ServiceNow Platform Lead, IT

Job Description

Job Summary:

Are you excited by the idea of joining a world-class organization at the intersection of higher education and technology? Are you drawn to leveraging workflow automation tools to ensure outstanding service delivery? Can you see yourself working with staff across the organization to create and manage digital workflows? If so, consider joining our team! The IT Service Delivery team plays a critical role in driving innovative solutions to solve business problems in support of HBS’s mission to educate leaders who make a difference in the world.

The ServiceNow Platform Lead works with the Senior Director, Administrative & Campus Systems to drive service and technology roadmaps, oversee major transformation initiatives, assign and ensure the quality of developer, quality engineering (QE), and business analysis (BA) work, deliver top-notch service solutions, and manage relationships with partners across HBS. The Lead is responsible for the stability and usability of the ServiceNow platform across all production and non-production environments. They collaborate with internal team members, community stakeholders, and third-party vendors to ensure effective planning, development, and deployment of solutions that achieve desired business outcomes. They use automation extensively to design, configure, and manage applications in collaboration with a Managed Service Provider (MSP). This is a hands-on platform leadership role: the Lead is expected to configure, troubleshoot, and improve ServiceNow directly, while setting technical direction and coordinating delivery through the MSP and other resources.

The ideal candidate will be an energetic, quick learner who possesses superior interpersonal and communication skills, can direct and supervise the work of others, and creates an environment that fosters efficient and effective work practices. They will bring experience in service management practices and enabling technology, along with the ability to work collaboratively to design, implement and mature service delivery practices. The candidate will build strong relationships across the organization, provide timely support during critical situations and production incidents, and drive efficient resolution of service issues. They move comfortably between architecture and implementation, diagnose issues at the platform, integration, data, and security layers, and make informed decisions about when to configure, customize, integrate, or retire functionality.

Job-Specific Responsibilities:

• Provide end-to-end Service Ownership for ServiceNow enterprise platform including lifecycle management, budget and operational performance, and service evolution and innovation
• Direct and coordinate the work of BA and QA resources, temporary staff, and an MSP to deliver platform upgrades, projects, and Tier 2 support including troubleshooting, incident remediation, performance monitoring, user/group access management, access control lists and manage support ticket resolution
• Serve as the hands-on technical authority for ServiceNow administration and development, including instance configuration, application and module design, forms and workflows, business rules, client scripts, UI policies, data policies, notifications, reports, dashboards, roles, groups, and access control lists (ACLs)
• Own the technical lifecycle of the platform across development, test, and production instances, including instance strategy, clones, upgrades, patches, plugin activation, release planning, update sets or source control, deployment validation, rollback planning, and post-release monitoring
• Establish and enforce engineering practices for ServiceNow, including technical design reviews, coding and naming standards, peer review, automated testing with the Automated Test Framework (ATF), regression testing, performance monitoring, logging, documentation, and knowledge transfer
• Assess and improve platform architecture, data quality, CMDB and Configuration Management practices, service modeling, and alignment with the ServiceNow Common Service Data Model (CSDM), as applicable to HBS priorities
• Lead technical diagnosis and resolution of complex incidents and defects, including root-cause analysis, remediation, problem management, and coordination of vendor escalation when platform behavior or integrations are at risk
• Design and drive the ServiceNow strategic roadmap and operating budget with the Senior Director, Administrative & Campus Systems to ensure alignment with measurable business outcomes
• Serve as a subject matter expert on IT Service Management (ITSM) best practices and work with partners to understand pain points, prioritize requirements and identify opportunities to improve work practices
• Define and promote best practices including security, quality assurance and DevOps methodologies
• Define, support, and enforce code standards and guidelines to support relevant to the applications and technologies including ServiceNow configuration, scripting, integration, testing, deployment, and documentation standards
• Build trust and collaboration by being present on-site and engaging directly with colleagues and various constituents
• Complete other responsibilities as assigned

Working Conditions:

• Additional support outside of regularly scheduled hours, including early mornings, nights, weekends, and holiday breaks, may occasionally be required

Qualifications

Basic Qualifications:

• Minimum of seven years’ post-secondary education or relevant work experience

Additional Qualifications and Skills:

The following are preferred:

• Hands-on ServiceNow administration and/or development experience, ideally across ITSM and one or more additional products or applications such as ITOM, CSM, HRSD, FSM, SPM, or custom scoped applications
• Experience with ServiceNow upgrades, release management, instance governance, application scoping, update sets or source control, and technical documentation
• Working knowledge of ServiceNow integrations and web services, including REST/SOAP, IntegrationHub, import sets, transform maps, and MID Server concepts
• Experience with ServiceNow scripting and platform APIs, including JavaScript, Glide APIs, business rules, script includes, client scripts, and flow or workflow automation
• Relevant experience administering, configuring, developing, or engineering ServiceNow in an enterprise environment, with demonstrated responsibility for production platform stability and delivery
• Experience with ServiceNow implementations, including familiarity with ServiceNow Field Service Management (FSM)
• Experience with supervising or directing the work of others
• Demonstrated ability to build and maintain relationships with key stakeholders across the organization
• Dedicated to sharing knowledge and expertise to elevate organizational capacity
• Strong commitment to quality, innovation, and continuous improvement
• Foundational knowledge and hands-on experience with generative AI platforms such as ChatGPT and Claude
• Demonstrated ability to build and manage effective relationships with third-party vendors
• Effective communication skills, with the ability to educate others and clearly convey complex technical concepts to varied audiences
• Ability to navigate ambiguity and adapt effectively in fast-paced environments
• Strong analytical mindset and problem-solving skills

Certificates and Licenses:

The following are preferred:

• ServiceNow certifications
• ITIL certifications or similar

Additional Information

• Standard Hours/Schedule: 40 hours per week
• Compensation Range/Rate (including Shift Differential if applicable): $130,000 - $140,000, salary commensurate with experience
• Visa Sponsorship Information: Harvard University is unable to provide visa sponsorship for this position
• Pre-Employment Screening: Identity, Education, Criminal
• Other Information:

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