The ITSM Solution Architect serves as the technical leader for the ServiceNow platform and broader ITSM ecosystem. Reporting to the Director, IT Service Management, this role combines responsibilities commonly associated with solution architecture, platform ownership, product management, and business analysis to ensure the platform continues to evolve in alignment with business needs and enterprise strategy.

The architect is expected to think beyond individual requirements and evaluate the broader impact of proposed solutions across processes, integrations, data models, reporting, user experience, supportability, and platform maintainability.

This role will provide recommendations regarding platform strategy, roadmap planning, backlog prioritization, and continuous improvement initiatives while providing technical leadership to analysts, developers, administrators, and implementation partners and partnering closely with the Director, IT Service Management and business stakeholders to deliver scalable, maintainable, and business-aligned solutions.

RESPONSIBILITIES

Product & Portfolio Leadership

• Evaluate platform opportunities and provide recommendations for future enhancements based on business value, operational efficiency, technical debt, risk reduction, and platform maturity.

• Develop business cases, solution options, and implementation recommendations for new platform capabilities and investments.

• Provide recommendations regarding prioritization of strategic initiatives, operational needs, compliance requirements, and technical improvements within the platform backlog.

ServiceNow Platform Leadership & Strategy

• Serve as the senior technical authority and primary architect for the ServiceNow platform.

• Lead solution reviews and approve architectural designs to ensure scalability, maintainability, and alignment with platform strategy.

• Partner with the Product Owner to prioritize backlog items, technical debt remediation, platform investments, and continuous improvement opportunities.

• Facilitate technical discovery, solution design workshops, backlog refinement, and architectural review sessions.

• Mentor administrators, developers, analysts, and implementation partners on ServiceNow best practices.

• Establish standards for configuration, customization, data integrity, performance, workflows, and scripting.

• Provide recommendations, architectural guidance, and strategic input to support development and maintenance of a multi-year ServiceNow and ITSM roadmap.

• Evaluate new capabilities and recommend adoption strategies.

• Anticipate downstream impacts of proposed changes and ensure long-term operational sustainability.

• Provide technical leadership and architectural guidance during platform delivery activities, including backlog refinement, sprint planning, standups, and solution reviews.

Solution Architecture & Design

• Lead end-to-end solution design for ITSM capabilities including Incident, Problem, Change, Request, Knowledge, CMDB, ITOM, and the full support experience layer (service desk tooling, call center/contact center, chat, and self-service portals)

• Translate business requirements into scalable, supportable technical solutions

• Define architecture patterns, data models, and integration approaches across platforms

• Ensure alignment with enterprise architecture standards and governance

Requirements & Process Design

• Lead discovery sessions to translate business needs into detailed functional and technical requirements.

• Challenge assumptions, identify risks, and recommend alternative approaches when appropriate.

• Assess impacts across processes, integrations, data models, reporting, user experience, security, and supportability.

• Drive process design and continuous improvement across ITSM and ITOM practices.

• Ensure proposed solutions align with operational workflows, governance standards, and business objectives.

• Identify opportunities for automation, simplification, and standardization.

Ecosystem & Integration Ownership

• Design and support integrations between ServiceNow and other platforms such as:

• PagerDuty (or similar event/alerting tools)

• Zendesk or other case management platforms

• Telephony/contact center and support desk platforms (e.g., IVR, call routing, voicemail, omnichannel support)

• Identity and access systems (e.g., SailPoint, Active Directory)

• Infra and Security data sources (e.g. LanSweeper, CrowdStrike)

• Ensure consistent data flow, ownership, and system interoperability across the ecosystem

Governance & Standards

• Establish and enforce platform governance standards and architectural principles.

• Define and maintain architectural documentation, design standards, and decision frameworks.

• Ensure auditability, compliance, data integrity, and proper change control.

• Partner with support and operations teams to ensure solutions are usable, measurable, and supportable.

• Support major platform initiatives, upgrades, and critical issue resolution activities.

• Evaluate emerging technologies and capabilities for alignment with enterprise strategy.

QUALIFICATIONS

Required Qualifications

• 8-10+ years of experience in ITSM solution design or architecture

• ServiceNow Certified System Administrator (CSA)

• Experience serving as a Product Owner, Platform Owner, or Architecture Lead for ServiceNow.

• Demonstrated ability to influence platform strategy, governance, roadmap planning, and architectural standards.

• Experience presenting architectural recommendations, platform roadmaps, and solution designs to leadership and business stakeholders

• Experience leading backlog refinement, technical discovery, and solution design activities.

• Proven ability to challenge requirements and recommend alternative approaches that improve scalability, maintainability, and business outcomes.

• Deep, hands-on experience with ServiceNow including ITSM modules (Incident, Change, Problem, Request), Virtual Agent, Mobile, and ITOM capabilities (Discovery, CMDB, Service Mapping, Event Management)

• Proven experience building, stabilizing, governing, and maturing CMDB and ITOM implementations, including Discovery, Service Mapping, data quality remediation, service ownership, and operational adoption.

• Strong experience with CMDB design, data modeling, and service mapping concepts

• Proven ability to design scalable, maintainable solutions in complex environments

• Experience integrating ITSM/ITOM platforms with external systems and APIs

• Strong understanding of ITIL-based service management practices

• Ability to translate business needs into technical requirements and solution designs

Preferred Qualifications

• Certified Implementation Specialist (ITSM)

• Certified Implementation Specialist (Discovery)

• Certified Implementation Specialist (Service Mapping)

• Certified Technical Architect (CTA)

• Experience with PagerDuty, Zendesk, Salesforce, or similar tools

• Advanced experience with ITOM capabilities such as Event Management, AIOps, or Observability platforms (beyond core Discovery/CMDB)

• Familiarity with identity and access management integrations (e.g., SailPoint, Azure AD)

• Experience in retail or multi-location support environments

What Success Looks Like

• The platform roadmap continuously evolves through proactive identification of improvement opportunities and strategic recommendations.

• Solutions are designed correctly the first time... scalable, supportable, and aligned to business needs

• Clear architectural standards and governance are established and followed

• Platform capabilities are fully leveraged without unnecessary customization

• Seamless integration across ITSM tools and supporting systems

• Improved operational efficiency, visibility, and service delivery outcomes

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