Staff Software Engineer - Cloud Automation - Federal

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

Position Location:
This is a  Flexible (Hybrid) position. Flexible  positions require 2 days per week in a ServiceNow office location. We have offices in several locations, including Kirkland, WA; Santa Clara, CA; and San Diego, CA

Please Note: This position will include supporting our US Regulated Markets.
“This position requires passing a ServiceNow background screening, USFedPASS (US Federal Personnel Authorization Screening Standards). This includes a credit check, criminal/misdemeanor check and taking a drug test. Any employment is contingent upon passing the screening. Due to Federal requirements, only US citizens, US naturalized citizens or US Permanent Residents, holding a green card, will be considered.

The Platform Infrastructure Automation team builds software that brings ServiceNow instances to life and manages their journey on our Clouds. We write software that works across tens of data centers and tens of thousands of servers around the world. Reliability and Performance are utmost important in everything we do. We use a combination of Java, JavaScript and ServiceNow platforms to achieve this. We continue to evolve our platform to use newer methodologies. We are a group of people that enjoy working with infrastructure and making it work for our customers. We work in a very collaborative environment with distributed teams that empower and enable you to succeed in your role. Your initiative (start) and drive (propel) will be unstoppable in our team.

What you get to do in this role:

• Partner with Product Managers, architects, stakeholders, and engineers to define requirements and deliver end-to-end cloud platform solutions.
• Lead the design, development, testing, and deployment of large-scale infrastructure automation software supporting ServiceNow's global cloud platform.
• Build high-quality, clean, scalable, and reusable code while driving engineering best practices including architecture reviews, code reviews, design patterns, and maintainability standards.
• Leverage AI-assisted development tools and techniques to improve developer productivity, accelerate software delivery, enhance code quality, and automate engineering workflows.
• Drive engineering excellence through comprehensive test automation strategies, including unit, integration, regression, and end-to-end testing.
• Improve platform reliability and resilience through the use of mocks, fault injection, failure simulation, chaos engineering, and automated validation frameworks.
• Contribute to the design and implementation of new platform capabilities while continuously simplifying and modernizing existing systems and workflows.
• Build and operate highly reliable cloud computing solutions that scale across tens of data centers and thousands of servers worldwide.
• Establish observability, performance, and operational excellence practices to ensure system reliability, scalability, and rapid incident resolution.
• Solve complex distributed systems challenges in a fast-paced, highly collaborative environment while mentoring engineers and promoting technical excellence.
• Drive continuous improvement of development processes, CI/CD pipelines, automation frameworks, and software quality metrics throughout the software development lifecycle

Qualifications

To be successful in this role you have:

• 8+ years of software development experience in Java or a comparable object-oriented programming language with a Bachelor's degree; OR 6+ years with a Master's degree; OR 3+ years with a PhD; OR equivalent work experience.
• Experience integrating AI into software development workflows, engineering processes, infrastructure operations, or platform automation.
• Experience developing scalable, resilient systems and leveraging AI/ML insights to enhance products, platforms, or operational outcomes.
• Ability to lead projects with significant technical complexity and risk across distributed teams.
• Strong foundation in distributed systems and proven experience designing and architecting large-scale cloud platforms.
• Experience building scalable products, frameworks, and infrastructure automation solutions.
• Excellent software engineering skills with object-oriented programming languages such as Java, JavaScript, Go, or similar.
• Strong understanding of data structures, algorithms, object-oriented design principles, design patterns, and performance optimization.
• Deep knowledge of database technologies and large-scale data management systems.
• Experience designing and implementing automated testing frameworks and quality engineering practices.
• Strong understanding of CI/CD pipelines, DevOps methodologies, and modern software delivery practices.
• Experience applying failure testing, resiliency validation, fault injection, and production readiness practices to improve platform reliability.
• Experience leveraging AI technologies to improve software development, engineering productivity, operational efficiency, decision-making, or problem-solving.
• Experience working in Agile development environments.
• Prior experience solving infrastructure and systems-level challenges in private, public, or hybrid cloud environments.

Nice to Have

• Hands-on experience with Kubernetes or other container orchestration platforms.
• Familiarity with cloud platforms such as AWS, Azure, or GCP.
• Experience with Infrastructure as Code (IaC), cloud automation, and CI/CD pipelines.
• Experience building or operating large-scale infrastructure automation platforms.
• Familiarity with chaos engineering, resilience testing, service observability, and reliability engineering practices

For positions in this location, we offer a base pay of $166,500 - $291,400 , 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 View email address on us.fitly.work 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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