ServiceNow logo
ServiceNow Verified
Enterprise Software

Staff Software Engineer

Santa Clara, CAOnsiteFull TimeStaff$166,500–$291,400 /yrPosted 1 month agoVisa sponsorship available

Is this role right for you?

Upload your resume and get a skill-by-skill breakdown — see exactly where you match, where you're close, and what to highlight. Not a mystery percentage.

Get a tailored resume highlighting what this role needs.

Required skills

  • JavaScript
  • Java
  • Python
  • AI Integration
  • GenAI models
  • Now Assist
  • AI Agents
  • Prompt Engineering
  • Production Quality Software
  • Technical Playbooks

Nice to have

  • enterprise product
  • customer delivery
  • deployment standards
  • gates
  • reusable patterns

Role summary

The GAIL (Get AI Live) program seeks a Staff Software Engineer to join its Core Team. This role involves leading complex customer AI deployments, owning and evolving the GAIL playbook, and building scalable shared tooling. You will mentor incoming engineers, drive quality standards, and collaborate with product and engineering teams to relay field insights. The position requires 6+ years of software engineering experience, proficiency in JavaScript and another language (Java, Python), and experience deploying AI/GenAI features. Familiarity with prompt engineering and strong communication skills are essential. This is a hands-on, customer-facing role focused on driving AI adoption and value realization.

The GAIL (Get AI Live) program deploys engineers directly into strategic customer engagements to drive real AI adoption and measurable value realization. The GAIL Core Team is the permanent engine behind that program — the stable foundation of institutional knowledge, tooling ownership, and senior expertise that makes every engagement, and every rotating engineer, better than the last. 

As a Staff Software Engineer on the GAIL Core Team, you will own the hardest engagements, set the quality standard for the entire practice, and build the infrastructure that scales it. This is hands-on, customer-facing work — not theoretical process — and it compounds in impact with every engagement you lead, and every engineer you bring up behind you. 

What you get to do in this role: 

  • Lead the most complex GAIL and Go-Live Support engagements — large-scale enterprise deployments, escalations, and high-stakes go-lives where depth and experience matter most. 

  • Own and evolve the GAIL playbook — keeping deployment standards, required gates, and prescribed sequences current, accurate, and actionable across the program. 

  • Build, maintain, and push shared GAIL tooling across all engagements — reducing reinvention and raising the floor for every engineer in the rotation. 

  • Mentor and ramp incoming GAIL engineers through structured onboarding, shadowing, and coaching on first customer interactions. 

  • Capture patterns from complex deployments and feed them into the team's knowledge base — turning hard-won lessons into reusable assets that proactively uplift the whole team. 

  • Drive quality standards across the GAIL practice — defining what great looks like and holding the line on it. 

  • Partner with product and engineering to surface field signal from customer engagements and close the feedback loop. 

  • 6+ years of software engineering experience, ideally with a mix of enterprise product work and hands-on customer or field delivery. 
  • Strong coding ability in JavaScript and one or more additional languages (Java, Python, or equivalent), with a track record of building and shipping production-quality solutions. 
  • Experience deploying or integrating AI features and GenAI models — including Now Assist, AI Agents, or equivalent platforms — in real customer environments. 
  • Familiarity with prompt engineering and the judgment to tune non-deterministic outputs for reliability and production-grade clarity. 
  • A bias for standards over shortcuts — you know when a playbook gate applies, when it doesn't, and you own that call with clear reasoning. 
  • A builder's instinct for shared tooling and reusable patterns — you don't reinvent the wheel when you can build something the whole program can use. 
  • The ability to mentor effectively — you raise the level of the engineers around you through direct coaching, not just example. 
  • Strong communication skills across technical and non-technical audiences, including customer-facing executive stakeholders. 

For positions in this location, we offer a base pay of $166,500 - $291,400, 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 globaltalentss@servicenow.com 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.

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.

Sample ServiceNow interview questions

  • 1

    Write out the system design for a highly concurrent platform that simply ranks users based on points

    system designmedium
  • 2

    Explain your strategy for handling data retention and auto purging in a massive text dump platform

    system designmedium
  • 3

    Design a system for managing distributed data migrations.

    system designmedium
  • 4

    Design a database structure for an application

    system designaverage
  • 5

    Design a Data structure (using struct or classes) to efficiently store data of company employees

    codingaverage

Get started to unlock a personalized interview prep pack for this role.

Ready to apply?
You'll be redirected to ServiceNow's application page.

Similar roles

See how RiseMe works

Match, tailor, and prep so you send fewer applications and land more interviews.