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Req #: 246108

Department: UW INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY

Appointing Department Web Address: https://it.uw.edu/uw-it/

Posting Date: 05/15/2025

Closing Info:

Open Until Filled

Salary: $7,332 - $11,915 per month

Shift: First Shift

Notes:

As a UW employee, you will enjoy generous benefits and work/life programs. For a complete description of our benefits for this position, please visit our website, click here. (https://hr.uw.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2018/02/benefits-professional-staff-librarians-academic-staff-20230119\_a11y.pdf)

As a University of Washington (UW) employee, you have the unique opportunity to positively impact lives on our campuses, throughout our state, and around the world. Our employees bring boundless energy, creative problem-solving, and a deep sense of commitment to building stronger minds and a healthier future. UW is dedicated to attracting and retaining a diverse workforce. Your unique perspectives, experiences, and identities are valued and honored here. Together, we foster inclusive, equitable, and welcoming environments where all can thrive.

About UW Information Technology (UW-IT)

UW Information Technology is the central IT organization for the University of Washington, providing strategic leadership and operational oversight for the university’s IT infrastructure, services, and resources. UW-IT supports all three campuses, UW Medicine, and global research initiatives, partnering with the broader UW community to enable innovation, learning, discovery, and service.

About the Workday Tenant and Release Role

The Tenant and Release Lead plays a critical role in maintaining business continuity across UW’s Finance, HR, and Payroll systems by overseeing the lifecycle of UW’s Workday tenants and leading biannual release management efforts. This position ensures system health, supports seamless upgrades, and promotes reliable system performance.

This role encompasses three key areas of responsibility:1. Tenant Health Management:

Lead efforts related to monitoring Workday (SaaS) system performance, coordinate with Workday technical support, manage incident response procedures, and collaborate with UW-IT and UW Medicine Help Desks. Off-hours coverage will be required as part of a rotating on-call schedule for critical Production issues.

2. Tenant Strategy Oversight:

Manage the lifecycle of temporary and permanent tenants, oversee tenant refresh processes, consult on project-specific tenant usage, and participate in budget planning activities related to tenant needs.

3. Release Administration:

Support the biannual Workday release process by analyzing new features, fixes, and retirements. Provide recommendations, coordinate testing, and serve as a resource for troubleshooting.

This position works closely with business and technical subject matter experts, the Workday Application Management team, downstream system administrators, and campus stakeholders to ensure system reliability and effective use of the Workday platform.

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Position Complexity

This role requires building strong partnerships across teams and stakeholders. The Tenant and Release Lead is responsible for transparent communication regarding release cycles, tenant usage policies, and system status across functional areas, value streams, and program stakeholders.

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Impact to the University

Given the critical nature of the Workday platform and its wide-reaching impact, this role supports essential university operations spanning all campuses. This position directly influences UW-IT’s ability to deliver secure, reliable, and efficient HR, Finance, and Payroll services.

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Key ResponsibilitiesTenant and Release Strategy & Execution – 40%

• Develop and manage the strategy for Workday biannual releases and system updates

• Create and document deployment plans across all environments (e.g., Dev-to-Sandbox, Sandbox-to-Production)

• Define and implement tenant management protocols and usage guidelines

• Coordinate release schedules in alignment with feedback from stakeholders, including service managers and product owners

• Monitor and report on release progress, ensuring timely and high-quality deployments

• Collaborate with Workday's Technical Account Manager to address escalations and maintain best practices

• Participate in Workday community events, trainings, and collaboration forums to stay informed about platform developments

System Monitoring & Incident Management – 60%

• Develop and lead procedures for monitoring the performance of the Production tenant

• Oversee tenant scaling, scheduling, and licensing considerations

• Contribute to customer support feedback loops and incident evaluations

• Recommend improvements based on performance metrics

• Establish and lead execution of incident management protocols

• Provide off-hours coverage as part of an on-call rotation (ROTA)

• Collaborate with Workday Support and internal technical teams to resolve performance issues

Lead Responsibilities

• Provide strategic guidance to the Workday team on robust development and release practices

• Promote alignment across teams and ensure consistent execution of release lifecycles

Supervisory Responsibilities

• N/A

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QualificationsRequired:

• Bachelor’s degree in Information Science, Computer Science, or a related field—or equivalent experience

• Minimum four years of experience working with ERP or complex, cloud-based systems (e.g., Workday)

• Experience with application development, Agile methodologies, and Scrum

• Demonstrated experience in release management or a similar function in a technical environment

• Experience supporting full lifecycle system implementations and upgrades

• Strong analytical and problem-solving skills

• Familiarity with automated testing tools and frameworks (e.g., Kainos SMART)

• Excellent communication skills (written and verbal), technical documentation proficiency, and stakeholder engagement experience

• Ability to learn and apply new technologies and methodologies quickly

Desired:

• Experience managing or supporting Workday SaaS tenants

• Familiarity with deployment and support tools such as Jira, ServiceNow, and SharePoint

• Understanding of SaaS and cloud-hosted environments

• Experience implementing large-scale systems at complex institutions

• Innovative mindset with the ability to identify and implement creative solutions

• Experience supervising and mentoring staff, including performance management

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Work Environment

• Hybrid work arrangement, with at least two days per week in the Seattle office

• Open office setting

• Participates in an off-hours on-call rotation, including potential overnight responses for critical Production issues

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Why Join UW-IT?

• Be part of something bigger: your work directly supports world-changing research, patient care, and education.

• Collaborate with top-tier professionals in an inclusive, intellectually rich environment.

• Great work life balance starting with 11 paid Holidays and 15 vacation days a year.

• Benefit from a highly competitive benefits package, professional development opportunities, and a culture of lifelong learning.

• As a public university and state institution, the University of Washington qualifies under the U.S. Department of Education’s Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) program. You may be eligible to have your federal student loans forgiven after 10 years of public service and qualifying payments.

Application Process: The application process may include completion of a variety of online assessments to obtain additional information that will be used in the evaluation process. These assessments may include Work Authorization, Cover Letter and/or others. Any assessments that you need to complete will appear on your screen as soon as you select “Apply to this position”. Once you begin an assessment, it must be completed at that time; if you do not complete the assessment, you will be prompted to do so the next time you access your “My Jobs” page. If you select to take it later, it will appear on your "My Jobs" page to take when you are ready. Please note that your application will not be reviewed, and you will not be considered for this position until all required assessments have been completed.

University of Washington is an affirmative action and equal opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to, among other things, race, religion, color, national origin, sexual orientation, gender identity, sex, age, protected veteran or disabled status, or genetic information.