Project Manager (Finance Focus)

About the role

Current Employees: If you are currently employed at any of the Universities of Wisconsin, log in to Workday to apply through the internal application process.

• Job Category: Academic Staff
• Employment Type: Regular
• Job Profile: IT Project Manager II (MSN)

Job Summary

Common: Provides advanced technical, analytical, and strategic guidance for information technology (IT) projects. Manages vendor workflow and deliverables for complex projects and facilitates project status communication to clients to support IT developments necessary for mission related functions.

Unique: The Workday Enterprise Solutions Team (WEST) is responsible for the administration and optimization of Workday and related systems for Finance, Human Resources, and Research Administration across the Universities of Wisconsin System, while focusing on people, processes, and technology. This team will concentrate on continuous improvement and system maintenance, release enhancements, support, and strategic integration of the Workday ERP and related systems to achieve business objectives.

The Project Manager plays a critical role within the WEST Project Management and Administrative Operations team, driving successful planning and execution of initiatives for the Workday Finance and Research Administration teams.

This position will be aligned with the Workday Finance functional area, partnering closely with Finance and Research Administration Director to support the planning, coordination, and execution of finance-related initiatives across the WEST portfolio. The project manager role provides project leadership for efforts impacting Workday Financial Management, Adaptive Planning, Huron Research Suite (RAMP), and ChemManager/ShopUW+ to ensure alignment with institutional financial processes and priorities.

Success in this role requires the ability to manage multiple concurrent initiatives on behalf of WEST Finance with varying cross-functional domain impacts, including financial business processes, reporting and analytics, integrations, data warehousing, security, enterprise document management, and HCM partnership.

This individual will serve as a liaison between WEST functional finance teams and WEST technical, translating business needs into coordinated project delivery. By fostering collaboration, managing governance and stakeholder engagement, and aligning project outcomes with institutional financial goals, this position ensures initiatives deliver measurable value and support the long-term sustainability and effectiveness of Workday Finance capabilities.

The Project Manager is responsible for creating and managing project plans, coordinating resources, identifying and mitigating risks, and ensuring timely delivery of high-quality outcomes. This position also provides leadership in adopting best practices in project management, contributing to the overall success and consistency of WEST PM activities.

To be successful in this position, you will need to intentionally collaborate with peers across WEST and work to actively foster a respectful, inclusive and safe team environment.

Schedule will be determined with the selected finalist upon hire. Primary schedule will be during business hours Monday through Friday, beginning no later than 9:00AM CST and ending no earlier than 3:00PM CST, with an on-call or weekend rotation as required by the department.

Key Job Responsibilities

• Schedules and facilitates communication for the integration of vendor workflow and tracks and reviews vendor deliverables for moderately complex, multi-unit projects
• Drafts and delivers project status communications and reports
• Serves as a main point of contact for clients in the development and implementation of multi-unit, moderately complex projects
• Collaborate with cross-functional stakeholders to align project goals with broader organizational priorities and requirements.
• Works actively to foster a respectful, inclusive and safe team environment
• Provides advanced technical and analytical guidance to project teams. Identifies and estimates tasks, applies established project management, process improvement, and budget and cost analysis methodologies to identify obstacles and drive project completion

Department: Workday and Enterprise Solutions Team

Compensation

Well qualified applicants can expect to earn between $115,000 - $140,000, with final salary based on experience and qualifications.

In addition to salary, this position offers a comprehensive benefits package, including generous paid time off, competitively priced health/dental/vision/life insurance, tax-advantaged savings accounts, and participation in the nationally recognized Wisconsin Retirement System (WRS) pension fund.

Required Qualifications

• Experience working with or supporting initiatives related to Workday or other ERP systems
• Proven track record of leading successful multi-unit, moderately complex projects, preferably in a higher education or public sector environment.
• Advanced proficiency in project management methodologies, including Agile, Waterfall, and hybrid approaches.
• Experience with project management tools such as Smartsheet, Jira, or Microsoft Project.
• Demonstrated ability to lead diverse, cross-functional teams and build strong relationships with stakeholders at all organizational levels.
• Exceptional written and verbal communication skills, including experience presenting to executive leadership and stakeholders.
• Proven experience supporting executive or director-level leadership in project delivery and operational initiatives.
• Experience working with stakeholders to understand needs, keep them engaged, and confirm alignment, along with strong skills in managing risks, allocating resources, and communicating effectively.
• Skilled in aligning projects with organizational strategy and objectives, assessing performance through KPIs and metrics, and translating technical and operational details into clear, actionable updates and visualizations for non-technical audiences.
• Bachelor's degree in business administration, Project Management, Information Systems, or a related field

Preferred Qualifications

• Advanced degree preferred in business administration, Project Management, Information Systems, or a related field.
• Certification in Project Management Professional (PMP), Certified ScrumMaster (CSM), or similar credentials is strongly preferred.
• 7+ years of experience managing complex, cross-functional projects in areas such as Human Resources, Finance, Supply Chain, or IT systems.
• Experience working within structured governance frameworks.

Education

Bachelor's degree in business administration, Project Management, Information Systems, or a related field required. Advanced degree preferred.

How to Apply

To apply for this position, please click on the "I am a current employee" button or "I am not a current employee" button under Apply Now. Please upload documents that includes your resume and responses to the prompts below.

• Please describe how you build stakeholder buy-in when managing a challenging project that is encountering conflict and resistance
• Tell us about your experience leading projects in support of executive level leadership.
• Describe how you balance risk management, resource allocation, and communication when leading a project?

Additional information

Your responses to the prompts will help us better understand your motivation, interests, and potential success in the role.

References will be requested of final candidates. All applicants will be notified after the search is complete and a candidate has been selected.

Contact Information: Daniel McCusky, HR Generalist

Institutional Statement on Diversity

Diversity is a source of strength, creativity, and innovation for UW-Madison. We value the contributions of each person and respect the profound ways their identity, culture, background, experience, status, abilities, and opinion enrich the university community. We commit ourselves to the pursuit of excellence in teaching, research, outreach, and diversity as inextricably linked goals.

The University of Wisconsin-Madison fulfills its public mission by creating a welcoming and inclusive community for people from every background - people who as students, faculty, and staff serve Wisconsin and the world.

The University of Wisconsin-Madison is an Equal Opportunity Employer.

We promote excellence by acknowledging skills and expertise from all backgrounds and encourage all qualified individuals to apply. For more information regarding applicant and employee rights and to view federal and state required postings, visit the Human Resources Workplace Poster website.

To request a disability or pregnancy-related accommodation for any step in the hiring process (e.g., application, interview, pre-employment testing, etc.), please contact the Divisional Disability Representative (DDR) in the division you are applying to. Please make your request as soon as possible to help the university respond most effectively to you.

Employment may require a criminal background check. It may also require your references to answer questions regarding misconduct, including sexual violence and sexual harassment.

The University of Wisconsin System will not reveal the identities of applicants who request confidentiality in writing, except that the identity of the successful candidate will be released. See Wis. Stat. sec. 19.36(7).

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