Principal Machine Learning Engineer

ServiceNow; California; On-site; USD 180,000 - 300,000; Full time

Job summary

ServiceNow is seeking a Principal Engineer to define and build the cloud-native infrastructure powering our Agentic AI and conversational experiences. You will drive architecture and strategic direction across multiple engineering teams while staying hands-on to tackle platform and scalability challenges.

You will lead the design of scalable Kubernetes-based infrastructure, mentor senior engineers, and partner with product, infrastructure, and platform teams to enable enterprise-scale AI

Qualifications

• 15+ years of experience building large-scale distributed systems.
• Expert knowledge of Kubernetes, containers, orchestration platforms.
• Deep expertise in Java, Go, Python or similar systems programming languages.

Responsibilities

• Define and build cloud-native infrastructure for Agentic AI.
• Lead architecture across engineering orgs while remaining hands-on.
• Drive scalable Kubernetes-based infrastructure for AI workloads.
• Mentor senior engineers and lead architecture reviews.
• Partner with product and platform teams to modernize services.

Skills

Java

Go

Python

Distributed systems

Kubernetes

Cloud platforms

Infrastructure as code

Tools

Kubernetes

Docker

Terraform

CI/CD pipelines

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.

In this role you will play a key role in defining and building the cloud-native infrastructure that powers ServiceNow's next generation of Agentic AI and conversational experiences. As a Principal Engineer, you will drive architecture and technical strategy across multiple engineering organizations while remaining deeply hands-on in solving complex platform and scalability challenges.

• Lead the technical direction, architecture, and evolution of cloud-native platform services supporting Agentic AI initiatives.
• Drive the design and implementation of scalable Kubernetes-based infrastructure that supports AI/ML and conversational workloads at enterprise scale.
• Partner with engineering, infrastructure, product, and platform teams to modernize critical services and accelerate the transition to next-generation architectures.
• Design and build highly available, secure, observable, and resilient distributed systems supporting mission-critical customer workloads.
• Establish architectural standards, engineering best practices, and platform patterns that can be leveraged across multiple product teams.
• Drive automation across infrastructure provisioning, deployment pipelines, service operations, monitoring, and incident response.
• Evaluate and adopt emerging technologies in cloud-native infrastructure, Kubernetes, AI platforms, and distributed systems.
• Mentoring senior engineers and providing technical leadership through influence across organizational boundaries.
• Lead architecture reviews and provide guidance on scalability, reliability, performance, security, and operational excellence.
• Partner closely with teams developing AI-powered experiences to ensure underlying infrastructure can support future growth and innovation.
• Work with stakeholders across the organization to balance long-term platform investments with near-term product delivery goals.
• Own technical initiatives from concept through production deployment while helping shape the future direction of ServiceNow's Agentic AI platform.

To be successful in this role, you have:

• 15+ years of experience building large-scale distributed systems, cloud platforms, infrastructure services, or enterprise SaaS products.
• Deep expertise in Java, Go, Python, or similar systems programming languages.
• Proven experience designing, building, and operating highly scalable cloud-native architectures.
• Expert knowledge of Kubernetes, containers, orchestration platforms, and modern cloud infrastructure.
• Experience building platform