Senior Staff Software Engineer

ServiceNow • San Diego, CA

13h

About The Position

The ServiceNow Core Platform underpins the entire ecosystem, and the systems we build are complex, large-scale, and mission critical. This role offers the opportunity to work across the full stack—from developer-facing APIs and frameworks to distributed runtime services to system-level components that ensure reliability, scalability, and performance. You should be someone who enjoys solving hard engineering problems, is passionate about platform engineering, and is committed to building high-quality, resilient software while driving operational excellence. By being part of this team, engineers can implement software engineering best practices and contribute to designing innovative solutions that streamline digital workflows. The collaborative environment within the team fosters creativity and continuous learning, making it an ideal place for engineers to grow their skills and careers. We are looking for an experienced software development engineer to help take the ServiceNow Platform to the next level. As a Software Development Engineer on the Core Platform team, you will own critical areas of the platform and play a key role in shaping our strategy by driving the next wave of platform features and system architecture. The ideal candidate has a proven track record of delivering innovative platform capabilities or products. You thrive in dynamic, fast-paced environments where priorities evolve quickly. You bring strong design and implementation experience, deep knowledge of distributed systems and service architectures, and an understanding of web services and protocols. Experience with asynchronous workflows, high-scale runtime frameworks, or developer productivity tooling is a strong plus.

Requirements

• Advanced knowledge with data structures, algorithms, object-oriented design, design patterns, and performance/scale considerations
• Advanced knowledge experience working with relational databases including development, troubleshooting and performance optimization.
• Experience with multiple technology stacks: Cloud Dev, Platforms, Web Dev, Frameworks or service–oriented architecture
• Capability to manage multiple projects with material technical risk across teams and processes; may serve as a functional lead or technical owner
• 10+ years of experience with Java or a similar OO language
• Familiarity with automated testing frameworks (e.g., JUnit, Selenium, TestNG) and integrating tests into CI/CD pipelines
• Understanding software quality principles including reliability, observability, and production readiness.
• Ability to troubleshoot complex systems and optimize performance across the stack.
• Comfort with development tools such as IDEs, debuggers, profilers, source control, and Unix-based systems

Nice To Haves

• Experience in leveraging critical 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.
• Experience in using AI Productivity tools such as Windsurf, Cursor, etc. Is a plus or nice to have.

Responsibilities

• Design and develop scalable, maintainable, and reusable software components with a strong emphasis on performance and reliability.
• Partner with the product owners to understand detailed requirements and own your code from design, implementation, test automation and delivery of high-quality products to our users.
• Implement software that is simple to use to allow customers to extend and customize the functionality to meet their specific needs
• Contribute to the design and implementation of new products and features while also enhancing the existing product suite
• Contribute to the design and implementation of new products and features while enhancing existing product capabilities.
• Integrate automated testing into development workflows to ensure consistent quality across releases.
• Participate in design and code reviews ensuring best practices in performance, maintainability, and testability.
• Develop comprehensive test strategies covering functional, regression, integration and performance aspects
• Be a mentor for colleagues and help promote knowledge-sharing
• Foster a culture of continuous learning and improvement by sharing best practices in engineering and quality
• Promote a culture of engineering craftsmanship, knowledge-sharing, and thoughtful quality practices across the team.

Benefits

• For positions in this location, we offer a base pay of $168,900 - $295,600, plus equity (when applicable), variable/incentive compensation and benefits.
• We also offer health plans, including flexible spending accounts, a 401(k) Plan with company match, ESPP, matching donations, a flexible time away plan and family leave programs.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Mid Level
• Education Level: No Education Listed