Your work days are brighter here.
At Workday, it all began with a conversation over breakfast. When our founders met at a sunny California diner, they came up with an idea to revolutionize the enterprise software market. And when we began to rise, one thing that really set us apart was our culture. A culture which was driven by our value of putting our people first. And ever since, the happiness, development, and contribution of every Workmate is central to who we are. Our Workmates believe a healthy employee-centric, collaborative culture is the essential mix of ingredients for success in business. That’s why we look after our people, communities and the planet while still being profitable. Feel encouraged to shine, however that manifests: you don’t need to hide who you are. You can feel the energy and the passion, it's what makes us unique. Inspired to make a brighter work day for all and transform with us to the next stage of our growth journey? Bring your brightest version of you and have a brighter work day here.
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About the Team
Workday has launched an Enterprise Data and Analytics (ED&A) Team to Transform and optimize the way Workday creates and shares trusted data to drive actionable insights and data led innovation across the enterprise. To enable this strategy, the ED&A team has worked with the business to identify critical business areas in which data and analytics can make a material difference in the execution of Workday’s strategic goals. Each of these goals is being organized as a data product with a dedicated multi-functional team to drive a diverse set of data management, governance, and data analytics to realize relevant, measurable business change.
As part of ED&A and enabling this strategy, the Analytics Engineering team is at the forefront of transforming data into reliable and insightful assets. We are responsible for building data products, ensuring data quality and governance through version control, and creating best practices for the organization. The team also supports the creation of a unified and consistent view of our key business metrics, empowering data-driven decision-making across the organization and preparing our data for advanced analytical use cases.
About the Role
As the Semantic Modeling Lead, you will help shape how our data is understood and utilized across Workday. You'll spearhead the design and implementation of our semantic layer within our modern data stack, bridging the gap between robust data models and intuitive, business-ready data. This critical role involves collaborating closely with analytics engineers and analysts to define a unified semantic model that empowers self-service analytics, ensures data consistency, and lays the foundation for future AI/ML initiatives. Your expertise will be instrumental in establishing a clear, well-documented, and governed semantic layer that drives data-driven decision-making and unlocks the full potential of our enterprise data.
Responsibilities:
Lead the development, implementation, and governance of ontologies and semantic models to drive data interoperability and semantic enrichment.
Develop standards, guidelines, and direction for data modeling, semantics and data standardization in general at Workday to ensure a clear and consistent approach within the semantic layer.
Design the semantic layer with a strong focus on enabling self-service analytics for business analysts and ensuring data is well-structured and semantically rich for AI and machine learning applications.
Partner closely with analytics engineers and data architects to understand the underlying data models in Snowflake and develop a deep understanding of our business domains and data entities to provide guidance on how the semantic layer can be seamlessly integrated, optimized, and semantically enriched.
Lead the effort to establish and maintain comprehensive documentation for all aspects of the semantic layer, which includes defining and standardizing key business metrics, documenting ontological definitions, relationships, usage guidelines, and metadata for all semantic models, and ensuring clarity, consistency, and ease of understanding for all data users.
Evaluate and monitor the performance and quality of semantic systems, ensuring they meet organizational objectives and external standards.
Stay updated on emerging trends in semantic technologies, ontology use, knowledge organization, data modeling, and artificial intelligence to enhance the company’s capabilities in knowledge representation and data understanding.
About You
The ideal candidate will be a highly skilled professional with 5+ years of experience in semantic modeling, possessing a strong understanding of data modeling principles and a proven ability to design and implement well documented, governed semantic layers. You excel at bridging technical and business perspectives, collaborating effectively with diverse teams to drive data clarity, consistency, and accessibility for self service analytics and future AI/ML initiatives within a modern data stack.
Basic Qualifications:
5+ years of professional experience in semantic modeling.
5+ years of experience in data warehousing concepts, dimensional modeling, and data governance principles.
Proficiency in SQL and experience working with cloud-based data warehouses, preferably Snowflake.
Strong analytical and problem-solving skills with a keen attention to detail and the ability to translate complex business concepts into logical ontologies.
Other Qualifications:
Knowledge of representation syntax (e.g. OWL, RDF, SKOS), and tools (e.g. Protégé, TopBraid, PoolParty).
Understanding of Data Governance and Data Management, supported by industry certifications (e.g. DAMA, CDMP, DCAM).
Familiarity with data visualization tools (e.g. Sigma, Tableau, Power BI) and how semantic layers can enhance their capabilities.
Experience in defining and implementing data quality frameworks, particularly in the context of semantic models.
Understanding of ontology design, and/or knowledge representation.
Experience working with Agile or Scrum methodologies.
Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, Data Science, Information Science, or a related field.
Master's or Ph.D. degree in Computer Science, Engineering, Data Science, Information Science, or a related field.
Workday Pay Transparency Statement
The annualized base salary ranges for the primary location and any additional locations are listed below. Workday pay ranges vary based on work location. As a part of the total compensation package, this role may be eligible for the Workday Bonus Plan or a role-specific commission/bonus, as well as annual refresh stock grants. Recruiters can share more detail during the hiring process. Each candidate’s compensation offer will be based on multiple factors including, but not limited to, geography, experience, skills, job duties, and business need, among other things. For more information regarding Workday’s comprehensive benefits, please click here.
Primary Location: USA.TX.Frisco
Primary Location Base Pay Range: $144,300 USD - $216,500 USD
Additional US Location(s) Base Pay Range: $137,100 USD - $243,600 USD
Our Approach to Flexible Work
With Flex Work, we’re combining the best of both worlds: in-person time and remote. Our approach enables our teams to deepen connections, maintain a strong community, and do their best work. We know that flexibility can take shape in many ways, so rather than a number of required days in-office each week, we simply spend at least half (50%) of our time each quarter in the office or in the field with our customers, prospects, and partners (depending on role). This means you'll have the freedom to create a flexible schedule that caters to your business, team, and personal needs, while being intentional to make the most of time spent together. Those in our remote "home office" roles also have the opportunity to come together in our offices for important moments that matter.
Pursuant to applicable Fair Chance law, Workday will consider for employment qualified applicants with arrest and conviction records.
Workday is an Equal Opportunity Employer including individuals with disabilities and protected veterans.
Are you being referred to one of our roles? If so, ask your connection at Workday about our Employee Referral process!
