Director Software Engineering Management

Job Description

This role is for a software engineering director who leads a high-performing team of software engineers building AI-native and cloud-native applications on the ServiceNow platform. The Director combines deep technical credibility with strong people management capabilities, fostering a culture of innovation, ownership, and continuous learning. They are responsible for team performance, career development, hiring, and execution of key business initiatives. This role requires the ability to balance people development with business results, think strategically about AI integration and platform architecture, and influence across the organization to enable team success. The ideal candidate brings experience scaling AI-native teams and a passion for building leaders.

What we do - Finance and Procurement teams are at the forefront of AI-native engineering at ServiceNow—building autonomous solutions for the world's largest enterprises that handle mission-critical financial and procurement operations at unprecedented scale. They continuously learn and integrate the latest AI and cloud-native technologies to deliver performant, resilient systems that transform how businesses manage supplier lifecycles, procurement workflows, payments, and receivables.

Responsibility Area: People Leadership & Development

• Build, grow, and maintain a high-performing, diverse team of IC2-IC5 engineers; hire and develop talent at all levels
• Set clear expectations for individual and team performance; establish metrics and goals aligned with business objectives
• Conduct regular 1:1s with direct reports; provide coaching, feedback, and career guidance tailored to each engineer's growth stage
• Create a culture of psychological safety, learning, and ownership; encourage experimentation and learning from failures
• Support engineers through career transitions—from IC2 to IC3, IC3 to IC4, and technical-to-management pathways
• Identify high-potential engineers and invest in their development; prepare emerging leaders for increased responsibility
• Address performance issues promptly and professionally; provide clear paths for improvement or transition
• Sponsor team members for growth opportunities, stretch assignments, and leadership development programs
• Celebrate wins and recognize contributions; foster a positive, collaborative team environment
• Model vulnerability, continuous learning, and AI-native thinking; lead by example in your own growth

Responsibility Area: Hiring & Team Building

• Define hiring strategy and conduct recruitment for open positions; build a pipeline of qualified candidates
• Lead technical interviews and assessments for engineering candidates at all IC levels; make hiring decisions
• Partner with HR and recruiting teams on job descriptions, sourcing strategies, and candidate pipeline management
• Evaluate cultural fit and potential; hire for values and growth potential, not just current skills
• Onboard new engineers effectively; assign mentors and ensure smooth integration into the team
• Build a team with diverse backgrounds, experiences, and perspectives; actively work to improve representation
• Identify gaps in team capabilities (technical depth, domain expertise, AI/ML fluency) and address through hiring or development
• Build relationships with external technical communities to attract and recruit top talent
• Participate in employer branding and represent the organization at recruiting events and universities

Responsibility Area: Technical Strategy & Product Leadership

• Work with product, design, and cross-functional partners to define product roadmap and technical strategy aligned with business goals
• Establish technical direction for the team; make architecture and technology decisions that balance innovation, quality, and delivery
• Ensure the team's technical approach stays current with AI/ML advancements and ServiceNow platform evolution
• Champion AI-native thinking across the team and organization; help teammates understand how to build with AI at the core
• Lead architectural reviews and technical decision-making; provide guidance on complex technical trade-offs
• Advocate for technical investments (refactoring, infrastructure, tooling) that improve team productivity and code quality
• Set quality standards for code, testing, and security; establish practices that enable sustainable delivery
• Partner with IC4/IC5 engineers to set multi-year technical roadmaps and long-term strategic initiatives
• Represent the engineering team in product and executive discussions; influence organizational priorities

Responsibility Area: Team Execution & Accountability

• Drive team delivery of committed business objectives and product initiatives; maintain accountability for results
• Establish clear sprint goals, work-item prioritization, and delivery timelines; remove blockers for team success
• Track team metrics: velocity, quality, customer satisfaction, incident response, deployment frequency
• Conduct regular retrospectives; identify process improvements and drive adoption of better practices
• Manage team capacity; balance new feature development, technical debt reduction, and customer support
• Ensure team participation in on-call rotation; monitor incident response and post-incident learning
• Report on team progress, risks, and performance to senior leadership; provide transparent communication
• Escalate critical issues or resource constraints; collaborate with peer managers to solve cross-team dependencies
• Foster a culture of ownership where engineers take responsibility for quality, testing, and production outcomes
• Lead team through organizational changes and initiatives; maintain morale and focus during transitions

Responsibility Area: Customer & Cross-Functional Engagement

• Build and maintain relationships with key customers and stakeholders; understand their needs and priorities
• Participate in customer meetings, technical escalations, and business reviews; represent engineering capabilities and constraints
• Work closely with product management, customer success, and other teams; ensure alignment on priorities and capabilities
• Lead customer-critical incident response; ensure timely and professional resolution of critical issues
• Gather customer feedback and translate into product improvements; communicate back to customers how feedback is addressed
• Advocate for customers' needs within the engineering organization; ensure customer voice is heard in decision-making
• Build trust and credibility with customers through transparency, responsiveness, and technical leadership
• Participate in strategic customer discussions and technology roadmap reviews

Responsibility Area: Organizational Leadership & Culture

• Model the organization's values and desired behaviors; set tone for engineering culture within your team and across teams
• Contribute to hiring and interview training of other managers; build bench strength in people leadership
• Mentor junior managers or peers; contribute to manager development and leadership pipeline
• Participate in engineering leadership meetings; contribute to organizational strategy and policy
• Promote psychological safety, inclusion, and belonging; actively work to reduce barriers for underrepresented groups
• Foster knowledge sharing across the organization; encourage your team to contribute to brown bags, documentation, and communities
• Lead by example in work-life balance, continuous learning, and sustainable pace; prevent burnout
• Encourage your team to engage with the broader tech community (conferences, open source, speaking, writing)

Responsibility Area: AI-Native Thinking & Innovation Leadership

• Develop deep understanding of AI/ML capabilities, limitations, and integration patterns; become a thought leader on AI-native development
• Coach your team on AI-native thinking—how to build systems with AI at the core, not as an afterthought
• Help engineers understand prompt engineering, retrieval systems, agentic workflows, and responsible AI principles
• Establish practices for evaluation-driven development, hallucination detection, and model performance monitoring
• Lead discussions on AI safety, data privacy, and responsible AI; ensure team builds with appropriate guardrails
• Create learning opportunities for the team to stay current with AI/ML advancements and frameworks
• Identify opportunities to apply AI to improve internal processes and team efficiency
• Contribute to organizational conversations about AI strategy and responsible AI practices
• Stay informed about LLM advancements, new models, and emerging techniques; share insights with your team

Qualifications

• 12+ years of professional software development experience, with 5+ years in AI-native systems, cloud-native architecture, or equivalent
• 5+ years of people management experience leading software engineers; track record of developing talent and building high-performing teams
• 3+ years managing application development on SaaS platforms (ServiceNow, Salesforce, or similar); deep understanding of platform architecture and constraints
• 3+ years hands-on experience with AI/ML systems, LLM integration, prompt engineering, and responsible AI practices
• Demonstrated expertise in hiring, team building, and organizational development; ability to attract and develop top talent
• Expert-level understanding of modern software engineering practices: CI/CD, testing, security, deployment
• Strong technical credibility; ability to engage in technical discussions with IC4/IC5 engineers; hands-on coding experience still valued
• Proficiency in Python, Java, and JavaScript; understanding of ServiceNow scripting and platform APIs
• Track record of delivering significant business results through engineering teams; ability to drive accountability and execution
• Experience scaling teams and organizations; demonstrated ability to work at multiple levels of complexity
• Exceptional communication and interpersonal skills; ability to influence across technical and non-technical stakeholders
• Strong coaching and mentoring skills; ability to develop engineers across all career stages
• Experience with Agile and Scrum methodologies; ability to adapt to team and organizational needs
• Demonstrated understanding of data security, compliance, and responsible AI practices
• Strong emotional intelligence; ability to navigate difficult conversations and build trust
• Experience with performance management, feedback delivery, and difficult personnel decisions
• Passion for building inclusive, psychologically safe teams where all engineers can thrive
• Bachelor's degree in computer science, engineering, business, or related field
• Experience leading teams through organizational change, technical migrations, or strategic initiatives
• MBA or management certification is a plus; however, demonstrated people leadership capability is more important
• Track record of developing talent into senior engineering leadership roles or managers
• Active engagement with engineering and AI/ML communities; thought leadership through speaking, writing, or open source is a plus
• Experience working with diverse teams and commitment to building inclusive organizations

Preferred Attributes

• Experience managing managers or leading multiple teams
• Background in both individual contributor and manager roles (not just promoted from individual contribution)
• Experience working in fast-paced startup or scale-up environments
• Familiarity with data-driven decision making and analytics
• Experience with customer-facing or go-to-market organizations
• Understanding of product management and business metrics
• Track record of improving team efficiency, reducing cycle time, or improving quality metrics
• Experience mentoring individuals into management roles

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, 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 [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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