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.

About the role

We’re looking for a Staff Software Engineer to set technical direction for a team building AI-native products on the ServiceNow platform. You’ll shape how we design, build, and operate systems where AI agents, LLM-driven workflows, and traditional platform engineering work together. This is a hands-on role with broad influence: you’ll make architectural calls, raise the engineering bar, and help the team move from AI-assisted development to AI-native delivery.

Why this role matters

You’ll help define how a 60+ person engineering organization builds with AI, and the patterns you set will shape how customers experience intelligent workflows on the platform.

Responsibilities

Lead the design and delivery of complex, cross-functional features across the platform, from architecture through production operations.; Build AI-native capabilities, including LLM-integrated workflows, agentic patterns, prompt and context design, and evaluation pipelines, with reliability and governance built in.; Define and drive how the team uses AI tools across the development lifecycle: code generation, test automation, review, triage, and documentation. Measure the impact and share what works.; Design for ServiceNow platform internals: Flow Designer, Workflow Studio, Decision Management etc; Mentor senior and mid-level engineers and set standards for code quality, observability, and safe AI usage.; Partner with product, UX, and other engineering leads to turn ambiguous problems into scoped, shippable plans.; Own production quality for your area, including defect triage, release readiness, and gate reviews.

Requirements

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.; 8+ years of software engineering experience, with a track record of technical leadership at the staff level or equivalent.; Strong proficiency in Java, JavaScript, or another language relevant to the platform, plus solid system design skills.; Hands-on experience building or integrating LLM-based features: prompt design, retrieval or context management, evaluation, and cost/latency tradeoffs.; Working knowledge of agentic architectures, including tool use, orchestration, and human-in-the-loop controls.; Experience using AI-assisted development tools in daily work, with an opinion on where they help and where they don’t.; Clear written and verbal communication, including the ability to brief senior leaders and align multiple teams.; Familiarity with enterprise SaaS, multi-tenant systems, and secure, compliant software delivery.

Nice to have

Experience with ServiceNow platform development or Flow Designer internals.; Background in workflow automation, or approval systems.; Experience designing AI governance, guardrails, or responsible AI controls.; Contributions to internal or external AI engineering standards or tooling.