ServiceNow Platform Lead, IT

Harvard University • Boston, MA

4h • $130,000 - $140,000 • Hybrid

About The Position

The ServiceNow Platform Lead works with the Senior Director, Administrative & Campus Systems, to drive service and technology roadmaps, oversee transformation initiatives, coordinate and ensure the quality of developer, quality engineering, and business analysis work, deliver service solutions, and manage relationships with HBS partners. The Lead owns the stability and usability of ServiceNow across production and non-production environments, collaborating with internal teams, community stakeholders, and third-party vendors to plan, develop, and deploy solutions that achieve business outcomes. This is a hands-on platform leadership role requiring direct configuration, troubleshooting, and improvement of ServiceNow while setting technical direction and coordinating delivery through a Managed Service Provider and other resources.

The role includes end-to-end ownership of the ServiceNow enterprise platform, its lifecycle, budget, operational performance, and evolution. The Lead is responsible for platform administration and development, technical governance, release and environment management, engineering practices, architecture and data quality, and complex incident diagnosis and resolution. In partnership with the Senior Director, the Lead develops the strategic roadmap and operating budget and serves as an IT Service Management subject matter expert, helping partners prioritize needs and improve work practices.

The position is hybrid, based at Harvard Business School’s Boston campus. Staff are expected to work onsite at least three days per week, with onsite coverage provided Monday through Friday. The schedule and onsite days are determined by business needs. The standard schedule is 40 hours per week; occasional support outside regularly scheduled hours, including early mornings, nights, weekends, and holiday breaks, may be required.

Requirements

• Minimum of seven years’ post-secondary education or relevant work experience.
• Strong interpersonal and communication skills, including the ability to educate others and explain complex technical concepts to varied audiences.
• Ability to direct and supervise the work of others.
• Ability to build and maintain relationships with organizational stakeholders and third-party vendors.
• Ability to provide timely support during critical situations and production incidents and drive efficient resolution of service issues.
• Ability to move between architecture and implementation, diagnose issues at platform, integration, data, and security layers, and make informed decisions about configuring, customizing, integrating, or retiring functionality.
• Strong analytical and problem-solving skills.
• Ability to navigate ambiguity and adapt effectively in fast-paced environments.

Nice To Haves

• Hands-on ServiceNow administration or development experience, ideally across ITSM and at least one additional product or application such as ITOM, CSM, HRSD, FSM, SPM, or custom scoped applications.
• Experience with ServiceNow upgrades, release management, instance governance, application scoping, update sets or source control, and technical documentation.
• Working knowledge of ServiceNow integrations and web services, including REST/SOAP, IntegrationHub, import sets, transform maps, and MID Server concepts.
• Experience with ServiceNow scripting and platform APIs, including JavaScript, Glide APIs, business rules, script includes, client scripts, and flow or workflow automation.
• Enterprise experience administering, configuring, developing, or engineering ServiceNow, with responsibility for production platform stability and delivery.
• Experience with ServiceNow implementations, including familiarity with ServiceNow Field Service Management (FSM).
• Experience supervising or directing the work of others.
• Commitment to sharing knowledge and expertise to elevate organizational capacity.
• Strong commitment to quality, innovation, and continuous improvement.
• Foundational knowledge and hands-on experience with generative AI platforms such as ChatGPT and Claude.
• ServiceNow certifications.
• ITIL certifications or similar.

Responsibilities

• Provide end-to-end ServiceNow enterprise platform ownership, including lifecycle management, budget and operational performance, service evolution, and innovation.
• Direct and coordinate business analysis and quality assurance resources, temporary staff, and a Managed Service Provider to deliver upgrades, projects, and Tier 2 support.
• Manage troubleshooting, incident remediation, performance monitoring, user and group access, access control lists, and support ticket resolution.
• Serve as the hands-on technical authority for ServiceNow administration and development, including instance configuration, application and module design, forms, workflows, business rules, scripts, policies, notifications, reports, dashboards, roles, groups, and ACLs.
• Own the technical lifecycle across development, test, and production instances, including instance strategy, clones, upgrades, patches, plugins, release planning, deployment validation, rollback planning, and post-release monitoring.
• Establish and enforce ServiceNow engineering practices, including design reviews, coding and naming standards, peer review, automated and regression testing, performance monitoring, logging, documentation, and knowledge transfer.
• Assess and improve platform architecture, data quality, CMDB and Configuration Management practices, service modeling, and alignment with the ServiceNow Common Service Data Model as appropriate to HBS priorities.
• Lead technical diagnosis and resolution of complex incidents and defects, including root-cause analysis, remediation, problem management, and vendor escalation.
• Design and drive the ServiceNow strategic roadmap and operating budget with the Senior Director, Administrative & Campus Systems, aligned with measurable business outcomes.
• Serve as a subject matter expert on IT Service Management best practices; work with partners to understand pain points, prioritize requirements, and identify opportunities to improve work practices.
• Define and promote security, quality assurance, and DevOps best practices.
• Define, support, and enforce standards and guidelines for ServiceNow configuration, scripting, integration, testing, deployment, and documentation.
• Build trust and collaboration by being present onsite and engaging directly with colleagues and constituents.
• Complete other responsibilities as assigned.

Benefits

• Generous paid time off, including parental leave.
• Medical, dental, and vision health insurance coverage starting on day one.
• Retirement plans with university contributions.
• Wellbeing and mental health resources.
• Support for families and caregivers.
• Professional development opportunities, including tuition assistance and reimbursement.
• Commuter benefits, discounts, and campus perks.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Senior
• Education Level: No Education Listed