Customer Advocate Manager

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
What you get to do in this role:
The Customer Advocate Manager is a field-facing individual contributor who serves as the customer's champion during complex delivery challenges and escalations. This role bridges the gap between customer outcomes and internal ServiceNow execution, ensuring that high-impact delivery blockers are resolved through cross-functional coordination while maintaining unwavering focus on customer success, trust restoration, and accelerated adoption.
The Customer Advocate Manager protects customer relationships, go-live outcomes, and renewal value by rapidly mobilizing the right resources, translating technical complexity into business clarity, and ensuring customers feel heard, supported, and confident throughout challenging delivery scenarios. This role converts escalation experiences into opportunities for deeper customer partnership and systemic delivery improvements.
Key Responsibilities
Customer-Centric Escalation Leadership

• Serve as the primary Customer Advocate Manager and single point of accountability during high-impact delivery escalations.
• Establish trust and executive transparency with customers experiencing delivery challenges, ensuring they feel supported and informed throughout resolution.
• Translate technical blockers, platform constraints, and delivery risks into clear business impact and mitigation strategies for customer stakeholders.
• Facilitate customer alignment and expectation management during high-risk delivery scenarios, balancing urgency with realistic resolution paths.

Cross-Functional Orchestration for Customer Outcomes

• Mobilize and coordinate resources across Delivery, Product, Engineering, Support, Impact, Sales, and Partners to drive rapid resolution without direct personnel authority.
• Lead triage, prioritization, severity classification, and action tracking for multi-workstream escalations with customer timeline protection as the north star.
• Surface customer impact, adoption risks, and renewal considerations to ensure business context drives technical decision-making.
• Participate in customer-facing escalation calls, technical deep-dives, and executive briefings with focus on transparency and confidence-building.

Structured Problem Solving & Technical Triage

• Drive day-to-day escalation management through structured RCA (Root Cause Analysis), technical triage, and architectural evaluation.
• Identify and assess technical blockers, integration patterns, data issues, platform constraints, and design decisions impacting customer timelines.
• Evaluate alternative solution paths, workaround strategies, and change-order implications with customer business continuity in mind.
• Document escalation scenarios, resolution paths, and customer commitments to maintain accountability and closure.

Proactive Risk Mitigation & Early Warning

• Identify delivery red flags and emerging risks before they escalate, working proactively with delivery teams to course-correct.
• Establish clear escalation intake via CRIR (Critical Risk Intake Request) with rapid triage and prioritization protocols.
• Monitor delivery health signals across assigned accounts or industry verticals, flagging patterns that threaten customer outcomes.

Knowledge Enablement & Continuous Improvement

• Convert resolved escalations into reusable playbooks, patterns, knowledge articles, and reference architectures that prevent future customer pain.
• Feed lessons learned back into NowCreate methodology, SOW templates, risk assumptions, estimation models, and enablement content.
• Provide structured inputs to Product roadmap reviews, defect prioritization, partner enablement, and delivery onboarding improvements.
• Assist with partner ecosystem uplift by identifying repeat escalation patterns and coaching on customer engagement best practices.

Qualifications
To be successful in this role you have:

• 6-10+ years in SaaS implementation, Customer Success delivery, Solution Architecture, Technical Consulting, or Customer Advocacy roles.
• Proven experience managing complex enterprise implementations and multi-workstream programs with customer-facing accountability.
• Strong track record in escalation environments, crisis management, or multi-party resolution scenarios where customer trust was at risk.

Customer Advocacy & Influence Skills:

• Exceptional executive communication and stakeholder management skills (customer, partner, internal C-level).
• Ability to influence without formal authority and build trust rapidly during high-stress situations.
• High emotional intelligence with capacity to remain calm, empathetic, and solution-focused under pressure.
• Strong problem decomposition, hypothesis-driven analysis, and ability to simplify complexity for non-technical audiences.
• Demonstrated ability to balance customer advocacy with internal ServiceNow business considerations (scope, commercials, product constraints).

Preferred Experience:

• Prior customer-facing roles with P&L responsibility, renewal accountability, or customer health ownership.
• Experience working in SI/Partner ecosystems or multi-party delivery environments.
• Industry vertical expertise (Healthcare, Federal, Financial Services, Manufacturing) with understanding of regulatory nuances (PHI, FedRAMP, PCI, SOC).
• Background in Sales/SE or pre-sales risk qualification that bridges commercial and delivery perspectives.
• Change management or organizational transformation experience in enterprise technology deployments.
• Deep understanding of ServiceNow platform architecture, integrations, workflows, scripting, performance, and data models.
• Familiarity with at least two major workflow areas (ITx, SPM, SecOps/Risk, HRSD/Employee, Healthcare, GenAI).
• Knowledge of delivery lifecycle (SOW → design → build → UAT/OAT → cutover → go-live) and common failure modes at each phase.
• Working knowledge of NowCreate or similar phase-based delivery methodologies.

FD21
For positions in this location, we offer a base pay of $123,900 - $216,800, plus equity (when applicable), variable/incentive compensation and benefits. Sales positions generally offer a competitive On Target Earnings (OTE) incentive compensation structure. Please note that the base pay shown is a guideline, and individual total compensation will vary based on factors such as qualifications, skill level, competencies, and work location. We also offer health plans, including flexible spending accounts, a 401(k) Plan with company match, ESPP, matching donations, a flexible time away plan and family leave programs. Compensation is based on the geographic location in which the role is located and is subject to change based on work location.
Additional Information
Work Personas
We approach our distributed world of work with flexibility and trust. Work personas (flexible, remote, or required in office) are categories that are assigned to ServiceNow employees depending on the nature of their work and their assigned work location. Learn more here . To determine eligibility for a work persona, ServiceNow may confirm the distance between your primary residence and the closest ServiceNow office using a third-party service.
Equal Opportunity Employer
ServiceNow is an equal opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, creed, religion, sex, sexual orientation, national origin or nationality, ancestry, age, disability, gender identity or expression, marital status, veteran status, or any other category protected by law. In addition, all qualified applicants with arrest or conviction records will be considered for employment in accordance with legal requirements.
Accommodations
We strive to create an accessible and inclusive experience for all candidates. If you require a reasonable accommodation to complete any part of the application process, or are unable to use this online application and need an alternative method to apply, please contact [email protected] for assistance.
Export Control Regulations
For positions requiring access to controlled technology subject to export control regulations, including the U.S. Export Administration Regulations (EAR), ServiceNow may be required to obtain export control approval from government authorities for certain individuals. All employment is contingent upon ServiceNow obtaining any export license or other approval that may be required by relevant export control authorities.
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