Principal Product Designer, HR & Employee Experience (Santa Clara)

Company DescriptionIt 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 DescriptionTeam & Role Team & Role 
This is a rare seat, at a rare moment. Work is being reshaped by agentic AI, and almost nowhere is that shift more consequential than in how people experience their employer — as employees, as managers, and as the companies trying to support both at scale. Employee Experience owns the future of how work gets done for millions of people, across thousands of companies — one entry point, instead of a dozen disconnected systems scattered across HR, IT, Finance, and every other business unit. That front door is powered by agentic experiences and specialized assistants underneath: purpose-built agents and connectors that reach into BU systems and complete work, not just answer questions about it. This role designs those experiences — the specialized assistants, the connectors and integrations that drive real value, and the end-to-end interaction model employees, managers, and HRBPs use to work through them. You're designing what the experience should be, how agentic AI should behave, and how we earn the trust for employees to hand off real work. We're looking for a designer/builder who has gone deep with large language models — prototyping with them, not just applying them at the surface — and who brings real depth in either HR/HCM or broader employee-facing workflow design, with sharp instincts for where automation earns trust and where it destroys it. Get it right and you're changing how people experience their employer for the better, and creating measurable value for the companies that employ them. Learn more about our team here What you get to do in this role: Design the future of work — the next generation of employee experience, built for the moment when agentic AI becomes how work actually gets done. Own the hardest HR and employee-lifecycle moments — the ones with real emotional and compliance weight — and translate that complexity into assistants and flows that feel simple without becoming simplistic. Prototype directly against LLMs to get the interaction model right: when an assistant should ask vs. act, how it recovers from being wrong, where a human needs to stay in the loop. This is hands-on — you're in the model, not briefing someone who is. Bring consumer-grade instincts to enterprise-grade stakes — the ease of the best consumer apps, applied to workflows where trust, compliance, and governance can't be an afterthought. Partner with product and engineering from the earliest framing of a problem — across your own roadmap and the BU teams your connectors reach into — shaping what gets built, not skinning what's already decided. Set the craft bar for the design org on agentic interaction patterns, and mentor other designers on both the systems thinking and the granular judgment that makes an assistant feel trustworthy rather than just automated. QualificationsPreferred Qualifications:15+ years of relevant design experience with strong first-principles thinking and a portfolio that shows a maker mentality and a track record of exceptional craft and interaction design judgment. 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.Demonstrated hands-on experience designing and prototyping agentic assistants or AI-driven interaction patterns with frontier models. Your portfolio must include validation prototypes — working or near-working artifacts you used to test real interaction decisions with users, not concept renders. Experience designing complex, multi-stakeholder enterprise workflows; HR/HCM or Employee domain experience is a strong plus given the sensitivity and constraint-density of that space. Experience designing systems that stretch across multiple teams' roadmaps and integration points. Generative UI a plus. A strong point of view and the standing to bring senior product and engineering partners along — able to make the case for a design decision and hold the line on quality under pressure — while staying genuinely, personally hands-on in the work. Basic Qualifications: BA/BS or higher in Design, HCI, or a related field, or equivalent experience. 10+ years designing complex software products, with recent, direct experience shipping AI-powered or agentic features. Experience partnering directly with senior product and engineering leaders to shape a roadmap 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 InformationWork PersonasWe 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 EmployerServiceNow 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.  AccommodationsWe 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 View email address on apply.placed-app.com for assistance. Export Control RegulationsFor 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. From Fortune. 2026 Fortune Media IP Limited. All rights reserved. Used under license.SummaryType: Full-timeFunction: DesignExperience level: Not ApplicableIndustry: Information Technology And Services