Director, APEX M&A Operations

ServiceNow•Santa Clara, CA

8d•$180,200 - $315,400•Hybrid

About The Position

Think of this role as the mini-COO of ServiceNow's integration portfolio working hand-in-hand with the Sr. Director of Strategic Operations. This role owns integration business end-to-end — from shaping how acquired companies are integrated into ServiceNow, building playbooks and consistent practices to streamline future integrations, to identifying, owning and driving to resolution specific process areas critical to the outcome of integration, in addition to partnering with the team and leadership to drive the strategic priorities of the COO Office and being accountable for whether integration outcomes are actually achieved. This is a business ownership role, not a program management role. The person in this seat makes decisions, drives clarity, and holds the portfolio accountable. They operate at the intersection of strategy and execution — setting direction with the IMO steerco, and ensuring the organization delivers against it. This role will own the outcomes, sometimes managing a process day-to-day, sometimes overseeing direct or indirect team members or You will need to be equally fluent in the boardroom and in the weeds — able to advise the President & COO on integration strategy one hour and resolve a cross-functional escalation the next. This requires someone with strong business judgment, high executive presence, and the credibility to drive decisions across a matrixed organization without direct authority.

Requirements

Experience operating at the executive interface — you have managed VP and C-suite relationships, navigated political complexity, and driven alignment across matrixed organizations where you had no direct authority
Deep understanding of how large companies make decisions and move: you know how to work the formal and informal systems, when to escalate and when to resolve, and how to get things done in a complex enterprise
Track record as a business owner — you have been accountable for outcomes, made hard calls, and built something meaningful, not just supported someone else who did
M&A integration experience: you understand the full lifecycle and what drives or destroys value post-close; you can connect integration execution to the broader COO strategic agenda
Executive presence and communication: you operate credibly with ELT audiences, produce materials that require minimal revision, and know when to push and when to listen
Strong people leadership: you develop others, build trust quickly, and expand the capacity of every team you join
High adaptability and resilience — this environment moves fast and shifts direction; you bring others along rather than getting disrupted
12+ years in management consulting, corporate strategy, chief of staff, or senior strategic operations roles — with a demonstrated track record of driving organizational change and executive alignment, not just delivering programs
Bachelor's degree required

Nice To Haves

MBA or advanced degree strongly preferred

Responsibilities

Own end-to-end accountability for integration outcomes across the APEX portfolio from close through end-state integration
Define what success looks like for each integration: set the business objectives, establish success metrics, and hold workstream owners accountable to results
Drive the integration strategy in partnership with the IMO leader — including decisions on scope, sequencing, resourcing, and trade-offs
Serve as the primary business decision-maker on integration questions that span functions; escalate only what requires executive resolution
Identify risks before they become problems — exercise business judgment to distinguish between noise and issues that threaten integration value
Serve as a senior operator for the COO Office's strategic agenda — not managing the OKR program itself, but driving the executive alignment, organizational change, and cross-functional momentum that determines whether COO priorities actually land
Own the relationships and working rhythms that connect the COO Office to the rest of the company: ELT engagements, VP-level stakeholder relationships, and the informal influence networks that move things when formal authority can't
Lead the COO's participation in company-wide strategic cadences — summer strategy, annual planning, leadership offsites, and QBRs — ensuring the COO agenda is well-represented, well-prepared, and lands with impact
Drive organizational change and alignment on the COO's highest-priority cross-functional initiatives — identifying where the organization is stuck, building coalitions to move it, and holding progress accountable without creating bureaucracy
Identify, shape, and launch new strategic opportunities for the COO team — this person expands the team's capacity to take on more, not just execute what's already on the list
Prepare and own executive-facing materials for Amit, Anne, and ELT audiences — these go out with minimal revision; you write at that level natively
Build the COO team's strength and institutional capability — identify gaps, develop talent, and create conditions where the team consistently punches above its weight
Lead and develop direct reports including the Sr. Staff PgM; ensure the team is focused, growing, and working on the right things
Represent the COO Office in cross-functional forums — you carry the credibility and judgment to speak for the team in high-stakes settings
Step into hands-on execution when there is a gap — you know when to lead from the front and when to delegate