ITSM Service Excellence Leader

Northern Trust is seeking a senior ITSM leader and ITIL expert to lead the automation, optimization, and maturation of IT Service Management processes. This role is accountable for transforming how IT services are governed, executed, and continuously improved—shifting from manual, compliance-heavy processes to automated, data-driven, and resilient ITSM operations. 

This is a highly visible leadership role balancing “run-the-bank”stability with “change-the-bank” transformation, requiring strong ITIL judgment, deep automation acumen, and the ability to influence across global technology teams. 

What You’ll Do: 

ITSM Process Leadership & Optimization: 

• Interface with senior executives across the organization to drive strategic outcomes and day-to-day service delivery priorities to deliver operational excellence and enable risk reduction. 

• Serve as the enterprise authority on ITIL-based processes and capabilities, ensuring processes are fit-for-purpose, scalable, and aligned to business risk. 

• Lead continuous optimization of ITSM processes, reducing friction, manual effort, and cycle time while improving quality and compliance. 

• Define and enforce clear process guardrails, decision frameworks, and risk-based controls across global teams. 

Automation & Intelligent Enablement: 

• Drive an automation-first strategy for ITSM practices, leveraging AI, orchestration, and workflow automation to:  

• Reduce human dependency and error 

• Increase standardization and predictability 

• Enable safe, fast, and repeatable change execution 

• Partner with engineering, platform, and tooling teams to embed automation directly into ITSM workflows and deployment pipelines. 

• Identify and retire low-value manual controls, replacing them with preventative and detective automated controls. 

Metrics, Insights & Value Realization: 

• Define and operationalize KPIs, KRIs, and experience metrics that measure effectiveness, risk reduction, and business value. 

• Sponsor dashboard creation and automated reporting that provide real-time visibility into performance, compliance, and trends. 

• Use data and insights to continuously refine process design and automation priorities. 

Collaboration & Influence: 

• Act as a trusted advisor to technology, risk, audit, and business stakeholders. 

• Facilitate global forums, workshops, and working groups to drive alignment, adoption, and continuous improvement. 

• Mentor and develop ITSM practitioners, raising overall process and automation maturity across the organization. 

Who You Are: 

You are a seasoned ITSM leader and ITIL practitioner with a passion for process excellence, intelligent automation, and scalable governance. You bring strong judgment, a systems-thinking mindset, and the ability to translate ITIL principles into practical, modern operating models. 

You are equally comfortable: 

• Challenging legacy processes 

• Designing future-state workflows 

• Influencing senior stakeholders 

• And delivering measurable, sustainable outcomes 

Qualifications: 

• 10+ years of IT Service Management experience, ideally within Banking or Financial Services. 

• Deep, hands-on expertise in ITIL/ITSM, including governance, risk-based decisioning, and continuous improvement. 

• Proven experience leading automation and optimization initiatives within ITSM environments. 

• Strong understanding of ITIL, COBIT, ISO/IEC 20000, and regulated operating environments. 

• Demonstrated ability to lead globally and influence outcomes without direct authority. 

• Excellent communication, analytical, and stakeholder management skills. 

Preferred Certifications: 

• ITIL Certification (Intermediate or higher strongly preferred) 

• Automation, AI/ML, or RPA-related certifications 

Applicants must be authorized to work in the U.S. without the need for employment-based visa sponsorship now or in the future. Northern Trust will not sponsor applicants for U.S. work visa status for this opportunity (no sponsorship is available for H-1B, L-1, TN, O-1, E-3, H-1B1, F-1, J-1, OPT, CPT or any other employment-based visa)