Sr. Director, Performance Management Strategy

Company Description

It all started in sunny San Diego, California in 2004 when a visionary engineer, Fred Luddy, saw the potential to transform how we work. Fast forward to today — ServiceNow stands as a global market leader, bringing innovative AI-enhanced technology to over 8,100 customers, including 85% of the Fortune 500®. Our intelligent cloud-based platform seamlessly connects people, systems, and processes to empower organizations to find smarter, faster, and better ways to work. But this is just the beginning of our journey. Join us as we pursue our purpose to make the world work better for everyone.

Job Description

The Opportunity

We are seeking a strategic HR leader to co-lead the evolution of Performance Management in partnership with our Product team. As the Sr. Director, Performance Strategy, you will shape the company-wide performance philosophy and embed it into the way work gets done — through feedback, goal setting, continuous development, and performance-based decisions. You will serve as the strategic architect of our performance approach, driving alignment across Total Rewards, Talent, and the business.

You’ll partner closely with a Sr. Director, Pay & Performance Products who leads the product and experience strategy. Together, you’ll transform performance from an annual process into a data-informed, user-centered system that helps employees grow, managers lead, and the business thrive.

Strategic leadership and vision

• Define and evolve the enterprise-wide performance philosophy, aligned to our values, talent strategy, and business model.
• Serve as the COE owner of the 'why' and the 'what' — including expectations around feedback, goal setting, ratings, and performance-based decisions.
• Act as a thought leader for how performance connects to growth, development, pay, promotions, and talent planning.

Product partnership and experience design

• Co-lead with the Product leader on experience strategy, product prioritization, and AI integration into performance workflows.
• Ensure the COE perspective is represented in product discussions, including backlog review, user research, and sprint cycles.
• Shape how performance development principles come to life in digital flows, nudges, dashboards, and feedback mechanisms.

Collaboration and influence

• Partner with HRBPs, People Analytics, and Talent COEs to align performance practices across employee lifecycle moments.
• Contribute to the cross-functional strategy for manager capability, performance enablement, and continuous feedback.
• Actively participate in communities of practice and user testing to guide the evolution of the employee experience.
• Drive the talent review process and cadence — including strategy, standards, timing, and governance — while partnering closely with the Succession Planning team on enterprise-wide executive leader talent reviews. As part of this partnership, align on identification criteria, data inputs, calibration, and development plans to build a strong bench of high‑potential SVP+ talent across the enterprise.
• Partner closely with the Global Learning and Development team to ensure talent initiatives are seamlessly integrated into manager and leader development programs, and that our overall approach to talent development remains fully aligned.

Success and accountability

• Define and track measures of success, including performance philosophy adoption, business alignment, and decision clarity.
• Support AI-powered performance tools that improve calibration, feedback quality, and manager impact.
• Shape a culture of growth by ensuring fairness, consistency, and transparency in performance outcomes.

Qualifications

• 12+ years of experience in performance management, talent development, or strategic HR roles
• Proven ability to lead enterprise-wide transformation and partner with product teams
• Expertise in feedback cultures, performance design, ratings, goal-setting, and behavioral science
• Strong analytical thinking, executive presence, and cross-functional collaboration skills
• Experience influencing or integrating AI, nudges, or workflow intelligence into performance practices
• Bachelor's degree required; Master's in HR, I/O Psychology, or Organizational Design preferred

Why Join Us?

You’ll help define the future of work — not just for our employees, but for thousands of organizations that use ServiceNow’s platform globally. As part of a company that is Customer Zero for its own technology, you’ll experience firsthand how performance, AI, and experience design can come together to create lasting impact. 

Additional Information