Senior Manager, Systems Engineering

ServiceNow•San Diego, CA

3d•Hybrid

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. What you get to do in this role: 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.

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.