Workday Solutions Architect - Talent and AI

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 yielded a cure for hepatitis C, revolutionary improvements in HIV treatment and prevention as well as advancements in therapies for viral and inflammatory diseases and certain cancers.
We set and achieve bold ambitions in our fight against the world’s most devastating diseases, united in our commitment to confronting the largest public health challenges of our day and improving the lives of patients for generations to come.
Gilead is seeking a Workday Solutions Architect focused on Talent, Performance, Skills, and AI to own the design, integrity, implementation, and evolution of Workday capabilities supporting talent strategy and employee experience. The scope includes Performance, Talent & Succession, Skills, Career Development, Learning, Recruiting, and related AI-enabled experiences and agents across HR.
As the Workday Solutions Architect, you will define and govern end-to-end solution architecture across Workday Talent, Performance & AI, ensuring seamless alignment with Core HCM, security, reporting, integrations, data, and downstream platforms. You will translate complex business and talent requirements into scalable designs, lead Skills implementation, and establish an enterprise approach for implementing and governing AI agents that are secure, explainable, auditable, and grounded in trusted Workday data and business processes.
This role combines deep hands‑on Workday expertise with strategic influence and is a senior individual contributor role with platform wide impact.
This role is based out of Foster City CA and is on a hybrid office schedule (T,W,TH).
Key Responsibilities
Talent, Performance, Skills & AI
Own and evolve the Workday solution archcture for Performance, Talent & Succession, Skills, Career Development, Learning, and Recruiting establishing reusable standards and guardrails for scalability, security, and maintainability.
Define the target architecture and roadmap for Skills implementation, including skills taxonomy and governance, worker and job-profile skills, data quality, proficiency, inferred skills, talent experiences, reporting, integrations, and adoption.
Design talent and performance experiences that connect goals, feedback, reviews, calibration, succession, development, internal mobility, learning, recruiting, and skills-based decision-making.
Establish the enterprise architecture and governance model for Workday AI and agentic solutions, including human oversight, role-based access, privacy, responsible AI controls, testing, monitoring, auditability, and release management.
Shape and lead implementation of the Workday Self-Service Agent and other AI agents spanning recruiting, payroll, job architecture, talent management, HR service delivery, and additional prioritized use cases.
Solution Design & Delivery
Lead end-to-end discovery and business process design workshops for Talent, Performance, Skills, and AI-enabled experiences, defining future-state processes, requirements, outcomes, and solution approaches.
Translate business requirements into functional, technical, data, integration, security, and agent interaction designs, clearly articulating trade-offs and architectural implications.
Release & Lifecycle Management
Lead architectural impact assessments for Workday semiannual releases, including Talent, Performance, Skills, and AI capabilities, and guide regression testing, readiness, adoption, and post-release optimization.
Evaluate new Workday innovations and agent capabilities, develop pilots and value cases, and recommend a sequenced roadmap based on business outcomes, risk, feasibility, user experience, and total cost of ownership.
Define operational metrics for skills adoption and agent performance, including accuracy, completion, escalation, cycle-time reduction, employee experience, risk, and realized business value.
Leadership & Enablement
Act as a senior individual contributor with platform‑wide influence, guiding functional and technical team members on Workday design and best practices.
Provide training, architectural direction, and design oversight to ensure consistent, high‑quality Workday solutions.
Partner effectively with business stakeholders, IT peers, and vendors to drive successful outcomes across multiple concurrent initiatives.
Basic Qualifications:
8+ Years with BS/BA
OR
6+ Years with MS/MA or MBA
Preferred Skills & Experience:
8+ years of hands-on Workday experience, including architecture, configuration, design, implementation, and support across multiple HCM modules.
Deep expertise in Workday Talent and Performance, including goals, feedback, reviews, calibration, talent and succession, career and development, and their connections to Recruiting, Learning, Core HCM, reporting, and security.
Demonstrated 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 self-service and domain agents for recruiting, payroll, job architecture, talent management, HR service delivery, or comparable use cases.
Strong knowledge of agentic solution design, including use-case selection, conversational design, workflow orchestration, human-in-the-loop controls, security and permissions, responsible AI, testing, monitoring, and auditability.
Proven experience leading solution design for new module implementations, redesigns, integrations, large-scale enhancements, and global deployments.
Demonstrated ability to define architectural decisions and trade-offs, troubleshoot complex functional and technical issues, and translate business needs into clear, scalable designs.
Excellent communication, facilitation, and influencing skills, with the ability to explain technical and AI concepts to nontechnical stakeholders and lead cross-functional workshops.
Ability to manage multiple initiatives with competing priorities in a fast-paced, global environment.
Bachelor’s degree in Information Systems, Human Resources, Business, or a related field, or equivalent practical experience.
People Leader Accountabilities: