HCM principal consultant

About the Role 

PARA Consulting is seeking an experienced HCM Principal Consultant to join our implementation team and lead our HCM practice delivery.

This role expands beyond a traditional HCM Lead position. In addition to serving as the Lead Consultant on complex client implementations, you will oversee all HCM projects across PARA Consulting, ensuring consistency, quality, and successful delivery at scale.

You will be responsible for driving functional excellence, guiding implementation teams, and acting as the senior functional authority across HCM engagements. This role combines hands-on consulting, project oversight, client advisory, and team leadership.

You will partner closely with technical leads, project managers, and leadership while serving as the highest-level functional expert for HCM clients.

What You’ll Do 

• Serve as the Lead Consultant on HCM implementations from discovery through go-live
• Oversee all active HCM projects, ensuring alignment with delivery standards, timelines, and quality expectations
• Lead and review functional configurations across HCM modules
• Create, review, and approve functional documentation, workflows, and UAT test scripts
• Ensure compliance with SOC/SOX requirements and client-facing audit controls
• Facilitate executive-level client workshops and business requirement sessions
• Act as the escalation point for complex functional, compliance, or delivery issues
• Partner with Project Management to monitor project health, risks, and success metrics
• Mentor, coach, and provide functional guidance to HCM consultants across projects
• Ensure consistency in implementation approach, documentation, and best practices
• Collaborate with cross-functional teams to align business requirements with system capabilities

Minimum Requirements 

• Bachelor’s degree in HR, IT, Business Administration, or a related field
• 5+ years of experience in HCM consulting or HR systems implementations
  (Rippling, Workday, NetSuite SuitePeople, ADP, UKG, or similar)
• 2+ years of experience in a lead, senior, or supervisory role
• Proven experience leading end-to-end HCM implementations
• Strong experience creating and reviewing functional documentation and UAT test scripts
• Solid knowledge of SOC/SOX compliance or internal control frameworks
• Excellent stakeholder management and client-facing communication skills
• Ability to translate business needs into scalable HCM system configurations
• Strong understanding of end-to-end HR processes and optimized HCM workflows

 Preferred Qualifications 

(Not required, but will make you stand out)

• Relevant HCM certifications (e.g., Workday HCM, Rippling, ADP, UKG)
• Experience overseeing multiple concurrent HCM implementations
• Experience in multi-country or global HCM deployments
• Knowledge of regional compliance requirements (GDPR, SOX, labor regulations)
• Familiarity with payroll, tax, benefits administration, and open enrollment workflows
• Experience with HR data migration and system integrations

A Day in the Life 

You begin your day reviewing dashboards across all active HCM projects, quickly identifying risks, dependencies, and areas requiring attention. During your morning standup, you align with project managers and consultants, providing guidance on complex configurations and unblocking critical issues.

Mid-morning, you step into a high-priority client escalation call as the Lead Consultant, translating business concerns into clear functional solutions and ensuring delivery stays on track. You review a go-live readiness checklist for one client while advising another team on a challenging payroll or benefits configuration.

In the afternoon, you lead a cross-functional workshop to align technical and business teams, review implementation quality across projects, and mentor consultants on best practices. You close your day confident that all HCM projects under your oversight are progressing with clarity, consistency, and high delivery standards.