ServiceNow

Director Software Engineering Management

ServiceNow$183K — $321K *
Information Technology
11 - 15 years of experience
Job Overview by Ladders

Qualifications

  • 15+ years in engineering, including 5+ years in leadership roles.
  • Expertise in large-scale distributed systems and cloud infrastructure.
  • Strong foundation in system design focusing on reliability and fault tolerance.
  • Proficient in programming languages like Java and Python.
  • Ability to influence architectural direction and manage execution plans.
  • Proven success in hiring and leading engineering teams effectively.
  • Experience with AI-powered products and enterprise service management is preferred.

Responsibilities

  • Lead and grow teams within ITSM/ITOM, addressing AI evolution and delivery challenges.
  • Define technical strategy and ensure quality and reliability in product development.
  • Recruit, mentor, and develop engineering talent for high-performance teams.
  • Drive data-informed decision-making through experiments and outcomes measurement.
  • Guide the adoption of AI-native capabilities and oversee implementation plans.
  • Diagnose and rectify performance gaps in existing products.
  • Establish engineering standards and best practices for consistent delivery.

Benefits

  • Opportunity to shape AI-native future on the ServiceNow platform.
  • Lead foundational product developments in IT service automation.
  • Collaborate with teams prioritizing craftsmanship and meaningful impact.
  • Flexibility in work arrangements to fit personal and professional needs.
Full Job Description
Job Description

The engineering organization is a dynamic group of builders, thinkers, and problem-solvers focused on delivering scalable, AI-powered software products that improve how organizations work. We value clean architecture, intuitive experiences, operational excellence, and a culture of continuous improvement. Every engineer plays an important role in shaping the quality, reliability, and long-term success of our products.

About the Team

The Service Operations Business Unit brings together IT Service Management (ITSM), IT Operations Management (ITOM), and CMDB capabilities on the ServiceNow Platform. This product engineering organization builds the software that helps customers deliver resilient, intelligent, and efficient enterprise services.

The Service Operations product portfolio connects incident, request, fulfillment, infrastructure visibility, service mapping, trusted configuration data, automation, and AIOps into a unified operating model. By combining service delivery with operational intelligence and trusted operational context, these products help customers move toward proactive, AI-assisted, and increasingly self-healing operations at enterprise scale.

Together, these capabilities help customers modernize how they deliver and operate services, improve reliability, reduce manual effort, and drive measurable productivity outcomes on a single platform.

What you get to do in this role:

As a Director of Engineering, you will lead the teams that architect and build assistive and autonomous AI-native products to usher customers (IT departments using our IT service and operations management applications) into an agentic-first era. The work will span large-scale distributed systems, data ingestion, context creation and utilization, agentic harnesses, cost optimization, and agentic feedback loops to ensure value realization for our customers.

This role requires people leadership, thought leadership, deep technical expertise, strong architectural judgment, and a keen understanding of the scientific method to ship and refine real product through iterative experimentation. You will be accountable for the growth, health, and delivery outcomes of your teams.

Responsibilities include:
  • Lead and grow the engineering teams responsible for assigned problem areas within ITSM/ITOM products, working with product and engineering leaders to understand blockers and opportunities around AI-native evolution and value realization.
  • Own technical strategy and delivery for your teams. Set architectural direction, hold the bar on quality and reliability, and stay close enough to the work to validate hypotheses through evidence, not theory.
  • Hire, coach, and develop engineers, tech leads, and managers. Build inclusive, high-performing teams with clear career paths and durable ownership.
  • Drive evidence-based decision-making: formulate hypotheses, run experiments, measure outcomes, and use data to guide architectural decisions and product direction.
  • Lead the evolution of current solutions toward AI-native capabilities-identifying where agentic patterns, data utilization, or autonomous workflows can unlock customer value-and translate those recommendations into staffed, executable work.
  • Identify and address value realization gaps in agentic products that exist but aren't delivering expected outcomes. Diagnose root causes (architecture, UX, data quality, feedback loops, cost) and direct targeted improvements.
  • Establish architecture patterns, engineering standards, and operating rhythms specific to your problem domain. Document tradeoffs, rationale, and implementation guidance to help teams move faster and make consistent decisions.
  • Collaborate across ITSM/ITOM engineering teams to share learnings, validate approaches, and accelerate adoption of patterns that work.
  • Collaborate with stakeholders across Product, Design, Security, Operations, Sales, and Customer Success - aligning on roadmap and release readiness, meeting security and compliance requirements, and feeding field and customer signal back into engineering priorities.


Qualifications

To be successful in this role, you have:
  • 15+ years of related engineering experience, including 5+ years leading and managing engineering teams (including managers or team leads), or equivalent practical experience.
  • Strong experience building and operating large-scale distributed systems, enterprise platforms, workflow systems, data-intensive products, integration frameworks, or cloud-scale infrastructure.
  • Deep understanding of system design for scale, reliability, observability, fault tolerance, data quality, security, and production readiness.
  • Strong technical depth in Java, Python, or similar programming languages.
  • Proven ability to define technical direction, influence architecture across teams, and translate ambiguous product strategy into executable engineering plans.
  • Demonstrated success hiring, developing, and retaining engineers and engineering leaders, and managing performance, career growth, and team health.
  • Ability to lead through formal authority and technical credibility alike, building alignment across peer engineering, Product, Design, Security, Operations, Sales, and Customer Success organizations.
  • Strong judgment in balancing long-term architecture with pragmatic execution, customer impact, engineering velocity, and business priorities.
  • Experience mentoring senior engineers, raising engineering standards, and building reusable patterns that create leverage across teams.
  • Experience with AI-powered products, automation platforms, AI-assisted workflows, or agentic systems is strongly preferred.
  • Ability to reason about AI-assisted enterprise workflows, including data quality, workflow correctness, evaluation, observability, safety controls, and human-in-the-loop review.
  • Experience with enterprise service management, IT operations, CMDB, discovery, service mapping, AIOps, observability, workflow automation, endpoint management, or operational intelligence is a strong plus.
  • Experience working with large-scale enterprise customers, production systems, and complex migration or modernization efforts is a plus.
  • Why Join Us
  • Shape the AI-native future of the Service Operations Business Unit product portfolio on the ServiceNow Platform.
  • Build and lead the teams delivering foundational product and platform capabilities that help enterprises deliver, operate, automate, and continuously improve services at scale.
  • Define how AI agents, automation, operational data, and human workflows come together to create safer, more reliable, and more productive enterprise operations.
  • Collaborate with teams that value craftsmanship, quality, innovation, accountability, and meaningful customer impact.


Additional Information

For positions in this location, we offer a base pay of $183,600 - $321,300, 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, an RRSP Plan with company match, ESPP, matching donations, family and medical leave programs and Annual vacation: 20 days per year, accrued every pay period at 6.67 hours. 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.

About ServiceNow

ServiceNow provides cloud-based solutions that define, structure, manage, and automate services for enterprise operations in North America, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, the Asia Pacific, and other countries. The company offers service management solutions, including incident, problem, change, request, and cost management as well as service catalogs; and IT, HR, facilities, and field service management solutions. It also provides IT operations management solutions covering service mapping, delivery, and assurance solutions; business management solutions such as financial management, project portfolio suite, vendor performance management, and performance analytics as well as governance, risk, and compliance; and application development services.

ServiceNow Careers

Join the dynamic team at ServiceNow, a global leader in digital workflow solutions, where innovation and leadership converge to shape the future of work. At ServiceNow, we offer more than just job opportunities; we provide a platform for professional growth and a chance to be part of a culture that values diversity, creativity, and continuous learning.

Work You’ll Do

Embark on a career journey with ServiceNow and contribute to the world’s leading enterprises' digital transformation. Our team is at the forefront of developing cutting-edge technologies that improve how people work. With ServiceNow, you will use your skills to impact businesses and industries profoundly, driving efficiency and innovation.

Join Our Market-Leading Team

ServiceNow is not just another technology company. We are a team that thrives on diversity and leadership, fostering an inclusive environment that promotes growth and development. Our commitment to diversity training ensures that every team member can achieve their potential.

Innovative Work

ServiceNow is home to more than 10,000 dedicated professionals who lead the charge in digital workflows and enterprise solutions. As part of our team, you will engage in projects that merge technology with practical applications, creating revolutionary products that advance how services are delivered and managed.

Career Development

At ServiceNow, your career trajectory is filled with boundless opportunities. We support your growth with robust training programs, leadership development courses, and access to global challenges. Whether you are looking for an internship, full-time position, or leadership role, ServiceNow equips you with the tools to excel.

Be Part of a Great Team

Working at ServiceNow means being part of a community that values teamwork and innovation. Our collaborative environment encourages networking and sharing ideas, making our workplace vibrant and dynamic. The benefits of joining ServiceNow extend beyond comprehensive health and wellness; they include fostering professional connections and friendships that last a lifetime.

Explore Job Opportunities and Internships

Whether you’re a seasoned professional or a recent graduate, ServiceNow offers a range of employment options to suit your career goals. From internships that provide real-world experience to full-time positions that challenge you to leverage your expertise, we are committed to hiring the best talent.

Stay Connected

Join Our Team Search open positions that match your skills and interests. At ServiceNow, we look for passionate, curious, and solution-driven team players. Explore the possibilities that await you at a company that is committed to your professional success.

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ServiceNow Careers

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Learn more about ServiceNow
Size
16,881 employees
Market Cap
$76.5 billion
Industry
Net Income
$118.5 million
Founded
2004
5 Year Trend
+33.5%
Revenue
$4.5 billion
NASDAQ

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