Senior Staff Platform Engineer - Kubernetes - Federal

ServiceNow; California; Hybrid; USD 180,000 - 280,000; Full time

Job summary

ServiceNow is seeking a Senior Staff Software Engineer for the Data Platform organization in the United States (California). The role is hybrid, with two days per week in a ServiceNow office.

You will design, build, and operate cloud-native platform components, driving architecture-aligned delivery and hands-on engineering across teams. You will mentor engineers, lead critical projects, and push for reliability, scalability, and operability, including tests, instrumentation, and on-call

Qualifications

• 12+ years of software development experience with a Bachelor's degree; OR 8+ years with a Master's; OR 5+ years with a PhD; OR equivalent.
• Experience building and operating cloud-native software and large-scale platforms.

Responsibilities

• Design, build, and operate components and services within the cloud-native platform from design through production.
• Lead well-scoped projects within your team, turning requirements and rough ideas into solid technical designs and deliveries.
• Collaborate with senior, staff, and principal engineers to align work with architecture and standards.
• Contribute to reliability, scalability, and operability; write tests and instrumentation; improve runbooks; participate in on-call.
• Spend most of your time hands-on building — operators, controllers, automation, and platform services.
• Help onboard and mentor junior engineers through code review, design feedback, and pairing.

Skills

Cloud-native development

Technical leadership

Code reviews

Testing & instrumentation

On-call ops

AI in engineering

Software engineering

Mentoring juniors

Education

Bachelor's degree in CS/Engineering

Master's degree

PhD

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 aFlexible (Hybrid)position.Flexiblepositions 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 includesupporting 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 witha Master's degree; OR 5+ years with a PhD; OR equivalent work experience.
• 5+ years ofhands-on experience building, deploying