ITSM Automation & Optimization Leader (ITIL Expert)

Northern Trust•Chicago, IL

About The Position

Northern Trust is seeking a senior ITSM leader and ITIL expert to lead the automation, optimization, and maturation of IT Service Management processes. This role is accountable for transforming how IT services are governed, executed, and continuously improved—shifting from manual, compliance-heavy processes to automated, data-driven, and resilient ITSM operations. This is a highly visible leadership role balancing “run-the-bank” stability with “change-the-bank” transformation, requiring strong ITIL judgment, deep automation acumen, and the ability to influence across global technology teams.

Requirements

10+ years of IT Service Management experience, ideally within Banking or Financial Services.
Deep, hands-on expertise in ITIL/ITSM, including governance, risk-based decisioning, and continuous improvement.
Proven experience leading automation and optimization initiatives within ITSM environments.
Strong understanding of ITIL, COBIT, ISO/IEC 20000, and regulated operating environments.
Demonstrated ability to lead globally and influence outcomes without direct authority.
Excellent communication, analytical, and stakeholder management skills.

Nice To Haves

ITIL Certification (Intermediate or higher strongly preferred)
Automation, AI/ML, or RPA-related certifications

Responsibilities

ITSM Process Leadership & Optimization: Interface with senior executives across the organization to drive strategic outcomes and day-to-day service delivery priorities to deliver operational excellence and enable risk reduction.
Serve as the enterprise authority on ITIL-based processes and capabilities, ensuring processes are fit-for-purpose, scalable, and aligned to business risk.
Lead continuous optimization of ITSM processes, reducing friction, manual effort, and cycle time while improving quality and compliance.
Define and enforce clear process guardrails, decision frameworks, and risk-based controls across global teams.
Automation & Intelligent Enablement: Drive an automation-first strategy for ITSM practices, leveraging AI, orchestration, and workflow automation to: Reduce human dependency and error Increase standardization and predictability Enable safe, fast, and repeatable change execution
Partner with engineering, platform, and tooling teams to embed automation directly into ITSM workflows and deployment pipelines.
Identify and retire low-value manual controls, replacing them with preventative and detective automated controls.
Metrics, Insights & Value Realization: Define and operationalize KPIs, KRIs, and experience metrics that measure effectiveness, risk reduction, and business value.
Sponsor dashboard creation and automated reporting that provide real-time visibility into performance, compliance, and trends.
Use data and insights to continuously refine process design and automation priorities.
Collaboration & Influence: Act as a trusted advisor to technology, risk, audit, and business stakeholders.
Facilitate global forums, workshops, and working groups to drive alignment, adoption, and continuous improvement.
Mentor and develop ITSM practitioners, raising overall process and automation maturity across the organization.

Benefits

Northern Trust provides a comprehensive benefits package including retirement benefits (401k and pension), health and welfare benefits (medical, dental, vision, spending accounts and disability), paid time off, parental and caregiver leave, life & accident insurance, and other voluntary and well-being benefits.
Northern Trust also provides a discretionary bonus program that may include an equity component.

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