Senior Manager, Systems Engineering

ServiceNow • San Diego, CA

1d

About The Position

As Senior Manager of Systems Engineering – Mail & Messaging, you will lead the team responsible for designing, building, and scaling the global mail and messaging infrastructure that underpins our customer-facing ServiceNow platform. This role blends hands-on technical leadership with people management, requiring someone who can drive the transition from reactive operations to proactive, engineering-first practices while mentoring a high-performing team.

Requirements

• Experience in leveraging or critically thinking about how to integrate AI into work processes, decision-making, or problem-solving. This may include using AI-powered tools, automating workflows, analyzing AI-driven insights, or exploring AI's potential impact on the function or industry.
• 12 years of related experience with a Bachelor's degree; or 8 years and a Master's degree; or a PhD with 5 years experience; or equivalent experience.
• Proven experience leading a software engineering or DevOps team operating across a global, 24×7 production environment.
• Understanding of systems infrastructure components.
• Demonstrated ability to clearly define problems, collect data, establish facts, and translate findings into actionable recommendations.
• Track record of effective cross-functional collaboration and level-appropriate communication to build consensus and drive complex initiatives.

Nice To Haves

• Experience with queue-based systems, internet mail protocols (SMTP, POP, IMAP), and email deliverability best practices.
• Familiarity with leveraging AI and automation to improve engineering workflows, decision-making, or operational processes.
• Experience leading teams through a transition from operations-heavy models to engineering-first, infrastructure-as-code approaches.
• Deep expertise in Linux systems architecture and engineering at global scale.

Responsibilities

• Provide technical oversight and architectural guidance across the engineering team; partner with product development on new features, enhancements, and architectural reviews.
• Collaborate with product and program management to define external commitments, roadmaps, and delivery timelines.
• Own escalation response for critical customer issues, driving cross-functional resolution with urgency and transparency.
• Foster team autonomy through effective project planning, prioritization, Agile process coaching, and continuous skill development.
• Build and grow the engineering team through inclusive hiring practices, goal setting, individual development plans, and performance management.
• Identify and execute systems and process optimization opportunities that improve reliability, performance at scale, and operational efficiency.
• Assess compliance posture, risks, and vulnerabilities to ensure all systems and baselines are operationally sound and exceed customer expectations.
• Lead complex, cross-team engineering initiatives across global teams, ensuring architectural alignment, resource coordination, and on-time delivery.
• Champion the evolution from operations-centric workflows to engineering-driven approaches, embedding automation and infrastructure-as-code practices.

Benefits

• health plans, including flexible spending accounts, a 401(k) Plan with company match, ESPP, matching donations, a flexible time away plan and family leave programs

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Manager