Sr Staff Software Engineer (Java/Go, Kubernetes)

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.

Workflow Data Fabric (WDF) connects the ServiceNow AI Platform to enterprise data wherever it lives - querying it in place, streaming it in real time, and ingesting it at scale so workflows and AI agents act on trusted, current data. We are looking for a Senior Staff Software Engineer to be a senior technical leader across the WDF platform organization. You will set architecture direction across multiple scrum teams, stay hands-on in the code, and own the hardest performance, scalability, and reliability problems across our data-access and data-movement products. Zero Copy Connectors and Remote Process Sync are the anchor areas for this role, with cross-team technical leadership spanning Data Fabric, Trino-based connectors, Stream Connect, ETL/Import Sets, Analytics Ingestion, and data quality.

What You'll Do

• Own end-to-end architecture for Zero Copy Connectors: the federated query path from the ServiceNow platform through a Trino-based query engine to external warehouses and lakehouses (e.g., Snowflake, Databricks, BigQuery, Redshift, Oracle, Iceberg), including pushdown, connection pooling, caching, authentication, and connector-framework extensibility as the connector portfolio scales.
• Own the technical direction of Remote Process Sync, our instance-to-instance process synchronization framework, driving throughput, parallel processing, ordering guarantees, resiliency, and supportability for high-volume customer and product integrations.
• Drive the architecture of Private Connectivity (Reverse Tunnel), which gives the platform secure, outbound-initiated access to customer data sources behind firewalls. The work covers mTLS tunneling, SNI-based routing, stream multiplexing, and the scale, resiliency, and security needed for enterprise and regulated customers.
• Provide cross-team technical leadership across the WDF portfolio – Data Fabric tables, Trino data connectors, Stream Connect (Kafka), ETL and Import Sets, analytics ingestion pipelines, and native data quality – ensuring coherent designs, shared frameworks, and consistent security and governance patterns. 
• Lead architecture and design reviews; write and approve technical specifications; make and document build-vs-buy, protocol, and platform trade-offs with long-term maintainability in mind.
• Write production code in critical paths, prototype new approaches, and review code across teams to raise the engineering bar.
• Define and drive performance and scalability strategy: benchmarks, capacity models, and end-to-end performance validation for query, sync, streaming, and ingestion workloads before release.
• Serve as the senior technical escalation point for complex production and customer issues; drive root-cause analysis and turn recurring issues into durable platform fixes, observability, and runbooks. 
• Partner with Product Management, Engineering Managers, Quality Engineering, Support, and adjacent platform teams (query engine, security, cloud infrastructure) to shape roadmaps, sequence technical investments, and de-risk delivery commitments.
• Mentor and grow senior and staff engineers; build technical depth and knowledge continuity so that critical areas are never dependent on a single person.

Required Qualifications

• 12+ years of professional software engineering experience, including significant time building and operating large-scale distributed systems or data platforms.
• Deep expertise in distributed systems and data platform fundamentals, such as query processing, data integration/replication, change data capture, streaming or batch pipelines, concurrency, consistency, and fault tolerance.
• Experience with Kubernetes-based services, multi-tenant SaaS architecture, and data security/governance (ACLs, encryption, data residency).
• Demonstrated track record of leading architecture across multiple teams and delivering complex, cross-functional platform initiatives end to end.
• Strong hands-on coding ability in at least one systems language (e.g., Java, C++, Go, Scala, or similar), with a continued practice of writing and reviewing production code.
• Proven experience diagnosing and solving performance and scalability problems in production systems, using profiling, benchmarking, and observability data.
• Ability to influence without authority – aligning engineers, managers, product, and partner teams around technical direction through clear written and verbal communication.
• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science or a related field, or equivalent practical experience.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience with Trino internals, connector SPI, or other federated/distributed SQL query engines.
• Experience with lakehouse and big-data technologies such as Apache Iceberg, Apache Polaris or other Iceberg REST catalogs, Spark, or Delta Lake.
• Experience with Kafka or other event-streaming platforms, CDC, or message-driven integration frameworks.
• Hands-on experience with cloud data warehouses and lakehouses (e.g., Snowflake, Databricks, BigQuery, Redshift) and their JDBC/REST access patterns and authentication models (e.g., OAuth).
• Experience with the ServiceNow platform (Glide), IntegrationHub, or Flow Designer.
• Hands-on experience owning customer escalations or high-severity production incidents for enterprise software.
• Familiarity with data quality, data observability, or AI-assisted data transformation.
• Open-source contributions, patents, publications

For positions in this location, we offer a base pay of $171,900 - $300,800, 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. 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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