Principal Architect - ServiceNow Platform

United Airlines•Chicago, IL

5d•$140,600 - $183,108•Hybrid

About The Position

The Principal ServiceNow Platform Architect is the senior architecture authority for United’s ServiceNow environment. The role is accountable for platform architecture, solution design standards, technical guardrails, and the long-term capability roadmap, including ServiceNow AI and Agentic AI architecture strategy. It provides architecture leadership across ServiceNow product areas and ensures solutions are scalable, secure, maintainable, responsibly governed, and aligned with enterprise technology strategy. The architect partners with business leaders, product owners, enterprise architects, Data & AI teams, engineering teams, and implementation partners to translate business needs into cohesive ServiceNow solutions. The role emphasizes maximizing out-of-box capabilities, avoiding unnecessary customization, and delivering measurable business outcomes while balancing innovation, governance, platform integrity, responsible AI, and practical delivery. The position requires a hybrid schedule of 2–3 days in the office at United’s Houston or Chicago headquarters. Candidates must be legally authorized to work in the United States for any employer without sponsorship. Successful completion of an interview is required, and reliable, punctual attendance is an essential function of the position.

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, Information Systems, or another computer-related field.
At least 5 years of enterprise architecture, platform architecture, or solution architecture experience.
At least 5 years of ServiceNow experience in large-scale, complex enterprise environments.
Experience designing solutions across multiple ServiceNow product families, including ITSM, ITOM, ITAM, SAM, Service Catalog, Knowledge Management, Employee Center, HRSD, IRM, App Engine, automation, workflow, AI, or Now Assist.
Experience defining enterprise AI or Agentic AI architecture, governance, responsible AI controls, model lifecycle standards, and adoption approaches for workflow platforms.
Experience with knowledge grounding, RAG, enterprise search integrations, AIOps, predictive operations, observability and telemetry platforms, and measurement of AI-enabled business outcomes.
Experience leading cross-functional design decisions, technical workshops, solution reviews, and architecture decision documentation.
Deep knowledge of ServiceNow platform and solution architecture, configuration, customization, workflow, integration, platform lifecycle practices, and customization trade-offs.
Demonstrated success establishing architecture standards, reusable design patterns, governance models, and architecture review practices.
Ability to create reference architectures, standards, design patterns, guardrails, architecture decision records, and executive-level architecture recommendations.
Strong understanding of enterprise integration patterns, APIs, IntegrationHub, event-driven design, identity and access integration, data exchange principles, and ServiceNow integration architecture.
Ability to translate business strategy and operational needs into scalable ServiceNow platform capabilities and architectural roadmaps.
Knowledge of ITSM, ITOM, ITAM, SAM, Service Catalog, Knowledge Management, Employee Center, HRSD, IRM, App Engine, automation, Now Assist, AI Agents, Agentic AI, AIOps, predictive operations, and AI-driven workflow and autonomous remediation capabilities.
Ability to establish responsible AI governance, model lifecycle controls, knowledge grounding, RAG, and enterprise search patterns in partnership with Data & AI, security, risk, and platform teams.
Ability to define and track AI adoption outcomes using measures such as productivity improvement, MTTR reduction, self-service containment, and automation rate.
Strategic thinking, facilitation, storytelling, and executive communication skills, including the ability to influence executive stakeholders, enterprise architects, product owners, engineers, implementation partners, business leaders, security partners, vendors, and cross-functional stakeholder groups.
Must be able to work a hybrid schedule of 2–3 days in the office at the Houston or Chicago headquarters.
Must be legally authorized to work in the United States for any employer without sponsorship.
Successful completion of an interview is required to meet job qualifications.
Reliable, punctual attendance is an essential function of the position.

Nice To Haves

Master’s degree in Computer Science.
At least 10 years of enterprise architecture, platform architecture, or solution architecture experience.
At least 7 years of ServiceNow experience in large-scale, complex enterprise environments.
Experience serving as a ServiceNow platform architect, domain architect, chief architect, or equivalent architecture leader in a global organization.
Experience with ServiceNow enterprise roadmap planning, platform governance, and multi-team delivery models.
Experience consulting on ServiceNow implementations and complex projects.
ServiceNow Certified Master Architect (CMA).
ServiceNow Certified Technical Architect (CTA).
ITIL 4 certification.
TOGAF, Zachman, Gartner, or an equivalent enterprise architecture certification.

Responsibilities

Define and maintain the ServiceNow platform architecture strategy and governance, including AI and Agentic AI strategy, reference architectures, technical standards, design patterns, architectural guardrails, responsible AI controls, model lifecycle standards, and decision frameworks.
Lead solution architecture for complex ServiceNow initiatives by translating business requirements into scalable platform solutions, facilitating design workshops, assessing options, and guiding decisions about out-of-box capabilities, configuration, customization, integration, and platform placement.
Architect AI-driven workflow automation and autonomous remediation capabilities and define business-value measures such as productivity, MTTR reduction, self-service containment, and automation rate.
Establish enterprise integration architecture for ServiceNow, including reusable integration patterns, API standards, IntegrationHub guidance, event-driven approaches, identity and access integration, data exchange principles, and alignment with enterprise architecture standards.
Partner with Data & AI teams on knowledge grounding, retrieval-augmented generation (RAG), enterprise search, observability, and telemetry integrations that enable trusted AI and AIOps capabilities.
Guide platform capability planning and adoption across ITSM, ITOM, ITAM, SAM, Service Catalog, Knowledge Management, Employee Center, HRSD, IRM, App Engine, automation, workflow, Now Assist, and AI Agents.
Lead adoption of AI capabilities across ITSM, ITOM, HR, and Employee Experience, and drive AIOps and predictive operations using observability and telemetry platforms.
Mentor architects, developers, and platform teams, promoting architecture discipline, technical excellence, standards adoption, responsible use of ServiceNow capabilities, and continuous improvement across internal teams and implementation partners.