HR Systems, Data & Automation, Team Lead

Are you looking to have an impact on the daily life of millions of entrepreneurs in France (and tomorrow in Europe)?

Are you looking for a work environment that values trust, proactivity, and autonomy?

Then Pennylane is the right place for you !

Our vision

We aim to become the most beloved financial Operating System of French SMEs and Accounting Firms (and soon, European ones).

We help entrepreneurs rid themselves of time-consuming tasks related to accounting and finance while providing them with access to key financial information to assist in making the best decisions for their business.

About us

Pennylane is one of the fastest growing Fintechs in France (and soon to be in Europe!)

In 6 years of existence, we’ve managed to :

Make ourselves known as a groundbreaking accounting and financial software for small businesses and their accountants

Raise a total of €400 millions, including from Sequoia, the famous fund from the Silicon Valley who invested early in companies like Google, Facebook, Airbnb, Stripe, Paypal and much more...

Grow from 7 cofounders to 1000 happy Pennylaners : we’re now recognized as one of the greatest places to work in France (and also remotely), with a 4.6/5 rating on Glassdoor.

Build an international environment with more than 25 nationalities, with a strong remote-friendly culture, where 30% of the employees are already working from all parts of Europe

Earn the trust of thousands of customers and accounting firms and obtain outstanding ratings

Already more than 1 500,000 small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and over 8000 accounting firms use Pennylane in France!

About the role

Drive AI-powered HR transformation and better employee experiences, with HRIS Workday at the core.

We are a fast-growing scale-up in the midst of an exciting international expansion. We are looking for an HR Systems, Data & Automation Lead to shape the next chapter of our People technology ecosystem.

Your mission is to make HR processes simpler, smarter, and more scalable, improving employee, manager, and People team experiences through reliable systems, actionable data, AI, and automation.

With Workday as our core HCM platform, you will lead two Workday HRIS Experts and one HR Data Analyst. Working closely with IT, Finance, and business teams, you will combine product thinking, team leadership, and hands-on delivery to turn business needs into intuitive, secure, and effective solutions.

You will own the roadmap, prioritization, and quality of our HR systems and data solutions, building on the configuration expertise of our Workday specialists. Deep Workday configuration expertise is a plus, not a prerequisite. We welcome experienced HR systems leaders from other enterprise HCM environments who can challenge solution design, connect systems, and build Workday fluency.

Key responsibilities

• People systems product ownership & user experience

• Own the People systems roadmap, balancing user needs, business impact, risk, and team capacity

• Understand employee, manager, and HR team pain points through user feedback, journey mapping, support requests, and usage data

• Simplify HR workflows and design intuitive self-service experiences across Workday and connected tools

• Challenge whether a request calls for process simplification, configuration, automation, integration, or a change in user experience

• Lead discovery, solution design, user testing, and adoption; measure success through user satisfaction, adoption, time saved, and reduced manual work

• AI & automation innovation

• Identify and prioritize practical AI and automation opportunities across HR processes, reporting, knowledge access, and employee and manager support

• Map the AI and automation tools already used at Pennylane and assess how they can complement Workday and the wider HR ecosystem

• Lead hands-on experimentation and delivery, from prototypes and business-case assessment to testing, deployment, and ongoing monitoring

• Evaluate native Workday capabilities, including Workday Extend, alongside integration, workflow automation, and AI-enabled solutions; choose tools based on user needs, feasibility, maintainability, and business value

• Partner with IT and Security to establish appropriate privacy, access controls, human oversight, and governance before deploying AI-enabled solutions

• Build the team's capabilities through training, experimentation, documentation, and knowledge sharing

• HR data, analytics & governance

• Work with the HR Data Analyst to ensure data quality, consistency, and governance across the HR ecosystem

• Translate stakeholder questions into actionable dashboards, KPIs, and reporting capabilities covering headcount, attrition, workforce planning, and other People priorities

• Align metric definitions and data ownership with HR and Finance, and make reliable insights accessible to the right users

• Champion a data-driven HR culture and help stakeholders turn workforce insights into decisions

• Ensure GDPR compliance and appropriate controls across HR data access, use, and flows

• Team leadership & delivery

• Manage, mentor, and develop a team of two Workday HRIS Experts and one HR Data Analyst

• Organize delivery through clear project plans, a transparent backlog, and pragmatic agile sprints

• Balance business-as-usual support, compliance, release management, and strategic improvements

• Set direction and challenge solution choices while empowering the Workday specialists to lead detailed configuration and the HR Data Analyst to lead analytical delivery

• Stay hands-on in discovery, solution design, prototyping, delivery coordination, and problem-solving where you add the most value

• Foster documentation and knowledge sharing in Notion; develop team capabilities across HR systems, data, automation, AI, and user experience

• Core HRIS ownership - Workday

• Own the post-go-live performance and evolution of Workday as our core HCM platform, ensuring reliability, scalability, and adoption

• Translate HR needs into clear requirements and lead solution design, UAT, change management, deployment, and stabilization with the Workday experts

• Challenge existing workflows and design choices, drawing on specialist expertise and platform best practices

• Oversee support and Workday release management; assess new capabilities for their relevance and user value

• Ensure robust role-based access, data privacy, audit controls, and segregation of duties in partnership with the Workday experts, IT, and Security

• Integrations & HR technology ecosystem

• Oversee secure, scalable integrations between Workday and third-party tools, including Ashby for recruitment, Silae for payroll, and other HR and Finance systems

• Identify opportunities to remove duplicate data entry, improve data flows, and automate cross-system workflows

• Partner with IT to ensure integration architecture, monitoring, incident ownership, and recovery processes are robust and maintainable

• Maintain an up-to-date map of the HR technology stack and evaluate new tools based on user experience, interoperability, cost, and value

• Stakeholder collaboration & prioritization

• Partner with IT, Finance, HR Leadership, Talent Acquisition, and business teams to understand needs and align on priorities

• Facilitate prioritization workshops and steering committees, making trade-offs and roadmap decisions transparent

• Serve as the main point of contact between HR Operations and the broader technology organization

• Constructively challenge requests and propose simpler, secure, and scalable alternatives grounded in user needs and business outcomes

• International expansion support

• Lead HR systems readiness for international growth, including new countries, legal entities, payroll connectors, and local requirements

• Work with HR, payroll, IT, and the Workday experts to balance global standards with local needs

• Ensure systems, data models, and processes scale as headcount and geographic footprint grow

• Your Profile

• Must-Haves

• Strong experience leading HR systems, People technology, or HR digital transformation initiatives, including ownership of an enterprise HCM platform beyond implementation

• A product and user-centric mindset, with credible examples of simplifying HR processes and improving employee, manager, or HR team experiences

• Practical experience delivering automation and/or AI-enabled solutions in HR, data, or business operations, with evidence of business value and appropriate controls

• Ability to translate business needs into requirements, challenge functional and technical design choices, and lead testing, change management, and delivery

• Strong understanding of HR data, reporting, integrations, and governance, including data quality, access management, privacy, and GDPR principles

• Proven experience managing a team or leading a project team, with a collaborative and empowering leadership style

• Strong prioritization and project management skills: ability to manage a backlog, run pragmatic sprints, and balance operational support with longer-term improvements

• Excellent communication and stakeholder management skills, including the ability to influence across IT, Finance, and HR Leadership

• Curiosity, learning agility, and the ability to build Workday fluency while working effectively with specialist team members

• Fluent professional communication in French and English

• Workday experience is a strong advantage, but not a prerequisite. Experience with another enterprise HCM platform is welcome; we value your ability to lead systems evolution, assess solutions, and deliver better user and business outcomes over expertise in a specific vendor.

• Nice-to-Haves

• Experience with Workday post-go-live ownership, functional configuration, security, or relevant modules such as Core HCM, Time Tracking, Absence, Compensation, Talent, Learning, and Peakon

• Exposure to Workday Extend, AI assistants, low-code/no-code automation, APIs, or middleware

• Familiarity with tools such as Ashby (ATS), Silae and Deel (payroll), learning platforms, and Google Workspace

• Experience in a scale-up or high-growth environment

• Exposure to international HRIS rollouts, multi-country configurations, and payroll connectors

• Recruitment Process

• Screening Interview with Nathalie, Talent Acquisition - 30 mins

• Manager Interview with Mathilde, Head of People Ops - 45 mins

• Business Case Interview with Mathilde & Marine, VP People - 60 mins

• Last Round Interview - 2 members from People Management Team - 45 mins

• Team Fit Interview - 30 mins

• Offer

• What do we do to make your work life easier

• Wherever you are based, you will get 25 vacations days paid by Pennylane

• You’ll have a competitive compensation package

• You'll get company shares to enjoy a piece of the success story you're building with us

• You’ll have a budget to turn your home into a more comfortable workspace, as well as a monthly allowance to work from a coworking space whenever you feel like it

• Through our partner Gymlib, you’ll have access to 8000 fitness spaces in Europe and more than 300 activities related to wellness

• You’ll get the latest Apple equipment

• Depending on the teams and the requirements of the position - you'll be able to work remotely from your country of residence, as long as it is in Europe and within a maximum time difference of two hours from the CET time zone

• We are committed to regularly coming together for company events such as Tech Days (which bring remote Pennylaners together every 3 months) or our annual company seminar, fostering significant moments of cohesion for everyone.

• If you are based in France, you will have a French contract following French regulation on top of the additional perks : 6 to 12 RTT, 5 weeks PTOs, lunch credits (Swile), Alan Blue healthcare cover and regular events in cities where Pennylaners are