About Northern Trust
As a global leader in innovative wealth management, asset servicing, asset management and banking services, Northern Trust (Nasdaq: NTRS) is proud to guide the world’s most successful individuals, families, corporations and institutions.
Since 1889, we have aligned our efforts with our three guiding Principles That Endure: Service, Expertise, and Integrity. Together, they reflect the three cornerstones of business conduct which we strive to instill in our employees, whom we call partners, and to provide to our clients and the communities we serve worldwide.
With more than 135 years of financial experience and over 24,000 partners, we serve the world’s most sophisticated clients using leading technology and exceptional service.
We are seeking a Senior Change and Release Management leader to own and continue to evolve the Change and Release Management function, enabling safe, predictable, and efficient delivery of production changes across a complex, highly regulated technology environment.
This role is responsible for leading the day-to-day execution, governance, and continual improvement of ITSM Change and Release Management practices across a complex, regulated technology environment. The role ensures production changes and releases are delivered safely, predictably, and efficiently while balancing business agility, operational stability, risk management, and regulatory compliance.
This role is accountable for ensuring that change governance enables business outcomes, balancing velocity, stability, risk, and regulatory expectations at enterprise scale. This leader will be accountable for operational governance, change risk oversight, release readiness, CAB leadership, stakeholder engagement, process optimization, and performance reporting based on the OKRs and KPIs. The role partners closely with Technology Infrastructure, Application Development, Information Security, Risk & Control, Audit, Service Management, and Business stakeholders to drive disciplined execution and continuous service improvement
Key Responsibilities
Change Governance, CAB & Risk Decisioning
- Lead the execution of end‑to‑end Change Management process, ensuring compliance with IT controls, regulatory standards, and enterprise risk
frameworks
- Chair and actively participate in Change Advisory Board (CAB) forums, driving collaborative, well‑informed change decisions
- Partner closely with Business Units (BUs), Technology, and Operations leaders to ensure risk‑based, outcome‑focused decisioning on changes
- Promote and sustain a risk‑aware, decision‑driven change culture, with strong exception evaluation and mitigation strategies
- Partner with Risk & Control, Audit, and other Lines of Defense to evidence control monitoring and ongoing compliance
- Oversee internal and external change audits, ensuring timely execution, transparent issue management, and senior leadership visibility
- Monitor policy adherence and escalate non-compliance, control weaknesses, and operational risks
- Review high-risk, major, and emergency changes to ensure adequate planning, testing, fallback, and implementation readiness.
- Drive reduction in change-related incidents through robust governance and proactive risk identification.
Release and Change Operational Excellence
- Design and operate lean, scalable, and resilient change and release processes suitable for high‑volume production environments
- Define, implement, and enforce SLAs across the full change lifecycle
- Produce executive‑ready month‑end change reporting, highlighting throughput, risk trends, systemic issues, and improvement opportunities
- Drive continuous improvement initiatives to improve production stability and operational maturity
- Own operational governance of enterprise release activities across application and infrastructure portfolios ensuring compliance with the controls
- Partner with Release Owners, Product Teams, and Technology Leaders to improve release predictability and deployment success
- Lead release readiness reviews and ensure completion of required artifacts, approvals, and compliance checkpoints
- Identify opportunities to simplify, standardize, and automate Change and Release Management processes.
- Lead CSI initiatives focused on efficiency, quality, compliance, and user experience.
- Leverage data analytics and operational insights to drive measurable improvements.
Technology, Delivery & Tooling Enablement
- Partner with the Change Management Product and process Owners to enable tooling modernization and workflow automation, including requirements, testing, and enterprise adoption
- Leverage enterprise platforms such as ServiceNow, Azure DevOps, Clarity, and other PPM / ITSM tools
- Apply a strong understanding of application delivery models, release practices, and testing readiness when assessing risk change and deployment confidence
- Integrate cybersecurity considerations and control dependencies into CAB discussions and change approval decisions
Leadership & Stakeholder Partnership
- Lead, coach, and develop a high‑performing Change and Release Management team
- Act as a trusted partner to Engineering, Application Development, Infrastructure, Operations, and Business stakeholders
- Communicate clearly and credibly with senior management, enabling informed and timely decision‑making
- Foster a culture of accountability, collaboration, risk awareness, and continuous improvement.
- Influence senior leaders to drive adoption of governance standards and operational excellence
Required Qualifications
- Minimum 16 years of experience in the IT industry, with senior leadership accountability
- Minimum 6 years of experience leading Change and/or Release Management functions within large, complex environments
- Demonstrated experience in financial services or other highly regulated industries
- Proven expertise with ITSM controls, ITGCs, and audit frameworks
- Hands‑on experience working on Servicenow and internally developed, proprietary application platforms
- Bachelor’s degree in computer science, Information Technology, Engineering or related discipline.
- Strong Demonstrable knowledge of ITIL and ITSM processes.
- Demonstrated experience leading enterprise-scale Change & Release improvement initiatives.
- Experience working within regulated or governance-intensive environments.
Required Technical Skills
- Strong understanding of:
- ITIL Change Enablement
- Release Management
- SDLC Governance
- Operational Risk Management
- Service Transition
- Production Readiness
- ITSM process linkages
- DevOps and Agile delivery methodologies
- Experience implementing automation and workflow optimization initiatives
- Experience supporting regulatory examinations and technology audits
- ITSM Platforms
- ServiceNow
- ITSM Governance Frameworks
- Performance Analytics
- Service Reporting
Certifications (Preferred, Not Mandatory
- ITIL v4 Managing Professional or ITIL Expert Certification.
- ServiceNow ITSM certification.
Leadership Competencies
- Strategic Thinking
- Innovation & Automation Mindset
- Data-Driven Decision Making
- Executive Communication
- Enterprise Architecture Thinking
- Influencing Without Authority
- Continuous Improvement
- Operational Excellence
- Customer & Stakeholder Focus
- Mentorship & Technical Leadership
Working with Us
As a Northern Trust partner, you will be part of a flexible and collaborative work culture, which has a strong history of financial strength and stability. Movement within the organization is encouraged, senior leaders are accessible, and you can take pride in working for a company committed to an inclusive workplace and assisting the communities we serve.
Philanthropy is deeply rooted in Northern Trust’s history and is an essential element of our culture. Employees around the world give their time and talent to work for the greater good of their communities.
Reasonable Accommodation
Northern Trust is committed to working with and providing adjustments to individuals with health conditions and disabilities. If you need a reasonable accommodation for any part of the employment process, please email our HR Service Center at [email protected], or alternatively you can discuss your individual requirements with the recruiter you are working with.
About Our Pune Office
The Northern Trust Pune office, established in 2016, is now home to over 3,000 employees. The office handles various functions, including Operations for Asset Servicing and Wealth Management, as well as delivering critical technology solutions that support business operations across the globe.
Our Pune team takes our commitment to service to heart. In 2024, they volunteered more than 10,000+ hours into the communities where they live and work. Learn more.
Skills Required
- Minimum 16 years of experience in the IT industry with senior leadership accountability
- Minimum 6 years of experience leading Change and/or Release Management functions within large, complex environments
- Experience in financial services or another highly regulated industry
- Expertise with ITSM controls, ITGCs, and audit frameworks
- Hands-on experience with ServiceNow and internally developed proprietary application platforms
- Bachelor's degree in computer science, information technology, engineering, or a related discipline
- Strong knowledge of ITIL and ITSM processes
- Experience leading enterprise-scale Change and Release improvement initiatives
- Experience working in regulated or governance-intensive environments
- Strong understanding of ITIL Change Enablement, Release Management, SDLC Governance, Operational Risk Management, Service Transition, Production Readiness, and ITSM process linkages
- Experience with DevOps and Agile delivery methodologies
- Experience implementing automation and workflow optimization initiatives
- Experience supporting regulatory examinations and technology audits
- ITIL v4 Managing Professional or ITIL Expert certification
- ServiceNow ITSM certification
Northern Trust Compensation & Benefits Highlights
The following summarizes recurring compensation and benefits themes identified from responses generated by popular LLMs to common candidate questions about Northern Trust and has not been reviewed or approved by Northern Trust.
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Retirement Support — A 401(k) with company match alongside an employer‑funded defined‑benefit pension is highlighted in employer‑verified materials and filings, setting the retirement package apart from many private employers.
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Leave & Time Off Breadth — PTO is portrayed as solid overall, and two paid volunteer days per year are clearly documented across corporate materials.
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Parental & Family Support — Company sources and postings reference paid parental and caregiver leave and recent enhancements to parental benefits, indicating meaningful family support within the package.
Northern Trust Insights
What We Do
As a global leader in innovative wealth management, asset servicing and investment solutions, Northern Trust (Nasdaq: NTRS) is proud to guide the world’s most successful individuals, families and institutions by remaining true to our enduring principles of service, expertise and integrity. A globally recognized Fortune 500 Company in continuous operation since 1889, we’ve built a legacy of empowering clients to reach their goals with confidence. Since our roots as a trust bank, we’ve grown to a global presence with more than 24,000 employees in more than 20 countries and across six core business units: Wealth Management Asset Management Asset Servicing Technology Corporate Functions Enterprise Operations Join a Team That’s Achieving Greater At Northern Trust, we refer to our employees as partners – with good reason. We understand that relationships are the key to our success. Here you’ll join a diverse and inclusive team of innovators with the drive to challenge the way things have always been done. Instead of choosing between a dynamic career and work-life balance, enjoy working with a team that supports your goals in the office and at home. We’ll help you get where you want to go without sacrificing what matters most to you. Delivering value and adhering to our enduring principles What are enduring principles? Since our founding, they have guided our strategy and success. Thanks to the dedication of our partners, Northern Trust continues to thrive by adhering to three enduring principles: service, expertise and integrity . What does this mean? Service Northern Trust has a relentless drive to provide exceptional service to our clients, our partners and our communities. We set new standards and go above and beyond in our commitment to delivering greater results. Expertise Expertise is at the core of who we are. We focus sharply on what we do well. From expanding our capabilities, to hiring talented professionals to developing innovative solutions, our expertise is why we continue to be a trusted advisor for generations of families and institutions. Integrity Operating with uncompromising ethics is central to Northern Trust’s heritage. As a result, our clients, partners and communities know they can rely on us. For more than 130 years, our integrity has been our guide – and that will never change.
Why Work With Us
At Northern Trust, we go further because we go together. We embrace flexibility, encourage balance, and prioritize inclusion at all levels, working together to keep you connected. We are committed to our employees—all 24,000 of them. Whether this is a first step or a bold new leap in your career, we’re here to help you move forward.
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