Senior, Expert

Principal Software Engineer - Veza

San Diego, United States · On-site$199–348k

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 Veza

Veza is the identity security platform for human, non-human, and AI agent access. Customers use it to see who and what has access to what, govern it, and remediate risk across cloud, SaaS, and on-prem systems.

Agent security is the inflection point. Static access reviews can't keep up with autonomous agents acting at machine speed. Security is shifting to continuous, real-time control: just-in-time access for agents, automated remediation of policy violations, and real-time governance of agent actions as they happen—replacing standing privileges and periodic reviews.

Veza is in transition, growing quickly as part of ServiceNow's Security & Risk organization. The Chief Architect will shape how the platform scales to meet this new category.

What you'll do

Own the end-to-end architecture of the Veza platform, including the access graph, ingestion pipeline, authorization and policy engine, and the services built on them. Lead the evolution toward a graph-native data model (Neo4j or equivalent) that scales to billions of relationships and complex permission hierarchies. Set the standards every team builds to.
Lead the next-generation data architecture. Evolve the core graph and storage model for order-of-magnitude growth in customers, entities, and relationships, with a clear migration path from today's system and no customer disruption.
Define the architecture for non-human identity and AI agent security. Make Veza the system of record for what agents can access, and design for governance, guardrails, and auditability.
Set the AI architecture for Veza's own agents and features: agentic patterns, evaluation, observability, cost and capacity planning, and a multi-vendor LLM strategy that avoids lock-in.
Modernize the integrations framework. Veza has 300+ integrations, and they drive a disproportionate share of support load. Establish a scalable, testable, self-service framework that raises reliability and cuts onboarding time.
Architect how Veza fits into ServiceNow. Veza is not built on the ServiceNow platform. Define the integration model, shared identity and data contracts, and UI surfacing patterns that deliver a unified customer experience without forcing a rewrite.
Drive deployment flexibility: multi-region SaaS, data residency, regulated-industry requirements (e.g., EU financial regulation such as DORA), and federal-grade deployment, including the compliance and operational constraints each brings.
Govern architecture across teams. Run architecture reviews, manage tech debt and the security backlog, and make clear, documented build-vs-buy and sequencing decisions.
Raise the bar on engineering practice, including heavy use of AI coding agents, automated testing coverage, defect escape reduction, and operational excellence with SRE.
Represent Veza's architecture to executives, customers, partners, and ServiceNow architecture and security leadership.
Mentor architects and senior engineers and build the next layer of technical leadership.

Qualifications

What you bring

Core

15+ years in software engineering, with 5+ years as a staff/principal/chief architect, or equivalent, over a large multi-team platform.
Deep experience designing multi-tenant, cloud-native SaaS at enterprise scale: distributed systems, large-scale data and graph systems, APIs, and microservices.
Hands-on Kubernetes and cloud experience (AWS required; multi-cloud a plus) and modern DevOps, IaC, and SRE practices.
Strong background in graph databases and data structures. Hands-on experience with Neo4j, or similar graph platforms; understanding of immutable or event-sourced storage models and their operational trade-offs.
A track record of leading large architectural migrations in a live production system.
Experience influencing without direct authority across multiple teams and geographies (US, EU, India).
Executive-level communication, with the ability to write and defend an architecture decision to engineers, customers, and the C-suite.
Strong proficiency in Python and Go or Java, with the ability to go deep in code and design reviews.

Security and identity

Strong background in identity and access: IGA, IAM, PAM, authorization models, access reviews, lifecycle management, or adjacent security domains.
Understanding of non-human identity (service accounts, secrets, API keys, workload identity) and emerging agent identity and authorization models.
Experience building security products that meet their own security and compliance bar (SOC 2, FedRAMP or equivalent, data residency).

Experience delivering production AI systems: LLMs, agentic architectures, RAG, evaluation, observability, guardrails, human-in-the-loop, and managing model cost and capacity.
Active use of AI-native development tools (Claude Code, Cursor, Codex, or equivalent) and the ability to drive adoption across teams.

Preferred

Experience through an acquisition or platform integration, aligning an acquired architecture with a parent platform.
Prior experience with integration-heavy platforms (hundreds of connectors) and the reliability challenges they bring.
Familiarity with graph databases or immutable/event-sourced storage models.
BS/MS in Computer Science or a related field, or equivalent experience.

Success in the first 12 months

A published, org-wide architecture vision and roadmap for the next-generation platform, with committed milestones.
An integrations modernization plan in flight, with measurable reduction in escalations and onboarding time.
A defined, adopted pattern for Veza-ServiceNow integration and UI surfacing.
A sustainable architecture review and governance process the teams actually use.
Clear architecture for agent and NHI security that product and sales can take to customers.

For positions in this location, we offer a base pay of $199,100 - $348,400, 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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