Senior Manager: Service Management (Chicago)

This job is with Mayer Brown International LLP, an inclusive employer and a member of myGwork – the largest global platform for the LGBTQ+ business community. Please do not contact the recruiter directly.

Overview

Mayer Brown is an international law firm positioned to represent the world's major corporations, funds, and financial institutions in their most important and complex transactions and disputes. We are recognized by our clients as strategic partners with deep commercial instincts and a commitment to creatively anticipating their needs and delivering excellence in everything we do.

We are a collegial, collaborative firm where highly motivated individuals with an unwavering commitment to excellence receive the opportunity, support, and development they need to grow, thrive, and realize their greatest potential all while supporting the Firm's client service principles of excellence, strategic partnership, commercial instinct, integrated strengths, innovation, and collaboration across our international firm.

If you enjoy working with team members whose defining characteristics are exceptional client service, initiative, professionalism, responsiveness, and adaptability, you may be the person we are seeking to join our Information Technology department in our New York, or Chicago office, as a Senior Manager: Service Management.

The Senior Manager: Service Management is accountable for building and running a practical service management function, including fixing fragmented processes, inconsistent data, and unclear service ownership. Establish a service model and operating discipline that improves service reliability, reduces incidents, and provides clear visibility into service performance. Focused on improving lawyer productivity, service reliability, and cost-to-serve. The Senior Manager will align internal teams and vendors to operate against a single service model with clear ownership and accountability. Define and enforce service standards and performance measures that drive operational decisions.

Responsibilities

Essential Functions:

Service Management Leadership & Execution

• Define and execute a service management approach that reflects current operational realities and business priorities
• Define business and technical services, including ownership, boundaries, and key dependencies
• Define decision rights, approval controls, and accountability for how services are designed, changed, and operated
• Run day-to-day service operations and enforce consistent execution across teams and vendors

ServiceNow Platform Ownership

• Own governance, data model, and roadmap for ServiceNow, including decision authority on workflows, data standards, and platform usage
• Define platform direction and align stakeholders to a single roadmap and operating model. Standardize workflows and data in ServiceNow to support service operations, reporting, and automation
• Eliminate fragmented usage of ServiceNow and enforce consistent platform adoption across teams

Stakeholder Engagement & Collaboration

• Build strong working relationships with IT teams, vendors, and business stakeholders
• Translate service requirements into executable changes across teams and platforms. Provide clear, consistent reporting on service performance, risks, and required actions

Experience Management & Digital Observability

• Replace purely SLA-based reporting with a small set of service performance indicators that reflect user experience and service reliability
• Define measurable service indicators tied to user experience and ensure they are used in operational decisions
• Use ticket data, user feedback, and endpoint telemetry to identify recurring service issues
• Implement endpoint and service-level monitoring to identify issues before they impact users
• Use endpoint and experience telemetry to proactively identify issues, improve performance, and reduce incidents
• Convert technical data into clear service impact (e.g., which services are degraded and who is affected)

Vendor & Service Integration

• Implement a working vendor model where all providers are accountable to shared service outcomes. Define and operate a Service Integration and Management (SIAM) model
• Enforce consistent processes and performance expectations across teams and vendors. Hold vendors accountable for service performance, cost, and improvement

Core ITIL Practices

• Operational leadership for core ITIL practices, including:
  • Incident
  • Problem
  • Change
  • Request
  • Knowledge
• Simplify processes to remove unnecessary steps and improve execution speed

Operational Data & Insights

• Standardize service data and reporting across teams to eliminate conflicting metrics
• Use service data to prioritize improvements, investments, and risk mitigation
• Drive evidence-based decisions on investment, improvement, and risk

Self‑Service, Automation & Efficiency

• Drive adoption of self‑service, automation, and workflow orchestration across the firm
• Remove manual effort, and cost while improving user experience
• Ensure automation supports defined services and does not create fragmented workflows

General Duties

• Performs other duties as assigned or required to meet Firm goals and objectives

Qualifications, Experience and Personal Attributes

Education/Training/Certifications:

• Bachelor's degree in a related field. An equivalent combination of education and/or experience may be considered

Professional Experience:

• Senior leadership in global service management / service delivery roles
• Proven experience building and operating global delivery models, including outsourcing
• Deep expertise in ITIL‑based service management, modernized for today's environments
• Strong experience with ServiceNow as an enterprise platform
• Track record of driving operational transformation, cost efficiency, and service improvement
• Experience in professional services or similarly complex, client‑driven environments

Technical Skills:

• Service Management Expertise. Proven experience building or fixing service management in a complex environment (multiple vendors, inconsistent processes, or poor data quality)
• Stakeholder Communication & Influence. Demonstrated skill in engaging senior leaders and cross-functional teams, translating complex service and technology concepts into clear, business-relevant narratives
• Process Design & Improvement. Competency in analyzing, designing, and improving business and operational processes with a focus on scalability, consistency, and measurable outcomes
• Data Literacy & Analytical Reasoning. Ability to identify bad or conflicting data and fix underlying issues, not just report on them
• Experience & Outcome Measurement. Competency in designing and applying experience-based measurement models, including XLAs and sentiment analysis, to complement traditional SLA frameworks
• Commercial & Financial Acumen. Ability to assess service cost structures, vendor commercial models, and value realization to support sound investment and sourcing decisions
• Multi-Provider & Integration Management. Knowledge of SIAM principles and the ability to design integration models that align internal teams and external vendors into a cohesive service organization
• Platform & Tooling Proficiency. Hands-on experience improving how ServiceNow is used, including workflows, data quality, and reporting. Ability to evaluate and leverage platform features to enable governance, measurement, and insight at scale

Performance Traits :

• Strong written and verbal communication skills, able to communicate effectively and in a professional manner with all levels of the Firm and outside vendors
• Ability to work in a diverse team environment and effectively support the demanding needs of the Firm
• Ability to work under pressure, meet deadlines with shifting priorities
• Must be a self-starter with a high level of initiative
• Strong customer service skills, able to anticipate needs and exercise independent judgment
• Strong attention to detail, organizational skills and the ability to handle multiple projects
• Maintains confidentiality and exercises discretion
• Exercises solid strategic thinking and problem-solving skills

Management Accountabilities:

• Manages processes for direct reports in regards to performance appraisals, annual compensation, goal setting and performance counselling
• Demonstrated leadership and supervisory experience
• Operational budget analysis and recommendations
• Conducts analysis of staffing levels and participation in the recruitment process
• Able to determine and implement change processes to improve workflow efficiencies
• Process- and service-oriented with strong leadership and project management skills
• Able to set priorities and delegate in an efficient manner
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