroll.
• Experience across the full product lifecycle, from requirements and design through testing, deployment, stabilization, releases, and continuous improvement.
• Experience developing operating models, governance, service delivery, and teams for complex enterprise environments.
• Experience in the public sector or a similar complex and highly regulated environment.
• Strong executive communication, relationship-building, decision-making, and leadership skills.

Experience working in unionized environments and with collective bargaining agreements is especially valuable.

We are looking for a hands-on leader who can see the big picture, bring people together, make difficult decisions, and take ownership when the work gets complicated.

If your experience spans Workday HCM, large-scale transformation, and public-sector HR, we want to hear from you.

Work Arrangement

This position is eligible for hybrid work, with a minimum of one day per week in the office. Additional in-person participation will be expected for key project meetings, executive engagement, and go-live activities.