ServiceNow is seeking a Principal Software Engineer to architect and build assistive and autonomous AI-native products for customers in IT service and operations management. This role is centered on evidence-based experimentation, large-scale distributed systems, and the engineering practices needed to turn agentic concepts into measurable, production-ready value within the Service Operations product portfolio.
What you get to do in this role
You will lead the technical direction for assigned problem areas across ITSM/ITOM products, partnering with product and engineering leaders to address blockers and accelerate AI-native evolution and value realization. Work will be hands-on and practical: you will spike and ship solutions by validating architectural hypotheses through code, building prototypes, reference implementations, and critical components that prove feasibility and guide teams.
Your scope includes designing solutions through evidence-based experimentation, including forming hypotheses, running experiments, measuring outcomes, and using results to drive architectural and product decisions. You will also architect the evolution of existing capabilities toward AI-native patterns by identifying where agentic behaviors, data utilization, or autonomous workflows can unlock customer value. When agentic products exist but outcomes fall short, you will help diagnose root causes across architecture, UX, data quality, feedback loops, and cost, then recommend targeted improvements.
To support adoption and consistency, you will establish architecture patterns and best practices specific to the domain. You will guide teams through complex technical decisions and design reviews, surfacing risks early and balancing shipping speed with long-term durability. Collaboration across ITSM/ITOM engineering teams will help share learnings and accelerate approaches that work.
Responsibilities
- Lead architecture and technical strategy for assigned problem areas within ITSM/ITOM products in partnership with product and engineering leaders.
- Contribute hands-on to spiking and shipping solutions by validating hypotheses through implementation.
- Use evidence-based spiking to formulate hypotheses, run experiments, measure outcomes, and guide decisions with data.
- Architect the evolution toward AI-native capabilities and translate recommendations into executable engineering work.
- Identify and address value realization gaps in agentic products by diagnosing root causes and recommending improvements.
- Establish architecture patterns and best practices, documenting tradeoffs, rationale, and implementation guidance.
- Guide complex technical decisions and design reviews by challenging assumptions with data and surfacing architectural risks early.
- Collaborate across ITSM/ITOM engineering teams to share learnings and validate approaches for wider adoption.
Requirements
- 15+ years of related engineering experience, or equivalent practical experience.
- Strong experience building and operating large-scale distributed systems, enterprise platforms, workflow systems, data-intensive products, integration frameworks, or cloud-scale infrastructure.
- Deep understanding of system design for scale, reliability, observability, fault tolerance, data quality, security, and production readiness.
- Strong technical depth in Java, Python, or similar programming languages.
- Proven ability to define technical direction, influence architecture across teams, and translate ambiguous product strategy into executable plans.
- Ability to operate as a Principal IC by leading through credibility, collaboration, and influence rather than formal authority.
- Strong judgment balancing long-term architecture with pragmatic execution, customer impact, engineering velocity, and business priorities.
- Experience mentoring senior engineers, raising engineering standards, and building reusable patterns that create leverage across teams.
- Experience with AI-powered products, automation platforms, AI-assisted workflows, or agentic systems is strongly preferred.
- Ability to reason about AI-assisted enterprise workflows, including data quality, workflow correctness, evaluation, observability, safety controls, and human-in-the-loop review.
- Experience with enterprise service management, IT operations, CMDB, discovery, service mapping, AIOps, observability, workflow automation, endpoint management, or operational intelligence is a strong plus.
- Experience with large-scale enterprise customers, production systems, and complex migration or modernization efforts is a plus.
About the team
The Service Operations Business Unit brings together IT Service Management (ITSM), IT Operations Management (ITOM), and CMDB capabilities on the ServiceNow Platform. This product engineering organization builds software that helps customers deliver resilient, intelligent, and efficient enterprise services.
The Service Operations portfolio connects incident, request, fulfillment, infrastructure visibility, service mapping, trusted configuration data, automation, and AIOps into a unified operating model. By combining service delivery with operational intelligence and trusted operational context, these products help customers move toward proactive, AI-assisted, and increasingly self-healing operations at enterprise scale. Together, these capabilities support modernization, improved reliability, reduced manual effort, and measurable productivity outcomes on a single platform.
Benefits
- Base pay of $221,200 - $387,100 (guideline), plus equity (when applicable), variable/incentive compensation, and 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
This role is located in Santa Clara, CA and is onsite. Work personas (flexible, remote, or required in office) are assigned based on the nature of the work and assigned location. ServiceNow may confirm the distance between an employee’s primary residence and the closest ServiceNow office using a third-party service to determine eligibility.
Equal opportunity employer
ServiceNow is an equal opportunity employer. All qualified applicants receive consideration without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, national origin, age, disability, gender identity, veteran status, or any other category protected by law. Applicants with arrest or conviction records are considered for employment in accordance with legal requirements.
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 globaltalentss@servicenow.com.
Export control regulations
For positions requiring access to controlled technology subject to export control regulations, ServiceNow may be required to obtain export control approval for certain individuals. Employment is contingent upon ServiceNow obtaining any required export license or other approval.
