ServiceNow, Inc. logo

Senior Staff Data Platform Software Engineer

ServiceNow, Inc.

San Diego, CA · HybridJob$181K/yrSeen todaySeen in employer's feed today

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At a glance

Compensation
$181K/yr
Location
San Diego, CAHybrid
Work Authorization
Not specified

Olive lists jobs from US employers, including remote roles you can work from the United States.

Job overview

The Senior Staff Software Engineer will design and implement features and services for ServiceNow’s cloud-native Data Platform. The role involves hands-on platform development, leading scoped projects, collaborating with senior engineers, and contributing to reliability and operability. The engineer will also mentor junior colleagues and support US Regulated Markets. The position requires two days per week in a ServiceNow office and is subject to federal personnel screening.

Skills & qualifications

RequiredNice to have

Skills

AI IntegrationKubernetesHyperscaler PlatformsContainersCI/CDGitOpsInfrastructure as CodeGoKubernetes ControllersOperator PatternContainer NetworkingService MeshWorkload IdentityMutual TLSSecrets ManagementObservabilityMetricsTracingDashboards

Qualifications

12+ Years Software Development With Bachelor's, 8+ With Master's, 5+ With PhD, or Equivalent Experience5+ Years Kubernetes Workloads ExperienceComplex Feature Delivery

Benefits

Medical Insurance
401(k) Match
Paid Time Off
Parental Leave

Full job 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.

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 San Francisco, CA; Pleasanton, CA; Santa Clara, CA; San Diego, CA; and Kirkland, WA

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.

About the team

As a Senior Staff Software Engineer with the Data Platform organization, you will be responsible for designing and implementing features and services within our cloud-native platform.

What you get to do in this role

  • You will design, build, and operate components and services within the cloud-native platform, taking features from design through to production.

  • You will lead well-scoped projects within your team, turning requirements and rough ideas into solid technical designs and delivering them.

  • You will collaborate with senior, staff, and principal engineers to align your work with the platform’s architecture and standards.

  • You will contribute to the reliability, scalability, and operability of what you build — writing tests and instrumentation, improving runbooks, and participating in on-call.

  • You will spend most of your time hands-on building — operators, controllers, automation, and platform services that other teams depend on.

  • You will help onboard and mentor junior engineers through code review, design feedback, and pairing.

To be successful in this role you have

  • Experience leveraging or critically thinking about how to integrate AI into engineering work — whether using AI-powered coding and operational tooling, automating workflows, or reasoning about how AI changes the way software and infrastructure are built.

  • 12+ years of software development experience with a Bachelor's degree; OR 8+ years with a Master's degree; OR 5+ years with a PhD; OR equivalent work experience.

  • 5+ years of hands-on experience building, deploying and operating workloads on Kubernetes.

  • Working experience with at least one major hyperscaler (AWS, Azure, GCP), including its core compute, networking, and IAM primitives.

  • A track record of delivering complex features or services as a key contributor.

  • Solid working knowledge of containers, CI/CD and GitOps-based delivery, and infrastructure-as-code.

  • Strong programming skills in Go (or another systems language with a willingness to work primarily in Go).

It also helps if you have:

  • Experience building Kubernetes controllers or working with the operator pattern.

  • Familiarity with container networking (CNI) or service mesh.

  • Experience with workload identity, mTLS, or secrets management.

  • Experience with observability — metrics, tracing, and dashboards.

For positions in this location, we offer a base pay from $181,200 , 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.

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 (https://careers.servicenow.com/life-at-servicenow#workpersonas) . 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.

From Fortune. ©2026 Fortune Media IP Limited. All rights reserved. Used under license.

How this job compares

Set against the 40,579 open Software Engineer jobs on Olive Jobs, counted November 2, 2026.

Pay
  • This posting$181K/yr
  • California median$165–245K/yr7,651 salary ranges
  • US median$135–217K/yr32,202 salary ranges

This rate, $181K, is 12% below the California median midpoint ($205K) — in the middle half of Software Engineer salary ranges in California.

Openings
Olive Jobs lists 9,533 open Software Engineer jobs in California and 40,579 across the US. 7% of them nationwide are listed as remote or flexible.
Hiring the most in California
Experience
This posting asks for at least 5 years of experience; Software Engineer postings that state a minimum ask for 5 years at the median (32,914 postings).
Education
14,178 of the 40,579 open Software Engineer jobs (35%) ask for a bachelor's degree or higher.

Counted across the open, public US postings on Olive Jobs on November 2, 2026. Pay medians are the middle values of the low ends and of the high ends of postings that list both ends of a range in the same cadence (a yearly salary or an hourly rate); a range's midpoint is halfway between its ends. Pay and experience figures resting on fewer than 20 postings are left out.

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