IT Manager (Service Now) - MIT Lincoln Laboratory

Position Description

Are you passionate about driving innovation and creating exceptional employee experiences? MIT Lincoln Laboratory is seeking a visionary and experienced ServiceNow Product Manager/Owner to lead and drive the next phase of our ServiceNow journey. This is a unique opportunity to take charge of a transformative initiative that builds on the success of our Information Technology Service Management (ITSM) module implementation.

We are expanding the platform to deliver an employee-focused portal designed to centralize service requests, provide a seamless and consistent user experience, streamline critical processes, and enhance employee engagement across the Laboratory community.

As the leader of this effort, you will take ownership of shaping the vision, planning the roadmap, and executing ServiceNow implementations that align with our mission. You will inspire and guide cross-functional teams, engage stakeholders at all levels, and ensure the successful delivery of results—on time, within scope, and with measurable impact. Join us in making a lasting difference in how we serve and empower our community.

Primary Duties

• Lead, manage and contribute to building a team of ServiceNow Professionals ensuring clear role expectations, performance standards, and professional growth. Foster continuous improvement by facilitating regular team retrospectives and providing actionable feedback.
• Lead ServiceNow platform initiatives and projects, overseeing all aspects of scoping, design, implementation, user training, and value realization. Ensure that project delivery aligns with defined goals, quality standards, and timelines.
• Serve as a key liaison between technical teams, business stakeholders, and leadership. Effectively communicate project status, risks, and outcomes to stakeholders.
• Develop, enhance, and oversee an effective platform governance framework, including processes for demand management, roadmap planning, and prioritization. Ensure alignment with Laboratory business goals while continuously assessing and improving the quality of platform delivery and outcomes.
• Evaluate and assess new platform features and their benefits, ensuring alignment with the Laboratory’s business objectives. Translate these features into actionable initiatives by managing roadmap priorities and delivering corresponding technical, process, and Organizational Change Management (OCM) outcomes.
• Work with process Owners/Managers to prioritize requirements and manage the product backlog. Translate business needs into actionable tasks for development teams.

Primary Duties (cont.)

• Manage team/project resources, monitor utilization, and ensure optimal team alignment.
• Proactively identify project risks and develop mitigation strategies. Apply problem-solving techniques to resolve project/personnel issues swiftly.
• Drive retrospectives and continuously refine delivery processes to ensure efficiency and effectiveness. 
• Have extensive knowledge of the ServiceNow platform and advocate for best practices in ITSM, CMDB, HRSD and related modules.

This position is under general supervision of the Enterprise Technology and Tools Sector Manger.

This position carries indirect financial responsibilities, including collaborating with the Sector Manager to ensure a clear understanding of project budgets. Additionally, the role involves assisting with product selection and managing annual product support renewals.

This position will maintain frequent contact with internal department and/or Laboratory user community as well as external vendors to maintain communications related to problem resolution, systems upgrades, services and product research.

Qualifications

Required Minimum

• Strong communication skills to include the ability to lead discussion and guide a group to smart decisions even when you are not the subject matter expert
• Strong emotional intelligence as it relates to both self and social awareness as well as applicability to organizational change management
• Have high degree of organization, individual initiative and personal accountability and a results-driven mindset
• Cultivate an inclusive and collaborative work environment that effectively integrates on-site and remote team members. Embrace a servant leadership approach, prioritizing team empowerment, accountability, and mutual support to drive success
• Possess expert-level knowledge of the ServiceNow platform and its ecosystem, including the ability to provide documentation of relevant certifications
• Demonstrated ability to think strategically, with a proven track record of aligning initiatives and solutions to organizational goals, anticipating future challenges, and identifying opportunities for innovation and growth.
• Strong process development and process management skills
• Intuitive sense of how technical work aligns closely with business priorities and business value
• Exceptional problem solving and analytical skills alongside a desire to solve challenging problems
• Ability to thrive in a dynamic environment where there can be degrees of ambiguity
• Proven operational support experience
• Ability to obtain and maintain a government security clearance

Preferred Qualifications

• ServiceNow Certified System Administrator or Implementation Specialist
• Project Management Professional (PMP), PMI-ACP, or PRINCE2 certification
• ITIL v4 Foundation Certification and/or Strong knowledge of ITIL
• Experience with Business Transformation or Agile implementations
• Proficiency in tools such as JIRA, ServiceNow PPM, or similar platforms

Experience

• Bachelor’s / Master’s degree in IT, Computer Science, or related field (or equivalent experience)
• 6-8+ years of experience managing ServiceNow implementations or similar projects
• Solid knowledge of ServiceNow modules, examples include ITAM, CMDB, HRSD, IRM
• Demonstrated ability to manage project scope, timelines, and risks
• Exceptional communication and leadership skills, with the ability to influence across all levels.

Ability to obtain and maintain a government security clearance.

Occasional off-hour/on-call support is necessary. A certain degree of flexibility of schedule is required as some work (planned/unplanned) must be done outside of major production hours during pre-scheduled maintenance windows.

This position requires and individual with excellent communication (both oral and writing) and organizational skills.  The individual must be able to work in a fast-paced environment at times with minimal supervision and execute operations, project and administrative tasks with a high degree of quality, while following existing processes and establishing new operational procedures and best practices where necessary.  Additionally, the position requires the ability to work with members of other teams and staff to accomplish department and organizational goals.