Team Lead Strategic Partner Ops

The Team Lead, Strategic Partner Operations runs the business for ServiceNow's largest GSI partnership and the partner operations engine behind it. The role owns the Pre-Buy motion end to end and extends well beyond it — into forecasting, operating rhythm, process and policy design, and governance — while acting as a strategic business partner to the sales team to remove blockers and scale what works. 

This is a hands-on IC4 team lead: an analytical operator who sets direction for a small pod of partner operations analysts, raises the bar on rigor, and leads with an AI-first mindset — using AI and automation to simplify how the business runs, eliminate manual work, and give leadership faster, more reliable insight. 

Run the Business: Forecasting & Operating Rhythm 

• Own the partner business forecast — weekly and quarterly by GEO and stage (Commit / Expect / Upside / Pre-Pipeline), with call accuracy tracked and variance explained 

• Design and run the operating cadence: weekly business reviews, pipeline inspections, quarter-end readiness, and QBR packages for partner and executive audiences 

• Define and own the KPI framework and scorecards for partner performance — consumption, burndown, pipeline coverage, and partner health — anchored on a single source of truth 

• Surface trends, risks, and opportunities proactively with a point of view and recommended action, before they become escalations 

Pre-Buy Program Ownership 

• Own end-to-end Pre-Buy execution across both active contracts as reviewer and approver (not processor) of inventory tracking, burndown, OPTY validation, add-backs, swaps, and leftover reconciliation 

• Deliver bridge-normalized burndown reporting and flag slow-burn patterns, stranded inventory, and expiration risk early 

• Own LOI governance: interpret contract language into booking and comp guidance, and prevent LOI actions from triggering unintended downsell or GRR distortion 

Process, Policy & Governance 

• Build robust, documented processes for partner deal intake, approvals, exceptions, and reconciliation — designed to scale with volume, not headcount 

• Author and maintain partner operations policy (crediting, exceptions, program rules) with Finance, Deal Desk, Legal, Revenue Operations, and Comp, and drive clean adoption across the field 

• Uphold governance and controls: approval audit trails, policy compliance, and decision logs that stand up to Finance and audit scrutiny 

• Run continuous improvement — find the root cause of recurring escalations and retire them through process, policy, or system fixes 

Strategic Business Partner to Sales 

• Act as the operational thought partner to GPLs, GPMs, and Partner Sales leaders — removing deal blockers, resolving policy gray areas, and accelerating pipeline through the right partner motions 

• Serve as the first escalation point for field issues — mis-bookings, comp disputes, exceptions — resolving directly or packaging for leadership with a clear recommendation 

• Own field and partner enablement: playbooks, SOPs, and self-serve reference materials that reduce recurring questions and speed deal execution 

• Contribute to annual planning — partner targets, coverage inputs, and investment cases grounded in data 

AI-Led Simplification & Scale 

• Lead the team's AI agenda: identify high-volume manual work (reporting, reconciliation, intake triage, policy Q&A) and redesign it with AI, agents, and automation 

• Build and deploy AI-enabled tools — automated forecast and burndown reporting, anomaly detection on inventory and bookings, and assistants that answer policy and process questions for the field 

• Set data quality and governance standards for AI use: human-in-the-loop review, accuracy checks, and responsible handling of partner and deal data 

• Measure and communicate impact — hours returned, cycle-time reduction, forecast accuracy — and scale wins across Global Partner Operations 

Team Leadership 

• Provide day-to-day leadership for a small pod of partner operations analysts — set priorities, review work quality, and coach for ownership and judgment 

• Build the team's analytical and AI fluency through shared tooling, templates, and peer review 

• Model calm urgency at quarter-end and serve as backup to the Director on partner operations decisions