Expert

Principal Software Engineer - Application Lifecycle

Santa Clara, United States · On-site$221–387k

Company Description

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.

Job Description

About the Team

ServiceNow's Application Lifecycle Engineering organization builds the platforms and tools that enable customers and developers to create, validate, deploy, and maintain applications at enterprise scale.

The team owns critical developer platform capabilities that improve developer productivity, application quality, and software delivery efficiency across the ServiceNow ecosystem. Our products support automated testing, application lifecycle management, CI/CD integration, developer tooling, and emerging AI-powered capabilities that help customers build software faster and more confidently.

As we continue investing in AI-native development experiences, we're focused on reimagining how developers build, test, validate, and operate applications through intelligent automation, agentic systems, and modern platform engineering practices.

What You'll Do

As a Principal Software Engineer, you'll help define the technical strategy and architecture for the next generation of developer platforms and AI-powered engineering productivity solutions.

Lead architecture and technical direction across developer tooling, automated testing, and application lifecycle management platforms.
Design and build highly scalable platform services that improve developer productivity and software quality for enterprise customers.
Create prototypes, proof-of-concepts, and reference architectures to validate new technical approaches before broader adoption.
Drive innovation around AI-enabled developer experiences, intelligent automation, agentic workflows, and software delivery acceleration.
Partner closely with Product Management, Design, and Engineering leaders to translate strategic vision into technical execution.
Evaluate emerging technologies and identify opportunities to enhance platform capabilities, developer experience, and customer outcomes.
Influence architectural decisions across multiple engineering teams and help establish engineering standards and best practices.
Solve complex challenges related to scalability, reliability, observability, security, and performance across customer-facing platforms.
Mentor senior engineers and provide technical leadership through influence, collaboration, and technical excellence.
Contribute to long-term platform evolution while balancing customer impact and execution velocity.

Qualifications

Required

15+ years of software engineering experience or equivalent practical experience.
Deep expertise building large-scale distributed systems, developer platforms, cloud-native applications, or enterprise SaaS products.
Strong experience designing customer-facing platform capabilities, developer tools, or engineering productivity solutions.
Expert-level understanding of system architecture, scalability, reliability, observability, fault tolerance, and production operations.
Strong software development background with Java and modern distributed system design.
Proven ability to drive technical strategy and influence architecture across multiple teams and organizations.
Experience leading complex technical initiatives through collaboration rather than formal authority.
Strong communication skills and ability to work effectively across Engineering, Product Management, and Design organizations.
Track record of mentoring senior engineers and raising engineering standards across an organization.

Preferred

Experience building developer tools, testing platforms, CI/CD systems, developer experience (DevEx) solutions, or application lifecycle management products.
Experience with automated testing frameworks, testability platforms, or software quality engineering at scale.
Experience developing AI-powered products, AI-assisted developer workflows, agentic systems, or intelligent automation capabilities.
Knowledge of software development lifecycle tooling, deployment automation, and platform engineering practices.
Experience building products used by software developers, administrators, or highly technical enterprise customers.
Familiarity with developer productivity metrics, platform adoption strategies, and customer-centric platform development.

For positions in this location, we offer a base pay of $221,200 - $387,100, plus equity (when applicable), variable/incentive compensation and benefits. Sales positions generally offer a competitive On Target Earnings (OTE) incentive compensation structure. Please note that the base pay shown is a guideline, and individual total compensation will vary based on factors such as qualifications, skill level, competencies, and work location. 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. Compensation is based on the geographic location in which the role is located and is subject to change based on work location.

Additional Information

Work Personas

We approach our distributed world of work with flexibility and trust. Work personas (flexible, remote, or required in office) are categories that are assigned to ServiceNow employees depending on the nature of their work and their assigned work location. Learn more here. To determine eligibility for a work persona, ServiceNow may confirm the distance between your primary residence and the closest ServiceNow office using a third-party service.

Equal Opportunity Employer

ServiceNow is an equal opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, national origin, age, disability, gender identity, veteran status, or any other category protected by law. In addition, all qualified applicants with arrest or conviction records will be considered for employment in accordance with legal requirements.

Accommodations

We strive to create an accessible and inclusive experience for all candidates. If you require a reasonable accommodation to complete any part of the application process, or are unable to use this online application and need an alternative method to apply, please contact [email protected] for assistance.

Export Control Regulations

For positions requiring access to controlled technology subject to export control regulations, including the U.S. Export Administration Regulations (EAR), ServiceNow may be required to obtain export control approval from government authorities for certain individuals. All employment is contingent upon ServiceNow obtaining any export license or other approval that may be required by relevant export control authorities.

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