Principal Machine Learning Engineer

About the role

In this role you will play a key role in defining and building the cloud-native infrastructure that powers ServiceNow's next generation of Agentic AI and conversational experiences. As a Principal Engineer, you will drive architecture and technical strategy across multiple engineering organizations while remaining deeply hands-on in solving complex platform and scalability challenges.

Lead the technical direction, architecture, and evolution of cloud-native platform services supporting Agentic AI initiatives. Drive the design and implementation of scalable Kubernetes-based infrastructure that supports AI/ML and conversational workloads at enterprise scale.

Partner with engineering, infrastructure, product, and platform teams to modernize critical services and accelerate the transition to next-generation architectures. Design and build highly available, secure, observable, and resilient distributed systems supporting mission-critical customer workloads.

Establish architectural standards, engineering best practices, and platform patterns that can be leveraged across multiple product teams. Drive automation across infrastructure provisioning, deployment pipelines, service operations, monitoring, and incident response. Evaluate and adopt emerging technologies in cloud-native infrastructure, Kubernetes, AI platforms, and distributed systems.

Mentoring senior engineers and providing technical leadership through influence across organizational boundaries. Lead architecture reviews and provide guidance on scalability, reliability, performance, security, and operational excellence. Partner closely with teams developing AI-powered experiences to ensure underlying infrastructure can support future growth and innovation.

Work with stakeholders across the organization to balance long-term platform investments with near-term product delivery goals. Own technical initiatives from concept through production deployment while helping shape the future direction of ServiceNow's Agentic AI platform.

To be successful in this role, you have

• 15+ years of experience building large-scale distributed systems, cloud platforms, infrastructure services, or enterprise SaaS products.
• Deep expertise in Java, Go, Python, or similar systems programming languages.
• Proven experience designing, building, and operating highly scalable cloud-native architectures.
• Expert knowledge of Kubernetes, containers, orchestration platforms, and modern cloud infrastructure.

• Experience building platform services used across multiple engineering teams and products.
• Strong understanding of distributed systems principles, including resiliency, fault tolerance, scalability, performance optimization, and observability.
• Experience with AWS, Azure, or Google Cloud at large scale.
• Expertise in CI/CD, infrastructure automation, GitOps, Terraform, Helm, ArgoCD, or comparable technologies.

• Strong software engineering fundamentals including object-oriented design, system design, architecture patterns, and performance optimization.
• Experience leading technical strategy and influencing architecture across multiple organizations without direct authority.
• Demonstrated track record building new platform capabilities from concept through large-scale production adoption.

Strong communication skills with the ability to explain technical tradeoffs to engineering and executive leadership.

Pay and benefits

Experience building infrastructure for AI/ML, generative AI, agentic systems, or conversational platforms. Experience supporting GPU workloads, model serving, inference platforms, or AI runtime environments. Experience with internal developer platforms, platform engineering, SRE, or cloud infrastructure organizations.

Knowledge of multi-agent architectures, orchestration platforms, workflow engines, or large-scale automation systems. Experience with modern observability platforms including OpenTelemetry, Prometheus, Grafana, Datadog, or equivalent technologies. Experience modernizing legacy architectures into cloud-native distributed services.

For positions in this location, we offer a base pay of $240,100 - $420,200, 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. Accommodations We strive to create an accessible and inclusive experience for all candidates.

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.