Senior Staff Data Platform Engineer (Data Access Team)

• Every workflow, AI agent, and application on the ServiceNow AI Platform depends on one thing: getting the right data, fast, correctly, and securely. As part of the Persistence organization, you’ll build the layer that makes that possible, the foundation under a platform that 85% of the Fortune 500 runs their business on
• Give developers and customers faster, more reliable, more secure access to the data platform they build on
• Push the limits of IO, transactions, and concurrency across relational, time-series, and columnar engines
• Turn hard infrastructure problems into simple capabilities and automation for the developers and customers who build on the platform
• The Data Access team owns the ServiceNow ORM and data access layer
• We take the platform’s logical object model and translate every data request into high-performance queries against many database engines, including our homegrown RaptorDB (PostgreSQL), MariaDB, Oracle, and Trino, graph databases, and time-series databases
• Our home-grown SQL generation engine, table management, and database metadata services are what let application developers build powerful applications across industries without ever having to manage engine complexity
• That makes us one of the most leveraged teams in the company. A single improvement to our engine speeds up thousands of applications and millions of queries, and getting it wrong is not an option
• As a Senior Staff Software Engineer, you’ll be a key technical leader in the Platform Persistence group. You’ll set the architectural direction for the data access layer as it expands into new engines and AI-driven workloads, and raise the bar for engineering craftsmanship across the organization
• Set the technical direction and architecture strategy for the data access layer, balancing long-term scalability with delivery
• Work on core data architecture that touches every part of the product, keeping it high-quality, reliable, secure, and fast
• Own features from design through delivery, turning business requirements into well-architected, cross-team solutions
• Lead design and code reviews, championing performance, maintainability, and testability across multiple teams
• Define comprehensive test strategies covering functional, regression, integration, and performance testing
• Diagnose and resolve the hardest production issues across the stack
• Mentor engineers at every level and raise the technical bar across the organization

Benefits

• Generous family leave
• Matched donations
• Annual learning stipends
• Flexible PTO
• Competitive retirement plan
• Paid volunteer time- Experience leveraging or critically thinking about how to integrate AI into engineering work — whether using AI-powered coding and operational tooling, automating workflows, or reasoning about how AI changes the way software and infrastructure are built
• Deep understanding of software quality principles including reliability, observability, and production readiness
• Knowledge and/or experience with relational databases: PostgreSQL, Oracle, MySQL, Trino, etc
• Strong knowledge of data structures, algorithms, object-oriented design, design patterns, and performance optimization at scale
• Expert level understanding of best practices for object-oriented and modularized software, with emphasis on Java
• A demonstrated track record of technical leadership at a Staff or Senior Staff level (or equivalent)
• Experience with automated testing frameworks (e.g., JUnit, Selenium, TestNG) and integrating tests into CI/CD pipelines
• Expert level with core Java development
• Advanced-Expert level of backend platform development
• 12+ years of software development experience with a Bachelor’s degree; OR 8+ years with a Master’s degree; OR 5+ years with a PhD; OR equivalent work experience
• Good understanding of cloud-based and distributed systems
• Familiarity with ServiceNow platform is a plus
• Familiarity with Neo4J and graph databases
• Familiarity with RDBMS internals
• Experience with Unix shell
• Passionate about database technologies
• Experience working in a DevOps environment
• Experience working in a customer focused environment