Workday Manager, People Reporting & Analytics

Rakuten•Chicago, IL

About The Position

Rakuten International is a division of Rakuten Group, Inc., a Japanese global technology leader in services that empower individuals, communities, businesses and society. Headquartered in San Mateo, California with more than 4,000 employees worldwide, the Rakuten International business portfolio includes market leaders in e-commerce, digital marketing, advertising, communications and entertainment. We create products and services that provide exceptional value by aligning members and the businesses that want to engage them in a shared community. Job Summary: Do you have Workday reporting expertise and a passion for developing others? Do you want to continue your career in a highly global and growing organization? We’re seeking a people manager to join our People Reporting & Analytics team at Rakuten. In this role, you will manage a portion of our team while also contributing to hands-on delivery. This role is part of the Global Workday Reporting & Analytics team - we support all 33,000+ Rakuten employees and 22,000+ contingent workers. You will consult with customers to understand their business needs and translate them into reporting solutions – emphasizing Workday capabilities like Report Writer, Calculated Fields, Dashboards, scheduling, Prism Data Sources, Discovery Boards, and Worksheets to create automated, scalable reporting. You’ll also support the implementation and adoption of a third-party people analytics platform, helping us expand trusted self-service insights across the business. This is a new role created due to the success and growth of the team. This role is ideal for an experienced Workday reporting professional who is ready to take the next step into people leadership while maintaining meaningful individual contributor work; or an existing manager looking to make a move. Please note Rakuten is a global organization, you will have the opportunity to work with teams across 5 continents. This sometimes involves meetings outside normal business hours.

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree or equivalent education/experience.
Prior experience mentoring, coaching, or informally leading peers; 1+ years of people management experience preferred (or equivalent team lead experience with readiness to step into people leadership).
Understanding of HR functions and processes; ability to connect data to business decisions.
Ability to manage work from inception to adoption; strong program/change management skills.
Demonstrated advanced experience creating Workday reports, calculated fields, dashboards and security considerations.
Experience designing/using Workday Prism data sources, Discovery Boards, and Worksheets.
Experience with multiple Workday HCM modules (i.e. Core, Time/absence, Learning, Payroll, Recruiting).
Strong Excel skills for use with data review and testing.
Comfortable navigating Workday security domains and following data governance practices; exercises excellent judgment with sensitive data.
Proactive mindset with a focus on automation, self-service enablement, and continuous improvement.
Clear, concise communication skills; able to explain technical solutions in business-friendly terms.
Excellent problem-solving and systems thinking; curiosity to ask “why” and iterate on solutions.
High attention to detail, accuracy, and follow-through; adaptable to changing priorities.
Collaborative working style and strong relationship-building skills across global teams.

Nice To Haves

Hands-on experience implementing or managing a third-party people analytics platform (e.g., Visier, ChartHop, Crunchr, One Model, or others) preferred.

Responsibilities

Team Leadership Lead a small team of analysts/consultants/developers (1–3), providing guidance, feedback, and career development.
Consult with HR functional teams and HR Business Partners/Generalists to understand needs, assess ROI and prioritize work.
Utilize and enhance team standards to ensure a consistent reporting environment and customer experience.
Play a lead role in the establishment of global definitions and practices.
Support the rollout of a third-party people analytics platform by overseeing requirements creation, data mapping, UAT, validation, and end-user enablement and training.
Expand reporting of team KPIs (project and ticket load, adoption, self-service enablement), driving continuous improvement.
Hands-on delivery Translate stakeholder questions into clear requirements; consult with customers to connect insights to decisions and actions.
Monitor data quality and reconcile across sources; proactively identify enhancements to improve accuracy, performance, and user experience.
Leverage Workday capabilities (Report Writer, prompts/filters, calculated fields, matrix/advanced reports, scheduling, security) to deliver scalable outputs.
Partner with peers in HRIS and IT to ensure governance, security, and continuous improvement of reporting solutions.