Senior Software Engineering Manager | Applied AI Engineering

ServiceNow•Santa Clara, CA

6h•$190,900 - $334,100•Hybrid

About The Position

The ServiceNow Security Organization (SSO) delivers world-class, innovative security solutions to reduce risk and protect the company and our customers. We enable our customers to migrate their most sensitive data and workloads to the cloud, accelerating our business so that we are the most trusted SaaS provider. We create an environment where our employees are proud to work and can make a positive impact. Cyber defense doesn't scale through headcount alone. It scales when systems make defenders exponentially more effective. We're looking for a Sr Software Engineering Manager to join Cyber Defense Engineering and build the Applied AI Engineering function: a small, high-caliber engineering team applying AI and automation to some of the most challenging problems in cyber defense, protecting a platform trusted by thousands of the world's largest enterprises. You'll own the architecture for systems that automate security incident investigations, accelerate threat hunting, operationalize threat intelligence, scale attack path management, and turn security issue management into measurable risk reduction. You'll also build the internal capability for security practitioners to extend that automation themselves, so your systems compound impact rather than create new bottlenecks. This is a rare opportunity to define how AI transforms cyber defense at scale, with the technical latitude and executive backing to do it right.

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.
10 to 15 years building and shipping software systems at scale (backend, full stack, data, or platform engineering) OR similar experience with education
Proven track record of building or scaling a high-performing engineering team, with 2+ years managing engineers
Deep technical fluency: you can code review, evaluate architecture tradeoffs, and unblock the hardest problems your team faces
Demonstrated ability to distinguish "build it ourselves" from "enable someone else to build it": this role demands both engineering execution and a coaching mindset
Comfort operating with significant ambiguity, standing up a new function from the ground up
A track record of establishing engineering best practices and holding a team to a high bar of technical excellence

Nice To Haves

Security domain experience (incident response, SOC, threat intelligence, hunting, vulnerability management, etc.), or a strong appetite to learn it quickly
Experience applying AI/ML to operational or workflow automation at scale
Familiarity with modern data infrastructure
Experience building enablement programs, internal platforms, or tooling for non-engineer end users

Responsibilities

Own AI-Powered Security Architecture: Set the technical strategy and architecture for AI-powered use cases across cyber defense domains, including threat intelligence, threat hunting, security operations, incident response, attack path management, and security issue management
Unify Data Into Defender-Ready Systems: Build solutions that fully leverage internal telemetry, asset data, context, and external intelligence to deliver domain-specific use cases that enable cyber defenders
Enable Practitioner Self-Sufficiency: Empower security practitioners to extend and maintain automation themselves, compounding your team's impact over time
Build a World-Class Engineering Team: Recruit and grow a high-performing engineering team, setting a high technical bar and building durable career paths
Drive Shipping Velocity: Establish a rapid, low-risk shipping cadence, owning architecture decisions and removing blockers so your team moves fast without breaking things
Shape the Roadmap Cross-Functionally: Partner closely with Security Operations, Threat Intelligence, Hunting, Red Team, and more on priorities