Sr Staff Software Engineer

It all started when engineer Fred Luddy wrote code that automated a tedious task for his coworker, Phyllis. She cried tears of joy. That moment inspired Fred to build a company that could do that for everyone—freeing people from busywork so they could focus on meaningful work. Today, ServiceNow is the AI control tower for business reinvention. Our ServiceNow AI platform brings together any AI, any data, and any workflow— helping 85% of the Fortune 500® work smarter, faster, and better. We're building an AI-native culture where technology and talent are unstoppable together. And we're just getting started.

Join us to put AI to work for people.

Position Overview:

ServiceNow is seeking a highly motivated and experienced Senior Staff Software Engineer to help lead a team with a broad portfolio across the application lifecycle. The team owns key parts of a platform that lets customers author, build, and run custom applications at scale; works on a broader initiative modernizing how applications are distributed, licensed, and installed platform-wide; and helps maintain established backend systems that the broader platform depends on. This is a polyglot environment — strong Java proficiency is essential alongside modern JavaScript/TypeScript web application and backend service technologies.

This role requires both technical depth and leadership: setting direction across multiple concurrent initiatives while staying deeply hands-on, and negotiating technical boundaries with partner engineering teams on larger, cross-organizational efforts.

Key Responsibilities:

- Provide technical leadership across the team's portfolio of projects while staying deeply hands-on — setting direction and reviewing design, and also directly building, debugging, and shipping critical pieces yourself
- Diagnose and resolve complex, customer-impacting problems across established backend systems
- Champion engineering best practices and security standards across a varied technology footprint
- Bring sound judgment on where and how AI fits into the team's development workflow, and set guardrails for AI-assisted development
- Mentor engineers across the team's different technology areas, and foster a culture of innovation and continuous improvement

Qualifications:

Experience leveraging or critically thinking about how to integrate AI into engineering work — whether using AI-powered coding and operational tooling, automating workflows, or reasoning about how AI changes the way software and infrastructure are built.

- 12+ years of hands-on software engineering experience, with a strong track record delivering high-scale, cloud-based systems
- Deep proficiency in Java — hands-on experience designing, building, and maintaining production Java services, plus the ability to confidently read, debug, and modify complex, unfamiliar Java codebases
- Working proficiency in TypeScript/Node.js or similar modern web/backend stacks
- Strong understanding of concurrency and resource management for services operating at scale
- Strong understanding of distributed systems and service-to-service protocol design (e.g., gRPC/protobuf)
- Deep experience with authentication and session systems
- Proven experience leading and mentoring engineers, and negotiating technical scope across team boundaries
- Experience with Kubernetes-based service deployment is a plus
- Familiarity with large-scale, multi-tenant SaaS platforms is a strong plus
- Excellent problem-solving and communication skills, including cross-organizational technical negotiation
- Track record of applying AI to hard platform-engineering problems

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, religion, sex, sexual orientation, national origin, age, disability, gender identity,  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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