Asst Dir Tech Ops

Northwestern Mutual; Franklin (WI); Hybrid; USD 144,000 - 216,000; Full time

Job summary

Northwestern Mutual Investment Services, LLC is seeking an Assistant Director of Major Incident & Problem Management to lead enterprise incident response, governance, and problem management. You will partner across technology and business teams to restore services quickly and strengthen resilience.

You will guide executive communications, oversee on-call readiness, and drive root-cause analysis and systemic improvements across the organization.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree required in IT, CS, Engineering or related field.
• Eight or more years in IT Operations, Service Management, or related areas.
• Five or more years leading Major Incident/Problem Management or similar teams.
• Strong knowledge of ITIL Incident/Problem Management, ServiceNow ITSM, Change & Availability management.
• Experience managing high-pressure Priority 1/2 outages.

Responsibilities

• Lead enterprise Major Incident Management with governance, policies, and readiness.
• Direct major incident response and recovery coordinating cross-functional teams.
• Guide executive communications with clear, timely status during outages.
• Strengthen 24x7 response readiness through on-call models and exercises.
• Own enterprise Problem Management and evidence-based investigations.
• Drive systemic issue resolution based on business impact and trends.
• Lead and develop service management professionals and drive accountability.
• Use operational insights to monitor metrics and identify weaknesses.
• Build cross-functional partnerships to strengthen resilience.
• Optimize ServiceNow capabilities for Incident and Problem Management.

Skills

Technology Reliability

Incident Management

IT Service Management

Operational Excellence

Governance

Strategic Vision & Planning

Talent Development & Planning

Education

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

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 systematic 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. (Preferred)

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.

#LI-Hybrid

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. The standard pay structure is listed but 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.

Skills

• Technical Troubleshooting (NM)
• Strategic People Leadership (NM)
• Technology Reliability (NM)
• Operational Excellence (NM)
• Learning Agility & Critical Thinking (NM)
• Collaborative Partnership & Planning (NM)
• Process Improvement
• Customer Centricity (NM)
• Engineering Expertise & Practices
• Escalation Tracking (NM)
• Change Adaptability (NM)
• Analytical Thinking (NM)
• IT Service Management (NM)
• Accountability (NM)
• Talent Development & Planning (NM)
• Incident Management (NM)
• Strategic & Systems Thinking (NM)
• Adaptive Communication (NM)
• Business Influence (NM)
• Governance Framework Design (NM)