Product and Operations Lead - ServiceNow

jlp; Bracknell; Hybrid; GBP 60,000 - 75,000; Full time

Job summary

John Lewis Partnership is seeking a Product and Operations Lead - ServiceNow to steer the development and operations of our ServiceNow environment, supporting ITSM and CMDB. You will define a multi-year roadmap, align platform capabilities with organisational goals, and drive integrations and automation improvements.

You will manage governance, engage senior stakeholders, and coordinate with offshore partners to ensure delivery and value.

Qualifications

• Extensive experience in product/enterprise platform management with ServiceNow or similar.
• Proven ability to own a multi-year roadmap and translate needs into deliverables.
• Strong stakeholder and governance leadership across senior teams.
• Experience with vendor management, licensing, and SOWs.
• Understanding of platform integrations and automation opportunities.

Responsibilities

• Strategic Vision & Roadmap: define and own multi-year ServiceNow roadmap aligned to goals.
• Stakeholder & Governance Leadership: chair governance boards and translate needs to requirements.
• Commercial & Vendor Management: oversee licensing strategy and vendor relationships, drive SOWs.
• Platform Development: stay updated on ServiceNow developments and best practices; network with customers.
• Platform Advocacy: drive adoption of new modules and automation, champion the platform.
• Owns ways of working and ensures safe build/run with offshore teams.
• Mentor and collaborate to develop the function and ensure measurable impact.
• Mitigate risk while protecting throughput and business value.

Skills

ServiceNow

Product management

Stakeholder management

Vendor management

Governance

Platform development

Tools

Jira

Confluence

Slack

Salesforce

Job description

ABOUT THE ROLE

As a Partner in our business your number one focus is to work collaboratively to create more value for our customers and our business.

As the Product and Operations Lead - ServiceNow, you will lead the development and operational maintenance of the JLP ServiceNow environment, supporting ITSM and CMDB. You will define and own the multi-year ServiceNow roadmap, aligning platform capabilities with the Service Management and organisational goals and digital transformation initiatives. You will seek to improve the operational efficiency of the organisation through the use of ServiceNow by identifying and developing opportunities for integrations and automations and associated process improvements.

Note that all development and operations of ServiceNow are provided by our 3rd party infrastructure partner and therefore you will not have admin access to the platform.

You will maintain a holistic view of technical services, projects and outcomes for ServiceNow, assuring technical delivery and operational performance of services provisioned via offshore 3rd party suppliers. You will be a key touch point for the business and for colleagues within IT. You will also focus on developing and maintaining stakeholder relationships, demonstrating effective influencing skills.

You will have the opportunity to develop and stretch personally and professionally to achieve your potential.

At a glance

• Expected salary - The expected salary for this role is up to £75000
• Contract type - This position is a permanent contract.
• Working pattern: This is a hybrid working role, therefore your time will primarily be split between working from home and the Bracknell Head Office. However, there will also be an expectation to visit other locations as the need arises.
• Our team currently works from the office around twice a week to connect and on a more ad-hoc basis to attend key meetings, but again the frequency is dependent on the business needs.
• Location - This role is based at our Bracknell Head Office campus.

Key responsibilities

• Strategic Vision & Roadmap: Define and own the multi-year ServiceNow roadmap, aligning platform capabilities with organisational goals and digital transformation initiatives.
• Stakeholder & Governance Leadership: Establish and chair governance boards to ensure cross-functional transparency and lead engagement with senior directors to translate complex needs into deliverable requirements.
• Commercial & Vendor Management: Oversee licensing strategy, manage vendor relationships, and lead procurement activities, including the creation of Statements of Work (SOWs).
• Platform Development: Keep abreast of ServiceNow product development understanding how this would be useful for JLP. Network with other ServiceNow customers to understand best practice and ways of working.
• Platform Advocacy: Champion the platform across the business, identifying opportunities for workflow automation, integrations with other relevant platforms (such as Jira, Confluence, Slack, Salesforce etc.) and driving adoption of new modules and features beyond our initial use of ITSM Pro.
• Set clear intent, direction and guardrails to achieve outcomes, aligned to the Partnership and business area strategy.
• Empower and support 3rd party offshore teams to make decisions and resolve challenges in line with the strategy.
• As a co-owner, actively share the responsibilities of ownership and support Partners and colleagues to have a voice in our business.
• Invest in your personal and professional development, utilising the opportunities available to you through your Profession to develop your skills and capabilities.
• Engage with your function, supporting your lead to continuously develop and improve it.
• Implements architectural and business commerce strategy to maximise the benefit and use of ServiceNow.
• Mitigate business risk while protecting throughput and business value.
• Assure operability delivery of ServiceNow
• Owns ways of working in capabilities and encourages safe experimentation in build and run
• Ensures services meet business need and manage major incidents as point of escalation
• Ensures all teams / services have clear OKRs
• Measure service(s) throughput and value released to ensure it is meeting required business impact
• Optimise cost of delivery by effectively using Partners and 3rd Parties by finding and removing all waste in the process
• Fights for balance of sensible prioritisation to remove technical debt and closes services, applications and infrastructure safely.

Essential skills/experience you'll need

• Can plan effectively and is heavily outcome focused
• Has owned business problems and transformed business process with defined business impact
• Strong stakeholder management skills
• Demonstrates integrity by tenaciously doing the right thing in the face of mounting pressure
• Demonstrates a high level of personal accountability
• Experience: Typically 8-10+ years in product management or enterprise platform owners