Senior Staff Software Engineer

Lead the design, development, and operation of Kubernetes-based microservices powering AI-native enterprise capabilities.

Responsibilities

• Design, architect, and implement Java and Python microservices deployed on Kubernetes
• Define APIs, service boundaries, data models, and integration patterns for AI-enabled products
• Build reliable distributed systems to manage concurrency, queueing, retries, fairness, backpressure, and failure recovery
• Integrate frontier AI SDKs including Anthropic, Google, and OpenAI into production systems
• Apply prompt engineering, structured outputs, model evaluation, and production observability for GenAI use cases
• Collaborate with research, product, security, and infrastructure teams to deliver enterprise-grade services
• Raise the engineering bar through architecture reviews, code reviews, mentoring, and technical direction

Requirements

• 8+ years of professional software engineering experience with strong fundamentals in data structures, algorithms, distributed systems, APIs, and backend service design
• Experience leveraging or critically evaluating how to integrate AI into work processes, decision-making, or problem-solving (examples include using AI-powered tools, automating workflows, analyzing AI-driven insights, or exploring AI impact)
• Demonstrated technical leadership as a technical lead, Staff Engineer, or equivalent senior individual contributor focused on architecture, technical direction, code quality, and mentoring
• Strong backend engineering skills in Java, Python, or equivalent, with hands-on experience designing, building, and operating production services
• Hands-on experience building or operating containerized applications deployed in Kubernetes, OpenShift, or similar orchestration environments
• Experience designing scalable APIs, asynchronous processing systems, queues, event-driven services, or data-processing pipelines
• Familiarity with cloud-native infrastructure and production troubleshooting, including observability, logging, monitoring, and reliability engineering
• Ability to make pragmatic architecture decisions balancing performance, reliability, security, maintainability, and delivery speed
• Ability to lead other engineers through code reviews, design reviews, and technical mentorship
• Strong communication skills and experience partnering across product, research, engineering, infrastructure, and security

Technologies

• Java, Python
• Kubernetes, OpenShift
• Anthropic, Google, OpenAI
• Prometheus, Grafana, Instana
• PostgreSQL, Redis
• Kafka, RabbitMQ
• S3-compatible object storage

Nice to Have

• Prior experience working on AI/ML products, collaborating with research teams, or translating advanced AI/ML capabilities into production software
• Knowledge of NLP, search, and knowledge extraction
• Experience with multi-modal systems such as document ingestion and processing, image processing, and voice
• Working experience with frontier AI SDKs such as Anthropic, Google, or OpenAI
• Familiarity with prompt engineering, structured outputs, tool calling, agentic design patterns, Model Context Protocol, or AI-assisted development workflows
• Experience with observability tools such as Prometheus, Grafana, Instana, or equivalent monitoring/logging platforms
• Knowledge of MLOps or applying machine learning models to production use cases
• Experience with infrastructure backends such as PostgreSQL, Redis, Kafka, RabbitMQ, S3-compatible object storage, or equivalent technologies
• Published work, patents, conference papers, or open-source contributions related to AI systems, knowledge systems, search, retrieval, or large-scale data processing

Benefits

• Health plans, including flexible spending accounts
• 401(k) Plan with company match
• ESPP
• Matching donations
• Flexible time away plan
• Family leave programs

Location and Work Persona

• Santa Clara, CA (onsite)
• Work personas may be flexible, remote, or required in-office depending on work and assigned location
• ServiceNow may confirm the distance between your primary residence and the closest ServiceNow office using a third-party service to determine eligibility for a work persona

Compensation

• Base pay range for this location: $190,900 - $334,100 per year
• Plus equity (when applicable), variable/incentive compensation, and benefits
• Base pay shown is a guideline; individual total compensation varies based on qualifications, skill level, competencies, and work location
• Sales positions may offer an On Target Earnings (OTE) incentive compensation structure

Accommodations

• If you require a reasonable accommodation to complete any part of the application process, or cannot use the online application and need an alternative method to apply, contact [email protected]

Export Control Regulations

• For positions requiring access to controlled technology, ServiceNow may need to obtain export control approval from government authorities for certain individuals
• Employment is contingent upon ServiceNow obtaining any export license or other required approval from relevant export control authorities