Strategic Partner Ops Lead — AI-Driven Forecasting

ServiceNow; San Diego (CA); Hybrid; USD 114,000 - 200,000; Full time

Job summary

ServiceNow is seeking a Team Lead, Strategic Partner Operations to run the business for its largest GSI partnership, owning the Pre-Buy motion end to end and extending into forecasting, operating rhythm, policy design, and governance. You will partner with the sales team to remove blockers and scale what works.

This hands-on IC4 team lead sets direction for a small pod of partner operations analysts, leveraging AI and automation to reduce manual work and deliver faster, more reliable insight.

Qualifications

• 6+ years in Partner Operations, Sales or GTM Operations, Business Operations, or Sales Strategy in global enterprise SaaS
• Strong analytical background: forecasting, pipeline analytics, and KPI design, with advanced Excel/BI and SQL or equivalent data skills
• Demonstrated, hands-on use of AI to simplify or automate business workflows — GenAI assistants, agent workflows, or automation that removed manual effort at measurable scale
• Track record designing and enforcing process, policy, and governance in a cross-functional environment
• Experience leading, mentoring, or setting direction for analysts or project teams
• Experience working with or within a large GSI or strategic channel partner — understands how GSIs structure deals, allocate budgets, and consume licenses
• Comfort with enterprise SaaS deal mechanics: NNACV/ACV, GRR/NRR, revenue bridge normalization, crediting, and comp treatment
• Proven strategic partner to sales leaders, influencing across Finance, Legal, Deal Desk, Revenue Operations, and Comp without direct authority
• Executive communication: turns complex data into clear narratives and recommendations
• Operates with calm urgency in high-stakes, quarter-end environments with competing priorities

Responsibilities

• Own end-to-end Pre-Buy execution across both active contracts as reviewer and approver of inventory tracking, burndown, OPTY validation, add-backs, swaps, and leftover reconciliation
• Deliver bridge-normalized burndown reporting and flag slow-burn patterns, stranded inventory, and expiration risk early
• Own LOI governance: interpret contract language into booking and comp guidance, and prevent LOI actions from triggering unintended downsell or GRR distortion
• Build robust, documented processes for partner deal intake, approvals, exceptions, and reconciliation — designed to scale with volume, not headcount
• Author and maintain partner operations policy (crediting, exceptions, program rules) with Finance, Deal Desk, Legal, Revenue Operations, and Comp, and drive clean adoption across the field
• Uphold governance and controls: approval audit trails, policy compliance, and decision logs that stand up to Finance and audit scrutiny
• Run continuous improvement — find the root cause of recurring escalations and retire them through process, policy, or system fixes
• Act as the operational thought partner to GPLs, GPMs, and Partner Sales leaders — removing deal blockers, resolving policy gray areas, and accelerating pipeline through the right partner motions
• Serve as the first escalation point for field issues — mis-bookings, comp disputes, exceptions — resolving directly or packaging for leadership with a clear recommendation
• Own field and partner enablement: playbooks, SOPs, and self-serve reference materials that reduce recurring questions and speed deal execution
• Contribute to annual planning — partner targets, coverage inputs, and investment cases grounded in data
• Lead the team's AI agenda: identify high-volume manual work (reporting, reconciliation, intake triage, policy Q&A) and redesign it with AI, agents, and automation
• Build and deploy AI-enabled tools — automated forecast and burndown reporting, anomaly detection on inventory and bookings, and assistants that answer policy and process questions for the field
• Set data quality and governance standards for AI use: human-in-the-loop review, accuracy checks, and responsible handling of partner and deal data
• Measure and communicate impact — hours returned, cycle-time reduction, forecast accuracy — and scale wins across Global Partner Operations
• Provide day-to-day leadership for a small pod of partner operations analysts — set priorities, review work quality, and coach for ownership and judgment
• Build the team's analytical and AI fluency through shared tooling, templates, and peer review
• Model calm urgency at quarter-end and serve as backup to the Director on partner operations decisions

Skills

Forecasting

Pipeline analytics

KPI design

Excel/BI

SQL

AI automation

Leadership

Executive communication

Tools

Power BI

SQL

Python

Salesforce

Job description

ServiceNow is seeking a Team Lead, Strategic Partner Operations to run the business for its largest GSI partnership, owning the Pre-Buy motion end to end and extending into forecasting, operating rhythm, policy design, and governance. You will partner with the sales team to remove blockers and scale what works.

This hands-on IC4 team lead sets direction for a small pod of partner operations analysts, leveraging AI and automation to reduce manual work and deliver faster, more reliable insight.