Asst Dir Tech Ops

Northwestern Mutual; Franklin (WI); On-site; USD 144,000 - 248,000; Full time

Job summary

Northwestern Mutual in Wisconsin seeks an Assistant Director of Major Incident & Problem Management to lead enterprise processes and governance for critical technology services. You will direct incident response, strengthen 24x7 readiness, and drive root cause analysis with cross-functional teams.

With 8+ years in IT Operations and 5+ years in leadership roles, you will influence executive communications and continuously improve service reliability while partnering across digital and business

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in Information Technology, Computer Science, Engineering, or a related field.
• Eight or more years of IT Operations, Service Management, SRE, Infrastructure Operations, or Application Support.
• Five or more years of experience leading Major Incident or Problem Management teams.

Responsibilities

• Lead enterprise Major Incident Management with governance, standards, and operational readiness.
• Direct major incident response and recovery coordinating cross-functional teams.
• Guide executive communications during outages with clear updates.
• Strengthen 24x7 response readiness through training and simulations.
• Own enterprise Problem Management and root cause analysis standards.
• Drive systemic issue resolution using trends and business impact insights.
• Lead and develop service management professionals and foster continuous improvement.
• Develop and monitor reliability metrics and improve operational resilience.
• Collaborate with cross-functional teams to strengthen governance and workflows.
• Optimize ServiceNow capabilities for Incident and Problem Management.

Skills

Incident Management

IT Service Mgmt

Governance

Operational Excellence

Strategic Vision & Planning

Talent Development & Planning

Education

Bachelor’s degree in Information Technology, Computer Science, Engineering, or related field

Tools

ServiceNow ITSM

Change Management

Availability Management

Job description

About the Job

We are looking for an Asst Dir Tech Ops to Lead the response when critical technology services are disrupted and drive lasting improvements that help prevent future outages. As Assistant Director of Major Incident & Problem Management, you’ll lead enterprise processes, governance, and operational execution to restore services quickly, eliminate systemic root causes, and strengthen service reliability, stability, and customer experience. You’ll serve as the enterprise authority for Major Incident and Problem Management, partnering across technology and business teams and leveraging ServiceNow, operational analytics, and configuration management data to improve operational resilience.

What You'll Do

• Lead enterprise Major Incident Management. Own governance, standards, policies, procedures, and operational readiness to support a consistent, effective response to critical service disruptions.
• Direct major incident response and recovery. Coordinate technical, operational, vendor, and business teams through incident command, bridge management, escalations, and recovery activities to restore critical services quickly.
• Guide executive and stakeholder communications. Deliver clear, timely, and consistent updates during major outages so leaders and business partners understand service impacts and recovery progress.
• Strengthen 24x7 response readiness. Oversee incident response coverage and on-call support models, and lead training, tabletop exercises, and simulations to prepare teams for high‑severity events.
• Own enterprise Problem Management. Establish governance and root cause analysis standards, and ensure major incidents are evaluated for problem record creation and evidence‑based investigation.
• Drive systemic issue resolution. Identify and prioritize recurring incidents, technology risks, and service reliability concerns based on business impact, risk, and recurrence trends. Maintain executive visibility into major problems and remediation plans.
• Lead and develop service management professionals. Coach Major Incident Managers, Problem Managers, and related team members, establish operational and performance goals, and foster accountability, collaboration, and continuous improvement.
• Use operational insights to improve reliability. Develop and monitor incident, problem, availability, and reliability metrics. Analyze outage and disruption trends to identify systemic weaknesses and improvement opportunities.
• Build cross‑functional partnerships. Collaborate with Infrastructure, Applications, Cloud Operations, Site Reliability Engineering, Cybersecurity, Architecture, Service Desk, Change Management, Asset Management, and Configuration Management teams to strengthen operational resilience.
• Optimize ServiceNow service management capabilities. Serve as the business owner for Incident and Problem Management capabilities, partnering with platform teams to improve workflows, automation, integrations, reporting, and adoption across Incident, Problem, Knowledge, and Service Level Management. Ensure data quality, process integrity, and platform governance.

What You'll Bring to the Role

• Bachelor’s degree in Information Technology, Computer Science, Engineering, or a related field.
• Eight or more years of experience in IT Operations, Service Management, Site Reliability Engineering, Infrastructure Operations, or Application Support.
• Five or more years of experience leading Major Incident Management, Problem Management, Site Reliability Engineering, or IT Operations teams.
• Strong knowledge of ITIL Incident and Problem Management practices, ServiceNow ITSM, Change Management, and Availability Management.
• Experience managing high‑pressure Priority 1 and Priority 2 outages affecting critical business services.
• Strong crisis leadership and decision‑making skills, with the ability to coordinate response efforts under pressure.
• Clear executive communication and stakeholder management skills, including the ability to communicate service impacts and recovery progress.
• Expertise in root cause analysis, structured problem‑solving, operational governance, and continuous improvement.
• Ability to influence and collaborate across technical, business, and vendor teams.
• ServiceNow ITSM certification.
• (Preferred) Experience leading enterprise‑scale, 24x7 operational support organizations.
• (Preferred) Experience implementing Problem Management and service reliability practices.

Skills you have

• Technology Reliability- Clarify the reliability, resilience, monitoring, disaster recovery, and continuity outcomes the role owns.
• Incident Management - Align on the leader’s responsibility during high‑severity incidents and recovery coordination.
• IT Service Management - Confirm the maturity and scope of ITIL‑based service strategy, delivery, and support expectations.
• Operational Excellence - Define expected improvements in operational risk, cost, efficiency, and measurable performance.
• Governance - Confirm governance forums, decision rights, controls, and cross‑functional operating rhythms.
• Strategic Vision & Planning - Align the team’s near‑term roadmap with enterprise technology priorities and business demand.
• Talent Development & Planning - Clarify people‑leadership expectations, capability building, succession planning, and team development.

Compensation

Compensation Range: Pay Range - Start: $144,000.00 Pay Range - End: $216,000.00 Geographic Specific Pay Structure: Structure 110: $158,400.00 USD - $237,600.00 USD Structure 115: $165,600.00 USD - $248,400.00 USD

We believe in fairness and transparency. It’s why we share the salary range for most of our roles. However, final salaries are based on a number of factors, including the skills and experience of the candidate; the current market; location of the candidate; and other factors uncovered in the hiring process. If you’re living in California, New York City or other eligible location, geographic specific pay structures, compensation and benefits could be applicable,

Grow your career with a best-in-class company that puts our clients' interests at the center of all we do.

Northwestern Mutual is an equal opportunity employer that welcomes talented individuals of all backgrounds.

We are committed to creating and maintaining an environment in which each employee can contribute creative ideas, seek challenges, assume leadership and continue to focus on meeting and exceeding business and personal objectives.

At Northwestern Mutual, we believe relationships are built on trust. That our lives and our work matter.

These beliefs launched our company over 160 years ago.

Today, they're just a few of the reasons why people choose to build careers at Northwestern Mutual.

What started in Milwaukee, WI has grown into 7,000+ home office professionals split across 3 campuses: New York City, Franklin and downtown Milwaukee (HQ) - each one bringing with it its own unique talent and culture.

In a company with such a long and storied history, this may be the most exciting and important time to be a part of Northwestern Mutual as we are growing our digital and tech capabilities and are always on the lookout for bright, tech‑savvy candidates.

Northwestern Mutual is an equal opportunity employer that welcomes talented individuals of all backgrounds.

We are committed to creating and maintaining an environment in which each employee can contribute creative ideas, seek challenges, assume leadership and continue to focus on meeting and exceeding business and personal objectives.