Student Financial Aid Consultant, Higher Education & Nonprofit

Your work days are brighter here.

We’re obsessed with making hard work pay off, for our people, our customers, and the world around us. As a Fortune 500 company and a leading AI platform for managing people, money, and agents, we’re shaping the future of work so teams can reach their potential and focus on what matters most. The minute you join, you’ll feel it. Not just in the products we build, but in how we show up for each other. Our culture is rooted in integrity, empathy, and shared enthusiasm. We’re in this together, tackling big challenges with bold ideas and genuine care. We look for curious minds and courageous collaborators who bring sun-drenched optimism and drive. Whether you're building smarter solutions, supporting customers, or creating a space where everyone belongs, you’ll do meaningful work with Workmates who’ve got your back. In return, we’ll give you the trust to take risks, the tools to grow, the skills to develop and the support of a company invested in you for the long haul. So, if you want to inspire a brighter work day for everyone, including yourself, you’ve found a match in Workday, and we hope to be a match for you too.

About the Team

Many of us previously worked in higher education or nonprofit organizations, and we understand the realities of shared governance, academic calendars, and public or public-adjacent organizations. We also value creating sustainable ways of working that fit those environments. Our team is highly educated, curious, and always looking for ways to improve how we work. We actively utilize Workday’s AI tools to make our implementations high-quality and efficient, and we share what we learn so the entire practice benefits.

About the Role

As a Student Financial Aid Consultant, you will be responsible for ensuring the successful implementation of Workday's Student solution, with a primary focus on Financial Aid and the flexibility to support Student Financials as project needs require. You will work with customers to understand their challenges, business goals, and requirements around financial aid administration, packaging, compliance, and disbursement, as well as related billing and payment processes within Student Financials. Using Workday's implementation methodology, you will be responsible for designing, configuring, and testing the Workday solution. This job may be located anywhere in the continental United States within reasonable distance to a major airport.

Working with our Higher Education Customers, you will be responsible for:

• Becoming familiar with the touchpoints between Financial Aid, Student Financials, and other areas of the Workday product suite
• Gathering client business requirements related to financial aid packaging, awarding, compliance, and disbursement, as well as tuition billing and payment processes when supporting Student Financials
• Configuring the Workday solution to help improve the user, student, and administrator experience across Financial Aid and Student Financials
• Demonstrating the configurations through the development of prototype systems
• Assisting the client in testing the Workday solution
• Assisting the integration consulting team in configuring and testing integrations between Workday and third-party/custom solutions (e.g., federal aid systems, payment processors)
• Understanding the Workday Implementation Methodology and using it on all engagements
• Working with the client to help convert legacy financial aid and student financials data into Workday
• Partnering with the Engagement Manager to plan project activities and time frames, and ensuring project work is tracked and produced on time and within budget
• Participating in update training and other events to share product skills with other consultants

About You

You bring strong Student Financial Aid expertise and leadership experience. The role of a consultant requires sound judgment, and a collaborative approach to delivery. You know how to balance customer needs, project realities, and solution quality. You communicate clearly, build trust quickly, and work well across teams and workstreams. Previous Workday experience as a consultant, user, or administrator is strongly preferred but not required.

Basic Qualifications:

• Experience (6+ years) with Workday, Banner, PeopleSoft, PowerFAIDS, or similar Financial Aid/Student Information Systems
• 6+ years of functional experience in Financial Aid, ideally including leadership experience (e.g., Director of Financial Aid, Associate Director, or similar) overseeing financial aid operations, compliance, and staff
• Strong technical aptitude (6+ years) with systems and software, beyond functional/policy knowledge alone - comfort with system configuration, testing, and troubleshooting is essential, not just an understanding of financial aid rules and processes
• Demonstrated curiosity and comfort (2+ years) with AI-powered tools, with a willingness to incorporate AI into daily workflows to improve efficiency and client outcomes

Other Qualifications (preferred):

• Prior consulting experience is a plus but not required - candidates coming directly from higher education Financial Aid leadership roles are strongly encouraged to apply
• Working knowledge of Student Financials processes (tuition billing, payment plans, refunds) and the ability to flex into this area as project needs require
• Deep knowledge of Title IV federal regulations, Return to Title IV (R2T4), Satisfactory Academic Progress (SAP), and financial aid packaging methodologies
• Experience with federal and state financial aid systems (e.g., COD, NSLDS, FAFSA, state grant/scholarship portals)
• Industry experience in Higher Education
• Strong client-facing communication, presentation, and consulting skills, with the ability to translate complex regulatory requirements into system configuration

• Relationship Management: Proven ability to build trusted, long-term relationships with Financial Aid and other cross-functional stakeholders in higher education and/or nonprofit environments, including navigating complex governance structures
• Task Management: Ability to manage multiple customers in parallel, estimate effort accurately, surface risks early, and coordinate with Engagement Managers and project teams to keep scope, schedule, and quality on track.
• Ability to travel up to 50% based on client and project needs, particularly for key implementation milestones such as design sessions and major testing events

Encouragement to Apply

If you’re excited about this role but your experience doesn’t align perfectly with every qualification, we encourage you to apply. We’re especially interested in people who bring strong judgment, learning agility, and a collaborative approach to solving complex customer problems.

Posting End Date

Applications are accepted for this position on an ongoing basis through 10/31/26.

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.

Additional Considerations:

The application deadline for this role is the same as the posting end date stated as below:

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.

Workday is committed to providing reasonable accommodations for qualified individuals during our application process, in order to perform one or more essential functions of their job, as well as regarding the use of AI tools for employment decision-making to any degree. Please see below for more details including how to request an accommodation as a qualified veteran, due to a disability or for religious reasons, or as otherwise provided under applicable law.

Workday prohibits taking adverse action against any candidate or employee for reporting a possible violation of this policy, requesting one or more work accommodations, exercising a privacy right, or cooperating in an investigation in accordance with applicable law. Any employee who retaliates against a candidate or employee for doing so may be subject to disciplinary action, up to and including termination of employment, to the fullest extent allowable under applicable law.

If you require a reasonable accommodation, you may email [email protected], as far in advance as possible.

Are you being referred to one of our roles? If so, ask your connection at Workday about our Employee Referral process!

At Workday, we value our candidates’ privacy and data security. Workday will never ask candidates to apply to jobs through websites that are not Workday Careers.

Please be aware of sites that may ask for you to input your data in connection with a job posting that appears to be from Workday but is not.

In addition, Workday will never ask candidates to pay a recruiting fee, or pay for consulting or coaching services, in order to apply for a job at Workday.