Staff Software Engineer

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.

What you get to do in this role:

• Build AI-native systems: Use AI-assisted development tools (e.g. Cursor, GitHub Copilot, Windsurf) to architect, code, and scale systems at the core of ServiceNow's cloud. 
• Design for agents: Develop distributed systems and APIs that are legible to both human and AI agents, enabling autonomous monitoring, remediation, and scaling. 
• Collaborate with AI agents and humans: Leverage AI copilots for design reviews, documentation, and test generation. Experiment with delegated agent workflows and LLM-integrated pipelines. 
• Own delivery end-to-end: From requirements and design to implementation, testing, observability, and continuous delivery—with AI in the loop. 
• Drive engineering enablement: Help establish best practices for AI-native development and contribute to the internal evolution of our software supply chain and toolchain. 

Continuously evolve your skills: Use structured prompting, model fine-tuning, and feedback loops to co-evolve with rapidly advancing AI capabilities.

To be successful in this role you have:

• Experience in leveraging or critically thinking about how to integrate AI into work processes, decision-making, or problem-solving. This may include using AI-powered tools, automating workflows, analyzing AI-driven insights, or exploring AI's potential impact on the function or industry.
• 10+ years of backend software engineering experience in a systems or platform role; experience in SaaS or hyperscale environments preferred. 
• Proficiency in Java or another OO language; comfort with full-stack development including JavaScript and modern UI frameworks (React, Angular, Vue). 
• Strong foundation in distributed systems, scalable architectures, API design, and infrastructure as code. 
• Experience with cloud ecosystems like AWS, Azure, or GCP, and tools such as Kafka, RabbitMQ, Postgres, MySQL, or equivalent. 
• Experience leveraging or critically evaluating how to integrate AI into work processes, decision-making, or problem-solving. This may include using AI-powered tools, automating workflows, analyzing AI-driven insights, or exploring AI's potential impact on functions or industries.
• Experience influencing technical direction across multiple teams or large-scale projects 
• Experience using AI productivity tools such as Windsurf, Cursor, etc., is a plus.
• Bonus: Familiarity with AI-agent interaction patterns, e.g., using LLMs to generate code, analyze telemetry, or triage issues. 
• Bonus: Experience with prompt engineering, fine-tuning open-source models, or building agent workflows using Platform Tools. 
• Curiosity and adaptability in fast-moving, AI-transformed engineering environments. 

• Why This Role is Different 

• Be AI-Native, Not Just AI-Assisted: You won't just use AI tools—you'll help shape the architecture and workflows where AI agents are first-class collaborators. 
• Engineer for the Next Decade: Build systems that can reason, act, and adapt in real-time—resilient to change, responsive to demand, and infused with intelligence. 
• Contribute to Industry Evolution: Your work will influence not only ServiceNow's platform but also the future of software development in the AI-native SaaS world. 

• Why Join Us 

• Tackle some of the most complex cloud infrastructure challenges at global scale. 
• Accelerate your growth as an engineer by working symbiotically with cutting-edge AI systems. 
• Be part of a culture that values technical excellence, continuous learning, and bold experimentation. 
• Define what it means to build and operate AI-native systems in production. 

• Let's Build the AI-Native Cloud Together. 

  Apply now and bring your expertise to a team that's redefining engineering in the age of autonomous agents and generative intelligence. 

FD21

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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