Senior Lead, Service Management

Reports to: Head of Platform Engineering / Chief Technology Officer, Office of the Chief Technology Officer (OCTO)

Function: Platform Engineering — OCTO

Bring order to complexity. Govern with rigour. Make technology work for everyone, everywhere.

Pearson, the world’s leading learning company, is seeking a Head of IT Service Management to lead the enterprise-wide ITSM capability within the Office of the Chief Technology Officer (OCTO) . In this highly visible and pivotal role, you will lead and run the IT service management service across the enterprise — setting the standards, processes, and governance frameworks by which technology services are requested, delivered, governed, measured, and continuously improved across Pearson globally.

This is not a role confined to a single team or technology domain: you will hold cross-company governance accountability for Incident Management and Change Management, end-to-end ownership of Pearson’s Service Now platform and its full suite of associated sub-systems and integrations, and strategic ownership of the Atlassian toolchain — including Jira, Jira Service Management, Jira Product Discovery, and Confluence.

The ideal candidate is an experienced service management leader who combines deep ITIL 4 expertise with a platform product mindset
, exceptional stakeholder influence, and a passion for operational discipline at global scale.
As AI agents increasingly handle triage, routing, and resolution, this leader will define how Pearson governs autonomous action within its service management estate.

We are looking for a transformational people leader — someone who leads and develops a globally distributed team across multiple geographies and time zones, runs a rigorous best-practice service management function, and simultaneously reimagines what enterprise ITSM looks like in a cloud-native, AI-enabled organisation. You will bring deep technical credibility in service management platforms alongside the executive presence to influence senior stakeholders across technology, product, and business functions, drive lasting cultural change, and deliver measurable improvements in service quality at global scale.

As a senior leader at Pearson, you will be expected to embody and role model our leadership dimensions:

• Live Our
  
  Purpose:
  
  You align your values, actions, and goals with Pearson’s mission. You inspire others by articulating a compelling vision, connecting daily work to our broader purpose, and making decisions that reflect a deep understanding of our strategy.
• Simplify the Complexity: You navigate ambiguity and distill complexity into clear, actionable plans. You help teams understand how their work contributes to strategic goals, enabling focus, clarity, and effective execution in a dynamic environment.
• Carry Our Culture: You foster a culture of customer centricity, high performance, and exceptional collaboration. You lead with integrity, empower others, and build inclusive, high-performing teams that reflect Pearson’s values and behaviors.
• Deliver Results: You set ambitious goals and execute with quality, precision, and speed. You hold yourself and others accountable for outcomes, ensuring alignment with strategic priorities and delivering measurable impact for learners and stakeholders.

This role is grounded in ITIL 4 industry best practice. The Head of IT Service Management holds accountability across all core service management practices, organised into the following pillars:

• Service Strategy & Governance: Defining and owning the enterprise service management strategy, policy framework, and governance model — ensuring alignment with Pearson’s business objectives and OCTO technology strategy.
• AI & Automation Governance in Service Management: Define and own the governance model for AI-assisted and autonomous ITSM actions — including human-in-the-loop thresholds, AI audit trails, and model performance monitoring within Service Now and Atlassian AI capabilities. Govern the enablement of AI features across both platforms in line with Pearson’s data handling standards and AI policy.
• AIOps and…