Product Owner - Absence, Time-Tracking and Payroll

Meet Pernod Ricard and experience Our Convivial Spirit

Ready to join Pernod Ricard, the world’s the #1 premium spirits organisation with the industry’s most comprehensive and diversified portfolio of premium brands including 18 of the world’s top 100 spirits brands? As Créateurs de Convivialité, our purpose is to inspire authentic moments of sharing through our iconic brands, including Absolut Vodka, Jameson Irish Whiskey, and Martell Cognac, sold in over 160 countries. “Conviviality” is our secret ingredient, poured into everything we do, and rooted in every one of us who works here. Collective spirit drives our success, empowering you to craft your path and bring your authentic self to every occasion.

Role Overview

The Workday Product Owner Absence, Time Tracking & Payroll will be responsible for the governance, optimization, and continuous improvement of Workday Absence and Workday Time Tracking globally. This role will ensure that existing configurations remain aligned with business needs, compliance requirements, and system best practices.

In addition, the Product Owner will lead the strategy and framework for global payroll integrations, ensuring efficient, automated, and scalable interactions between Workday and local payroll systems. This includes defining global standards for affiliates of various sizes, guiding payroll vendor selection, and promoting convergence toward approved providers.

This role sits in the Corporate Capability Product team, in Global Tech, under the HR Tech Product Manager. You will have strong links with our Tech proximity teams worldwide and local HRs local business operations.

We are looking for someone with strong system expertise, an ability to drive global alignment, and a mindset focused on process optimization and automation.

Key Responsibilities

1. Workday Absence & Time Tracking Ownership

• Own and maintain the global configuration of Workday Absence and Workday Time Tracking.
• Identify and implement enhancements to improve usability, compliance, and operational efficiency.
• Monitor system performance and adoption, ensuring seamless end‑user experience.
• Support and coordinate testing cycles for releases, patches, and configuration updates.
• Work closely with HR Operations and local HR teams to address process needs and ensure consistent global standards.

2. Payroll Integrations & Framework Management

• Develop and maintain a global framework for managing Workday-to-payroll integrations across countries and affiliate sizes
• Map and document all existing payroll integrations, identifying opportunities for optimization, reduction of manual work, and automation.
• Drive continuous improvement initiatives to standardize and streamline payroll-related data flows.
• Ensure payroll configuration and integrations align with Workday best practices and system capabilities.

3. Payroll Vendor Management & Convergence

• Define criteria and guidelines for selecting pre‑approved payroll vendors to ensure optimal integration with Workday.
• Collaborate with affiliates during their selection or renewal of payroll providers, ensuring alignment with the global framework.
• Build strong relationships with vendors, monitoring performance and integration quality.
• Promote convergence toward strategic vendors to improve global efficiency and system cohesion.

4. Animating product roadmap and coordinating work of the Scrum team

• Serve as the primary point of contact for all matters related to Workday Absence, Time Tracking, and payroll integrations.
• Communicate product vision, roadmap, priorities, and release impacts to stakeholders.
• Conceive and document product epics/user stories: break the product into Epics and implementable user stories, coordinate mockups creation and identify acceptance criteria for the stories. 

• Take part in relevant SAFe and Scrum ceremonies, lead backlog grooming sessions, and prioritize product backlog. 

• Validate overall achievements on the product. Gather and arbitrate feedback from users from multiple iterations of the product to continually improve and drive value. 

• Be accountable for ensuring that the team delivers value to the business on a frequent and consistent basis. 

• Organize, lead acceptance tests and define Go/noGo criteria for each sprint releases. 

• Set up and track metrics to measure product effectiveness and users’ satisfaction. 

5. Continuous Improvement & Innovation

• Stay informed on Workday roadmap changes and new functionalities.
• Evaluate new features and make recommendations for adoption.
• Promote automation opportunities to reduce manual tasks across HR and Payroll operations.
• Benchmark processes against industry standards to identify opportunities for transformation.

Job Scope:  

• Reporting to Product Manager for HR – Head of HR Tech

• Internal stakeholders: Tech proximity teams, HR Absence & Time-Tracking partners, Local HRIS Payroll teams, HR Tech Product Owners 

• Key External stakeholders: support and configuration teams (T2 and T3 AMS), consultants. 

• Job scope: 100% international (max 30% availability to travel)  

Skills & Qualifications

Required

• Proven experience as a Workday Product Owner, HRIS Specialist, or similar role.
• Strong hands-on knowledge of Workday Absence and Workday Time Tracking modules.
• Experience with Workday payroll integrations (EIBs, PECI, custom integrations, cloud connect).
• Understanding of global payroll processes and vendor management.
• Strong analytical and documentation skills.
• Ability to manage stakeholders across multiple countries and business units.
• Excellent communication and project management capabilities.

Preferred

• Experience in multinational environments.
• Exposure to Agile methodologies.
• Familiarity with integration tools, middleware, or Workday reporting.

Experience Requirements

• 5 - 8 years total experience in HRIS, Product Ownership, HR Operations, or Process Optimization roles.
• Prior experience designing global frameworks or standards for payroll integrations.
• Experience collaborating with external payroll vendors or managing vendor selection processes.
• Project management experience in Agile, hybrid, or iterative delivery environments.
• Experience in multinational or complex matrix organizations.

Languages

• Fluent English
• French is a plus

Pernod Ricard values diversity and solidarity within its organization and in its relations with stakeholders. Our recruitment methods focus on skills, and we welcome all types of talents.

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