Staff Software Engineer - Backend (Persistence)

ServiceNow

ServiceNow

Software Engineering
San Diego, CA, USA
USD 155,800-272,700 / year + Equity
Posted on Oct 29, 2025

Company Description

It all started in sunny San Diego, California in 2004 when a visionary engineer, Fred Luddy, saw the potential to transform how we work. Fast forward to today — ServiceNow stands as a global market leader, bringing innovative AI-enhanced technology to over 8,100 customers, including 85% of the Fortune 500®. Our intelligent cloud-based platform seamlessly connects people, systems, and processes to empower organizations to find smarter, faster, and better ways to work. But this is just the beginning of our journey. Join us as we pursue our purpose to make the world work better for everyone.

Job Description

About the Team

The engineering organization is a dynamic group of builders, thinkers, and problem-solvers dedicated to delivering scalable, AI-powered software products that elevate how organizations work. We value clean architecture, intuitive user experiences, and a culture of continuous improvement. Every engineer here plays a key role in shaping the quality and reliability of our products.

About the Role:

As a Staff Data Platform Engineer, you will be a key technical contributor within the Trino Engine team in the Platform Persistence group. Our largest customers are always pushing the limits of the backend storage in terms of size of the data, speed of IO, as well as number of concurrent transactions. Performance, reliability, and scalability is always at the core of our work. You will focus on developing and optimizing critical components of our Trino engine and its containerized deployment infrastructure.

What you get to do in this role:

  • Design and develop scalable, maintainable, and reusable software components with a strong emphasis on performance and reliability. Design and implement critical components of the Trino engine
  • Collaborate with product managers to translate requirements into well-architected solutions, owning features from design through delivery
  • Build intuitive and extensible user experiences using modern UI frameworks, ensuring flexibility for customer-specific needs.
  • Contribute to the design and implementation of new products and features while enhancing existing product capabilities. Contribute to technical design decisions and architectural improvements.
  • Integrate automated testing into development workflows to ensure consistent quality across releases.
  • Participate in design and code reviews ensuring best practices in performance, maintainability, and testability.
  • Develop comprehensive test strategies covering functional, regression, integration and performance aspects
  • Foster a culture of continuous learning and improvement by sharing best practices in engineering and quality
  • Promote a culture of engineering craftsmanship, knowledge-sharing, and thoughtful quality practices across the team. Collaborate with team members to solve complex distributed systems challenges.
  • Develop and optimize query processing and execution systems. Implement performance optimizations and scalability improvements. Build containerized deployment solutions for Trino in production environments

Qualifications

To be successful in this role you have:

  • Experience in leveraging or critically thinking about how to integrate AI into work processes, decision-making, or problem-solving. This may include using AI-powered tools, automating workflows, analyzing AI-driven insights, or exploring AI's potential impact on the function or industry.
  • Experience In using AI Productivity tools such as Windsurf, Cursor, etc is a plus or nice to have.
  • Typically requires a minimum of 8 years of related experience with a Bachelor's degree; or 6 years and a Master's degree; or a PhD with 3 years experience; or equivalent experience.
  • Proficiency in Java/JVM ecosystem and performance tuning
  • Experience with modern front-end frameworks such as Angular, React, or Vue.
  • Strong knowledge of data structures, algorithms, object-oriented design, design patterns, and performance optimization
  • Familiarity with automated testing frameworks (e.g., JUnit, Selenium, TestNG) and integrating tests into CI/CD pipelines
  • Understanding software quality principles including reliability, observability, and production readiness.
  • Ability to troubleshoot complex systems and optimize performance across the stack.
  • Experience with AI-powered tools or workflows, including validation of datasets, model predictions, and inference consistency.
  • Comfort with development tools such as IDEs, debuggers, profilers, source control, and Unix-based systems
  • Strong expertise in Trino engine development or similar distributed query engines
  • Solid experience with container orchestration platforms (Kubernetes, Docker)
  • Strong understanding of distributed query processing and optimization
  • Experience in performance tuning and troubleshooting distributed systems
  • Strong background in SQL and distributed database systems

Nice to Have:

  • Hands-on experience with distributed query engines (Trino, Spark, or similar)
  • Contributions to open-source projects
  • Experience with cloud-native architectures
  • Knowledge of data governance and security practices
  • Background in performance optimization of big data systems
  • Knowledge of data lake architectures and technologies
  • Experience with cloud platforms (AWS/GCP/Azure)

Additional Skills:

  • Strong problem-solving and analytical abilities
  • Good communication skills to collaborate effectively with team members
  • Ability to write clear technical documentation
  • Track record of delivering complex technical projects
  • Experience working in a customer-focused environment

Why Join Us

  • Build and deliver high-impact software that powers digital experiences for millions of users.
  • Collaborate in a culture that values craftsmanship, quality, and innovation.
  • Work symbiotically with AI and automation tools that enhance engineering excellence and drive product reliability.
  • Be part of a culture that encourages innovation, continuous learning, and shared success.

For positions in this location, we offer a base pay of $155,800 - $272,700, 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, creed, religion, sex, sexual orientation, national origin or nationality, ancestry, age, disability, gender identity or expression, marital status, 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.

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