Principal Software Engineer, ServiceNow
$217.5-380.7k
Plus equity (when applicable) and variable/incentive compensation
More information about location
Office located in Santa Clara, CA
Cloud-based digital workflows for enterprises
Be an early applicant
Cloud-based digital workflows for enterprises
1001+ employees
Be an early applicant
$217.5-380.7k
Plus equity (when applicable) and variable/incentive compensation
More information about location
Office located in Santa Clara, CA
1001+ employees
Company mission
To transform IT to revolutionise the enterprise.
Role
Who you are
- The ideal candidate will serve as both technical visionary and hands-on leader, delivering code while mentoring the next generation of engineers and collaborating directly with senior leadership to achieve business-critical outcomes
- Experience with Kubernetes, software containers (e.g., Docker, Podman), and public cloud architectures
- Typically requires a minimum of 12 years of related experience with a Bachelor's degree; or 8 years and a Master's degree; or a PhD with 5 years experience; or equivalent experience
- 12+ years of experience in software engineering, with deep expertise in infrastructure and distributed systems
- Proven leadership in architecting scalable, resilient systems
- Advanced proficiency in a language such as GoLang or Java
- Experience with Kubernetes, cloud platforms, and automation frameworks
- Strong communication and mentorship skills
- Experience integrating AI into work processes, decision-making, or problem-solving
- Due to the nature of this role and its alignment with U.S. Federal customer requirements, only candidates who are U.S. Citizens, U.S. Naturalized Citizens, or U.S. Permanent Residents (Green Card holders) will be considered. This position also requires successful completion of the USFedPASS (U.S. Federal Personnel Authorization Screening Standards) process, which includes:
- A credit check
- A criminal/misdemeanor background check
- A drug screening
- Verification of U.S. work authorization
- These requirements are in accordance with applicable U.S. laws and federal contract obligations
What the job involves
- The Platform Infrastructure team at ServiceNow is a globally-distributed organization responsible for building and maintaining cloud automation software products used to manage ServiceNow's cloud deployment and infrastructure at high scale, with high reliability, across our geographically-distributed site architecture
- Our cloud automation technology is used to perform thousands of highly-reliable lifecycle operations daily, across a global cloud footprint, in support of customer-initiated requests and internal maintenance functions
- The team is also responsible for the Kubernetes architecture and core services that enable domain service teams to build and deploy Kubernetes workloads across clusters to meet their business needs
- Please Note: This position will include supporting our US Federal customers
- As a Principal Engineer, you'll be at the forefront of ServiceNow's most ambitious infrastructure transformation to date
- We're fundamentally reimagining how we deploy, manage, and operate our platform across a multi-cloud world—moving from our current architecture to next-generation orchestration and management layers that will define ServiceNow's infrastructure strategy for the next decade
- Strategic Impact: You'll architect the foundational systems that enable ServiceNow's transition from traditional deployment models to a cloud-native, multi-cloud platform serving millions of enterprise customers. This isn't maintenance—it's building the future infrastructure that will support 10x scale while dramatically improving reliability and operational efficiency
- Innovation at Scale: This role offers rare greenfield opportunities to design novel control planes and automation frameworks from the ground up. You'll solve complex distributed systems challenges that few companies face: orchestrating thousands of daily operations across geographically distributed clouds while maintaining the high availability that enterprise customers depend on. Your architectural decisions will influence how hundreds of engineers build and deploy services
- Unique Technical Leadership: Unlike similar roles focused on maintaining existing systems, you'll be the technical visionary leading ServiceNow's infrastructure evolution. You'll drive the design of proprietary orchestration technologies, define new operational paradigms for multi-cloud management, and create the automation frameworks that will become the backbone of our global platform. This is your opportunity to build systems that will be studied and emulated across the industry
Our take
ServiceNow provides cloud-based solutions that define, structure, manage, and automate services for enterprise operations, transforming old, manual ways of working into modern digital workflows. The company was founded in 2004 with a vision to build a cloud-based platform that would enable regular people to route work effectively through the enterprise.
Much as Salesforce enables a company to manage its external clients by keeping a record of all contacts and interactions, ServiceNow promises an internal system to meet the needs of employees. It has succeeded in claiming half the market, setting itself apart from legacy IT service-management software players like BMC Software, Hewlett Packard Enterprise, Cherwell Software and CA Technologies.
The company's success comes from two product traits: simplicity and customisability. ServiceNow's IT tools don't require the IT department to set them up. Once running, they offer a single collection centre for requests, data points and checklists, all of which can in turn be analysed by algorithms to predict needs, flag concerns and measure efficiency.
The company has more than 7500 customers, including 80% of the Fortune 500 list of the United States' largest corporations. ServiceNow now looks to increase its revenue threefold in upcoming years and has entered into a 5-year partnership plan with Visa, beginning with the launch of a Visa-integrated dispute resolution solution for issuers. The company is prioritising organic growth over mergers and acquisitions, with a target revenue of $15 billion, something which its Visa partnership will no doubt aid in achieving.
Freddie
Company Specialist at Welcome to the Jungle
Insights
16% employee growth in 12 months
Company
Funding (last 2 of 6 rounds)
Mar 2012
$11m
GROWTH EQUITY VC
Feb 2012
$17.9m
GROWTH EQUITY VC
Total funding: $83.8m
Company benefits
- Commuter benefits
- Annual learning stipends
- Work from home opportunities
- Generous family leave
- Matched donations
- Flexible PTO
- 401(k) matching
- Paid volunteer time
Company HQ
Santa Clara, CA
Leadership
Fred Luddy
(Founder & Chairman Of The Board)Previously Software Developer at Amdahl Corporation for 4 years and CTO at Peregrine Systems for 13 years.
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