Dir, Software Engineering Management, Platform - Veza (Santa Clara)

Company DescriptionVeza is the pioneer in identity security, purpose-built to answer the fundamental question enterprises face: who can and should take what action on what data.Veza's Access Graph platform maps an organization's entire identity ecosystem across users, groups, roles, policies, permissions, and resources providing deep visibility and control over human, non-human, and agentic identities across SaaS, cloud, on-prem, and custom applications.With over 30 billion access permissions under management, global enterprises including Blackstone, Expedia, and Wynn Resorts trust Veza to manage privileged access monitoring, non-human identity security, access entitlement management, and next-generation identity governance.Founded in 2020 and headquartered in Redwood City, California, Veza is now part of the ServiceNow family, with the acquisition closing in March 2026.The combination brings together Veza's AI-native Access Graph with ServiceNow's AI Control Tower and agentic workflows, enabling organizations to enforce end-to-end identity security rooted in the principle of least privilege across applications, data, cloud environments, and AI agents. For engineers joining Veza today, this means the scale and resources of an enterprise platform company, with the product velocity and mission-driven focus of a security innovator at a pivotal moment in the industry.Job DescriptionThis role requires 3 days in office in Redwood City.We are looking for a visionary and experienced Director of Platform Engineering to lead Veza's core platform organization - the foundation that powers everything Veza delivers. This role owns three of the most critical engineering domains in the company: the Access Graph, the integrations ecosystem, and the data pipeline infrastructure that connects them. Together these systems process billions of permissions across the world's most complex enterprise environments.This is a senior leadership role at the intersection of scale, security, and AI-native architecture. You will set the technical vision and drive execution across multiple teams, partnering closely with product, security engineering, SRE and the ServiceNow platform organization as Veza evolves within one of enterprise software's most strategic acquisitions.What you will do
We are looking for a visionary and experienced Director of Platform Engineering to lead Veza's core platform organization - the foundation that powers everything Veza delivers. This role owns three of the most critical engineering domains in the company: the Access Graph, the integrations ecosystem, and the data pipeline infrastructure that connects them. Together these systems process billions of permissions across the world's most complex enterprise environments.This is a senior leadership role at the intersection of scale, security, and AI-native architecture. You will set the technical vision and drive execution across multiple teams, partnering closely with Product, Security Engineering, SRE, and the ServiceNow platform organization as Veza evolves within one of enterprise software's most strategic acquisitions.Technical LeadershipDefine and drive the technical vision and strategy for Veza's platform organization - spanning the Access Graph, integrations ecosystem, and data pipeline infrastructure - ensuring alignment with company goals and the evolving ServiceNow integration roadmap.Own architecture decisions for distributed systems, high-performance graph services, and large-scale data platforms, setting the engineering standards and design patterns that teams across the organization build against.Partner with Tech Leads and Principal Engineers on high-impact architectural decisions, ensuring the platform is built for enterprise-grade scalability, reliability, security, and observability.Identify and champion emerging technologies and approaches - including AI/ML and graph-native capabilities - to continuously advance the platform's performance and intelligence.Establish and drive engineering excellence across the organization: coding standards, design review processes, operational practices, and the reliability and compliance posture required by Veza's enterprise customer base.Cross-functional CollaborationPartner closely with Product, Security Engineering and GTM to translate business objectives and customer needs into platform capabilities, ensuring the roadmap reflects both near-term delivery commitments and long-term architectural investments.Drive execution across complex, multi-team roadmaps - managing dependencies, resolving cross-team blockers, and maintaining delivery velocity across the integrations, graph, and pipeline organizations simultaneously.Represent platform architecture in cross-organizational discussions with the ServiceNow platform teams, ensuring Veza's foundational systems evolve coherently within the broader ServiceNow ecosystem.People LeadershipLead, mentor, and develop a team of engineering managers, tech leads, and senior engineers - building a high-performance organization that can operate at startup velocity while scaling to enterprise expectations.Own the full talent lifecycle across the platform organization - hiring, onboarding, retention, performance, and succession - with particular focus on developing the next generation of engineering leaders from within.Create an environment where strong engineers thrive: high autonomy, clear technical direction, meaningful problems, and a culture of craft and accountability..QualificationsExperience12+ years of experience in backend or platform software engineering, with 6+ years in senior engineering leadership roles spanning both startup and enterprise SaaS environments - ideally including experience leading through hypergrowth phase, or major platform transition.Proven track record scaling enterprise SaaS data platforms and distributed systems - designing and delivering infrastructure that operates reliably at billions of data relationships across complex, multi-cloud enterprise environments.Deep expertise in distributed systems architecture, cloud-native design patterns, and API design - with strong hands-on experience across AWS, GCP, or Azure and containerization technologies including Kubernetes.Experience with graph technologies, large-scale relationship modeling, or graph database platforms - understanding the tradeoffs involved in building query engines and data models that power real-time identity and access intelligence.Strong experience with streaming and data pipeline technologies such as Kafka, Spark, or Flink - able to design and evolve the data infrastructure that connects hundreds of enterprise systems into a coherent, low-latency platform.Understanding how identity and access relationships are structured across complex enterprise environments including cloud platforms, SaaS applications, and non-human identities.Experience integrating AI/ML approaches into platform workflows, or leveraging AI for system intelligence at scale - strongly preferred.LeadershipDemonstrated ability to lead, scale, and develop multiple engineering teams and managers across a globally distributed organization - building high-performing teams that maintain startup velocity while meeting enterprise-grade reliability and compliance expectations.Proven track record hiring, developing, and retaining engineering leaders — with particular emphasis on building the next generation of technical leadership from within the organization.Strong organizational and program management skills - able to drive execution across multiple roadmaps and cross-team dependencies simultaneously without losing sight of long-term architectural coherence.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. 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