Service Now Lead Developer

Lead ServiceNow (SNOW) Developer G7, CDIO

Role Purpose

As a Grade 7 Lead ServiceNow Developer within HMRC’s Chief Digital & Information Office (CDIO), you will provide senior technical leadership across HMRC’s ServiceNow platform. You will act as the primary translator between business processes and technical ServiceNow implementation, ensuring platform development is robust, secure, scalable, and aligned with CDIO’s architectural and governance standards.

This role carries significant responsibility for guiding technical design, assuring code quality across internal teams and suppliers, and contributes to shaping the future direction of ServiceNow within HMRC.

Key Responsibilities

Strategic & Technical Leadership

• Serve as HMRC’s senior technical authority for the areas of ServiceNow you cover.
• Lead on translating business needs into highquality technical specifications, ensuring alignment with CDIO and HMRC strategies, architecture, and governance.
• Provide authoritative advice to senior stakeholders across CDIO and business domains on ServiceNow capabilities, constraints, and solution options.
• Set direction for delivery teams and suppliers, ensuring technical coherence across ServiceNow developments.

Business Process Translation

• Promote platformfirst principles, minimising custom code and maximising use of outofthebox functionality wherever possible.
• Work closely with Product Owners, Business Analysts, service teams, and operational stakeholders to understand processes and service requirements.
• Convert business workflows into structured ServiceNow solutions, including forms, workflow logic, data models, and integration patterns.

Solution Design & Governance

• Produce highquality design artefacts that meet CDIO architecture, data, privacy, and security standards.
• Inform and align UI policies, business rules, ACLs, client/server scripts, workflow orchestration, and integrations.
• Contribute to CDIO governance forums, platform steering groups, and design reviews, ensuring consistency and compliance.

Quality Assurance & Code Oversight

• Perform seniorlevel QA on developer outputs (internal and supplier), ensuring code quality, maintainability, and adherence to standards.
• Identify risks, technical debt, and design issues early, providing clear remediation guidance.
• Ensure all delivered functionality meets acceptance criteria, HMRC security controls, and regulatory requirements.

Capability Building & Continuous Improvement

• Mentor and develop ServiceNow developers, uplift capability across CDIO, and shape communityofpractice standards.
• Contribute to the continuous improvement of ServiceNow design patterns, platform governance, and reusable components.
• Identify opportunities for automation and simplification across CDIO’s ServiceNow estate.

Skills & Experience

Essential (G7 Level)

• Significant experience designing and delivering complex ServiceNow solutions in a large enterprise environment.
• Expert ability to translate complex business processes into robust ServiceNow designs and specifications.
• Strong capability in reviewing and assuring code quality across multiple teams and suppliers.
• Deep knowledge of ITSM and related modules (ITOM, HRSD, SecOps, CSM) and how they are implemented in ServiceNow.
• Strong stakeholder management skills, with the ability to influence at senior levels within CDIO and business areas.
• Experience working within structured governance environments, ideally within government or regulated sectors.
• Ability to provide technical leadership to multidisciplinary and multisupplier teams.

Desirable

• Understanding of HMRC’s CDIO operating model, governance processes, and architectural landscape.
• Experience leading teams in Agile environments, including shaping epics, stories, and acceptance criteria.
• ITIL Foundation certification or equivalent knowledge.
• Experience with integrations using REST/SOAP APIs, MID Server, or eventdriven architectures.
• Familiarity with platform security concepts, role design, ACLs, and audit requirements.

Typical G7 Impact

A G7 in this role is expected to:

• Provide authoritative technical leadership across projects or services.
• Influence strategic decisions relating to ServiceNow capability and direction.
• Lead and assure work from internal teams and external suppliers.
• Shape platform standards, governance, and future roadmap in collaboration with CDIO Architecture and Platform teams.