Senior Principal - ITSM Process & Governance Lead

Job description

GSK remains committed to achieving bold commercial ambitions for the future. By 2031, we aim to deliver £40 billion in annual sales, leveraging our existing strong performance momentum to significantly increase our positive impact on the health of billions of patients globally. Our Ahead Together strategy is centred on early intervention to prevent and alter the course of disease, thereby protecting people and supporting healthcare systems. Our diverse portfolio consists of vaccines, specialty medicines, and general medicines. Through continuous innovation and a dedicated focus on scientific and technical excellence, we strive to develop and launch new, groundbreaking treatments that address critical health challenges. Job Purpose The ITSM Governance Lead is responsible for defining, embedding, and governing IT Service Management (ITSM) practices across the ServiceNow Platform & Enterprise Tools Domain. The role ensures that ITSM processes, policies, and controls are consistently applied, fit for purpose, and aligned to business expectations, regulatory requirements, and enterprise standards. Acting as the primary business-facing authority for ITSM governance, the role provides oversight across Major Incident, Incident, Problem, Change, Request, Configuration and Service Catalogue practices. The ITSM Governance Lead owns the associated process definition, documentation, performance standards and governance requirements, including executive information needs and the use of data and insights to assess process health and drive improvement. The role partners with business and tech stakeholders, ServiceNow Product and Platform teams, Service Operations and third-party delivery partners to ensure ServiceNow-enabled ITSM processes are clear, compliant, measurable and continuously improved through a federated model across Digital and Tech. Key Responsibilities ITSM Governance & Standards Define, own, and maintain ITSM governance frameworks, policies, and standards for the ServiceNow Platform & Enterprise Tools Domain, aligned to enterprise ITSM principles and regulatory expectations. Establish clear process ownership, RACI models, and decision rights across ITSM processes (e.g. Incident, Problem, Change, Request, Configuration, Knowledge). Ensure consistent interpretation and application of ITSM policies across domains, products, and delivery teams. Process Assurance & Compliance Govern adherence to ITSM processes, ensuring controls, evidence, and audit requirements are embedded and consistently met. Partner with Risk, Security, and Compliance teams to ensure ITSM processes support operational resilience, data protection, and regulatory obligations. Oversee ITSM-related assurance activities, reviews, and remediation actions where gaps or non-compliance are identified. Business & Stakeholder Engagement Act as the primary interface between the business and the ServiceNow Platform teams on ITSM governance matters, setting expectations and resolving governance-related concerns. Translate business service expectations into clear ITSM governance requirements and measurable service outcomes. Provide guidance and challenge to Product Owners, Platform Managers, and Service Operations on ITSM design decisions and trade-offs. ServiceNow ITSM Enablement Ensure ITSM governance requirements are effectively enabled within ServiceNow, including workflow design, approvals, controls, reporting, and auditability. Partner with Platform and QA teams to ensure ITSM changes, releases, and upgrades comply with governance standards. Own the enterprise ITSM process performance framework, including Major Incident, Incident, Problem and Change Management, defining and maintaining KPIs, SLAs, targets, tolerances and other measures of process health and operational effectiveness. Ensure regular performance reporting and actionable insights are provided to agreed operational and executive governance forums. Define and prioritize demand for the data, analytics and reporting capabilities required to support ITSM governance and process improvement. Partner with Data Intelligence to ensure the required capabilities are designed, delivered and maintained, while retaining accountability for the KPI definitions, reporting requirements, interpretation and governance outcomes. Continuous Improvement & Maturity Assess ITSM process maturity and identify opportunities to simplify, standardise, or automate governance practices. Drive incremental improvements to ITSM governance based on operational insights, audit findings, incidents, and business feedback. Promote consistent use of ITSM best practices and patterns across the domain. Education & Professional Qualifications Bachelor's or Master's degree in a relevant field (e.g., Computer Science, Information Technology, or Engineering), or equivalent experience. Industry certifications highly desirable (e.g. Agile Methodologies). Job Experience: Typically 18+ years’ experience in ITSM, service governance, service management, or related technology roles. Proven experience working with ITSM processes such as Incident, Problem, Change, Request, and Configuration Management. Experience operating within governance, risk, or compliance-driven environments. Hands-on experience working with ServiceNow ITSM or comparable enterprise service management platforms. Experience engaging business stakeholders and influencing service management outcomes without direct line authority. Desirable Requirements: Expertise in ITSM processes and modern practices – Deep, practical mastery of Incident (including Major Incident), Problem, and Change Management, with the ability to design, refine, and modernise processes for a global organisation. Process governance and federated compliance leadership – Proven ability to define standards, guardrails, and policies, and to drive consistent process adoption and compliance across Digital & Tech in a federated operating model. Global CAB and major incident governance – Skilled in leading global CAB forums, overseeing risk and impact assessment, and ensuring effective governance for changes, major incidents, and continuous improvement. KPI, SLA, and performance management ownership – Strong capability in defining, interpreting, and evolving KPIs, SLAs, and OLAs, using data to challenge services, identify trends, and drive improvements in stability and user experience. Executive and service owner stakeholder engagement – Confident communicator able to engage senior leaders and service owners, articulate process expectations and benefits, and influence behaviours and decisions across the enterprise. Preferred Experience: Strong understanding of ITSM frameworks and principles (e.g. ITIL-aligned practices). Excellent stakeholder management and communication skills. Ability to balance control, compliance, and agility. Strong documentation, policy-writing, and process-design capability. Analytical mindset with the ability to interpret service data and governance metrics. #AGTech Skills Capacity Planning, Cloud Based Services, Configuration Management (CM), Database Management, Disaster Recovery (DR), Executive Communications, Financial Operations, Identity Access Management (IAM), Incident Management, Infrastructure Capacity Planning, IT Service Management (ITSM), Leadership, Metrics Tracking, Network Configurations, Network Troubleshooting, Operations Analysis, Performance Tuning, Service Level Agreement (SLA), Strategy Development, System Monitors, Vulnerability Management Why GSK? Uniting science, technology and talent to get ahead of disease together. GSK is a global biopharma company with a purpose to unite science, technology and talent to get ahead of disease together. We aim to positively impact the health of 2.5 billion people by the end of the decade, as a successful, growing company where people can thrive. We get ahead of disease by preventing and treating it with innovation in specialty medicines and vac