Workday Solutions Architect - Talent Management and AI
Gilead Sciences · United States, California, Foster City · hybrid
At Gilead, we’re creating a healthier world for all people. For more than 35 years, we’ve tackled diseases such as HIV, viral hepatitis, COVID-19 and cancer – working relentlessly to develop therapies that help improve lives and to ensure access to these therapies across the globe. We continue to fight against the world’s biggest health challenges, and our mission requires collaboration, determination and a relentless drive to make a difference.
Every member of Gilead’s team plays a critical role in the discovery and development of life-changing scientific innovations. Our employees are our greatest asset as we work to achieve our bold ambitions, and we’re looking for the next wave of passionate and ambitious people ready to make a direct impact.
We believe every employee deserves a great leader. People Leaders are the cornerstone to the employee experience at Gilead and Kite. As a people leader now or in the future, you are the key driver in evolving our culture and creating an environment where every employee feels included, developed and empowered to fulfil their aspirations. Join Gilead and help create possible, together.
Job Description
At Gilead, our pursuit of a healthier world for all people has led to a cure for hepatitis C, revolutionary advances in HIV treatment and prevention, and progress across viral and inflammatory diseases and certain cancers.
We set bold ambitions in our fight against some of the world’s most devastating diseases. We are united by a shared commitment to solving complex public health challenges and improving the lives of patients for generations to come.
Gilead is seeking a Workday Solutions Architect focused on Talent Management and AI to help shape the future of our global employee technology experience.
This is an opportunity to do more than optimize an established platform. You will help define how Gilead brings together Workday Talent, Performance, Skills, Career Development, Learning, Recruiting, and emerging AI-enabled experiences to create scalable, intuitive solutions for our workforce.
As a senior individual contributor with platform-wide impact, you will own the architecture and evolution of these capabilities while ensuring alignment across Core HCM, security, reporting, integrations, data, and downstream platforms. You will play a key role in leading our Skills strategy and establishing a thoughtful enterprise approach to Workday AI and agents that is secure, explainable, auditable, and grounded in trusted Workday data and business processes.
This role is ideal for a Workday expert who enjoys solving complex problems, influencing strategy, and building what comes next.
Location: Foster City, California
Hybrid schedule: Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday in office
What You’ll Do
Shape the Future of Talent Management & AI- Own and evolve the Workday solution architecture across Performance, Talent & Succession, Skills, Career Development, Learning, and Recruiting, establishing scalable and maintainable standards and guardrails.
- Define the target architecture and roadmap for Workday Skills, including skills taxonomy and governance, worker and job-profile skills, data quality, proficiency, inferred skills, reporting, integrations, talent experiences, and adoption.
- Create connected talent experiences across goals, feedback, reviews, calibration, succession, development, internal mobility, learning, recruiting, and skills-based decision-making.
- Establish the enterprise architecture and governance approach for Workday AI and agentic solutions, incorporating human oversight, responsible AI controls, security, privacy, testing, monitoring, auditability, and release management.
- Shape and lead implementation of the Workday Self-Service Agent and other AI agents across areas such as recruiting, payroll, job architecture, talent management, and HR service delivery.
Lead Solution Design & Delivery
- Lead end-to-end discovery and business process design workshops for Talent, Performance, Skills, and AI-enabled experiences.
- Translate complex business needs into clear functional, technical, data, integration, security, and agent interaction designs.
- Help stakeholders understand architectural decisions, trade-offs, risks, and opportunities while guiding teams toward scalable solutions.
Drive Innovation & Platform Evolution
- Lead architectural impact assessments for Workday’s semiannual releases, guiding testing, readiness, adoption, and post-release optimization.
- Evaluate emerging Workday innovations and AI capabilities, developing pilots and value cases and helping define a roadmap based on business outcomes, risk, feasibility, user experience, and total cost of ownership.
- Define meaningful measures for Skills adoption and AI agent performance, including accuracy, completion, escalation, cycle-time reduction, employee experience, risk, and realized business value.
Influence Across the Organization
- Serve as a senior individual contributor and trusted Workday architecture leader with platform-wide influence.
- Provide architectural direction, training, and design oversight to functional and technical team members.
- Partner closely with business stakeholders, IT teams, and vendors across multiple strategic initiatives.
- Bring clarity to complex technical topics and help teams turn ideas into secure, scalable solutions.
Basic Qualifications- 8+ years of relevant experience with a BS/BA, or
- 6+ years of relevant experience with an MS/MA or MBA
Preferred Skills & Experience
We’re looking for someone who brings deep Workday expertise along with the ability to think strategically about what the platform can become.
- 8+ years of hands-on Workday experience spanning architecture, configuration, solution design, implementation, and support across multiple HCM modules.
- Deep expertise in Workday Talent and Performance, including goals, feedback, reviews, calibration, talent and succession, career development, and connections with Recruiting, Learning, Core HCM, reporting, and security.
- Experience leading a Workday Skills implementation or enterprise skills transformation, including taxonomy, governance, job and worker profiles, data quality, inferred skills, reporting, integrations, adoption, and operating model.
- Experience implementing Workday AI capabilities or enterprise AI agents, including use cases across recruiting, payroll, job architecture, talent management, HR service delivery, or similar areas.
- Strong understanding of agentic solution design, including conversational design, workflow orchestration, human-in-the-loop controls, permissions, responsible AI, testing, monitoring, and auditability.
- Experience leading new module implementations, redesigns, integrations, large-scale enhancements, and global deployments.
- Ability to make architectural decisions, navigate trade-offs, troubleshoot complex functional and technical challenges, and turn business needs into clear, scalable designs.
- Strong communication, facilitation, and influencing skills, including the ability to make complex Workday and AI concepts understandable to nontechnical audiences.
- Ability to successfully navigate multiple priorities and initiatives in a fast-moving, global environment.
- Bachelor’s degree in Information Systems, Human Resources, Business, a related field, or equivalent practical experience.
What Will Make You Successful
You’ll thrive in this role if you’re energized by both strategy and hands-on problem solving. You can move from a conversation about talent strategy and employee experience to a detailed discussion about Workday architecture, security, integrations, data, or AI governance.
Most importantly, you’ll have the opportunity to help shape how Skills and AI become part of Gilead’s broader Workday ecosystem, influencing solutions that support employees and the business at scale.
People Leader Accountabilities
- Create Inclusion: Understand the business value of diverse te