Principal Service Executive

Job Description

Principal/Senior Service Executive | Workday

The Tone:
This is a full-time role at Workday, located in Tokyo, Japan. Workday provides enterprise-class software-as-a-service (SaaS) solutions for Human Capital Management and Financial Management. This role is crucial for ensuring customers successfully deploy Workday solutions that deliver on their business objectives, acting as a senior, trusted advisor to prospects and customers. The position focuses on shaping the future of work by connecting Workday’s services and sales organizations.

The TL;DR
• Role: Full Time
• Type: Full-time
• Location: In-person – Tokyo, Japan

• Team: Japan Services Executive team, part of the Professional Services organization, collaborating with Account Executives and Customer Success Managers.
• Mission: To plan, manage, and execute Professional Services business development for Workday’s most strategic and complex opportunities in Japan, ensuring successful deployments and customer satisfaction.

What You’ll Actually Do
• Lead: Drive and take accountability for Professional Services business development for large, strategic, and complex opportunities, focusing on services revenue and profitability targets.
• Design: Create and validate credible Professional Services proposals, including effort estimates, staffing models, high-level project plans, and risk assessments, leveraging hands-on implementation experience.
• Articulate: Build and communicate differentiated services value propositions that connect Workday’s innovative deployment methodology to specific customer business outcomes.
• Negotiate: Manage, negotiate, and finalize Professional Services Agreements, Statements of Work (SOWs), and other contractual documentation, ensuring commercial soundness.
• Partner: Develop and maintain mutually beneficial relationships with Workday Service Partners, jointly planning projects, managing partner capacity, and supporting their enablement and growth.

The Must-Haves
• Background: Bachelor’s degree or equivalent work experience, with a focus on enterprise application implementation, consulting delivery, or Professional Services sales for enterprise software, specifically in HR and/or Finance business processes.
• Experience: 10+ years of relevant experience, including a substantial track record in enterprise application implementation and/or consulting delivery, or Professional Services sales for enterprise software, with hands-on experience structuring project scope, estimates, staffing, timelines, and risk for enterprise implementations.
• Skills: Fluent (native-level) Japanese and business-level English; demonstrated understanding of multiple implementation/deployment methodologies to select and adapt the right approach for diverse customer contexts; strong commercial and financial literacy for estimating, margin management, risk assessment, and contract negotiation.
• Bonus: Proven ability to manage complex services sales cycles end-to-end with a track record of services revenue and profitability attainment; executive presence and the ability to engage credibly with CxO-level stakeholders; experience working with system integration/implementation partners in the Japanese market, including joint proposals and capacity management; strong project-management background or formal consulting experience on enterprise transformation programs.