Principal Software Engineer - Application Lifecycle
Company websiteservicenow.com (ServiceNow, opens in new tab)
Base salary $221,200 to $387,100
Employer-published annual base salary, USD. Advertised base range in Santa Clara, CA
You apply on the employer's own site. Six Figure Work does not handle applications.
- LocationSanta Clara, CA
- WorkplaceHybrid
- Status at last checkSource accepting applications when checked
- Last checked (49 min ago) · observed since
About this job
Company 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.
Job Description
About the Team
ServiceNow's Application Lifecycle Engineering organization builds the platforms and tools that enable customers and developers to create, validate, deploy, and maintain applications at enterprise scale.
The team owns critical developer platform capabilities that improve developer productivity, application quality, and software delivery efficiency across the ServiceNow ecosystem. Our products support automated testing, application lifecycle management, CI/CD integration, developer tooling, and emerging AI-powered capabilities that help customers build software faster and more confidently.
As we continue investing in AI-native development experiences, we're focused on reimagining how developers build, test, validate, and operate applications through intelligent automation, agentic systems, and modern platform engineering practices.
What You'll Do
As a Principal Software Engineer, you'll help define the technical strategy and architecture for the next generation of developer platforms and AI-powered engineering productivity solutions.
- Lead architecture and technical direction across developer tooling, automated testing, and application lifecycle management platforms.
- Design and build highly scalable platform services that improve developer productivity and software quality for enterprise customers.
- Create prototypes, proof-of-concepts, and reference architectures to validate new technical approaches before broader adoption.
- Drive innovation around AI-enabled developer experiences, intelligent automation, agentic workflows, and software delivery acceleration.
- Partner closely with Product Management, Design, and Engineering leaders to translate strategic vision into technical execution.
- Evaluate emerging technologies and identify opportunities to enhance platform capabilities, developer experience, and customer outcomes.
- Influence architectural decisions across multiple engineering teams and help establish engineering standards and best practices.
- Solve complex challenges related to scalability, reliability, observability, security, and performance across customer-facing platforms.
- Mentor senior engineers and provide technical leadership through influence, collaboration, and technical excellence.
- Contribute to long-term platform evolution while balancing customer impact and execution velocity.
Qualifications
Required
- 15+ years of software engineering experience or equivalent practical experience.
- Deep expertise building large-scale distributed systems, developer platforms, cloud-native applications, or enterprise SaaS products.
- Strong experience designing customer-facing platform capabilities, developer tools, or engineering productivity solutions.
- Expert-level understanding of system architecture, scalability, reliability, observability, fault tolerance, and production operations.
- Strong software development background with Java and modern distributed system design.
- Proven ability to drive technical strategy and influence architecture across multiple teams and organizations.
- Experience leading complex technical initiatives through collaboration rather than formal authority.
- Strong communication skills and ability to work effectively across Engineering, Product Management, and Design organizations.
- Track record of mentoring senior engineers and raising engineering standards across an organization.
Preferred
- Experience building developer tools, testing platforms, CI/CD systems, developer experience (DevEx) solutions, or application lifecycle management products.
- Experience with automated testing frameworks, testability platforms, or software quality engineering at scale.
- Experience developing AI-powered products, AI-assisted developer workflows, agentic systems, or intelligent automation capabilities.
- Knowledge of software development lifecycle tooling, deployment automation, and platform engineering practices.
- Experience building products used by software developers, administrators, or highly technical enterprise customers.
- Familiarity with developer productivity metrics, platform adoption strategies, and customer-centric platform development.
For positions in this location, we offer a base pay of $221,200 - $387,100, 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 [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.
Source: ServiceNow on SmartRecruiters · View original posting (opens in new tab)
Pay in context
This role's base floor ($221,200) is above 81% of the 4,279 Software Engineering roles in California listed on this site; 3 others list the same floor. Their median floor is $176,362; the middle half runs from $149,100 to $204,000.
Only jobs on this site count, and each one publishes a base salary of $100,000 or more, so this compares six-figure jobs with each other, not with the whole market. Computed Nov 6, 2026.
This listingPrincipal Software Engineer - Application Lifecycle$221,200 to $387,100
Principal AI Platform Engineer$221,200 to $387,100
Principal Product Designer, SalesCRM$221,200 to $387,100
Director, Product Design, IT Service Management$221,200 to $387,100
Director, Product Management$221,200 to $387,100
Principal Design Technologist, Design Systems & Applied AI$221,200 to $387,100
Director, Regional Product Management$221,200 to $387,100
Chart as a table
| Role | Published base |
|---|---|
| Principal Software Engineer - Application Lifecycle (this listing) | $221,200 - $387,100 |
| Principal AI Platform Engineer | $221,200 - $387,100 |
| Principal Product Designer, SalesCRM | $221,200 - $387,100 |
| Director, Product Design, IT Service Management | $221,200 - $387,100 |
| Director, Product Management | $221,200 - $387,100 |
| Principal Design Technologist, Design Systems & Applied AI | $221,200 - $387,100 |
| Director, Regional Product Management | $221,200 - $387,100 |
Observed changes
- First observed on the employer's board
- fields changed
- Began meeting the published-salary criteria
- Observed since
- Employer-stated posting date
- 2026-09-15
Where this pay comes from
Location as the employer wrote it: Santa Clara, California, United States
For positions in this location, we offer a base pay of $221,200 - $387,100, plus equity (when applicable), variable/incentive compensa
- Method
- Employer text, read with fixed rules and re-verified
- Checked
- Rule set
- us-base-v2
The pay passage appears in the employer's own job text. Fixed, deterministic rules located it, and the passage below was checked against the stored copy of the posting.
What we verified
- The pay figures come from the employer's own listing, quoted exactly above.
- The pay is an annual base salary in US dollars with a minimum of at least $100,000.
- The role was publicly listed on the employer's job board when last checked.
We do not verify what the employer will actually offer, whether the employer is still recruiting for the role, or anything beyond what the employer published. Full methodology.