Senior Staff Software Engineer, UI Lead

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. This role is available in either our San Diego or Santa Clara office About the Team:   The AI Agents team is a key part of our broader Platform Engineering division, focused on creating innovative solutions that empower our customers to design and deploy intelligent agents tailored to automate their unique tasks and workflows. Our platform provides the capabilities for users to seamlessly define and configure AI agents that can operate autonomously, driving efficiency and optimizing processes across industries.   At the heart of this cutting-edge product, our team is motivated by the need to continuously innovate, adapt to latest AI Advancements, and collaborate across multiple disciplines to deliver powerful, user-centric solutions. We work at the intersection of AI research, engineering, and product development, ensuring that our platform not only meets current demands but also anticipates future trends in automation and intelligent decision-making.   Joining our team means being part of a dynamic, forward-thinking group that thrives on solving complex challenges, pushing boundaries, and staying ahead of the curve. We are looking for talented members who are passionate about AI, enjoy working in a collaborative environment, and are eager to contribute to the development of a transformative product that is reshaping how businesses leverage AI to solve real-world problems.   What you get to do in this role:      In this role, you will serve as a senior frontend engineering leader within the AI Agents team, working alongside a Principal Software Engineer to shape and elevate frontend standards and practices across the broader Platform Engineering division. You will operate on an established, production-scale UI platform — focusing on maturing architecture, raising the quality bar, and creating the frameworks and patterns other engineers build upon.  This role is approximately 60% UI/Frontend leadership and 40% backend platform engineering.  UI / Frontend Leadership (Primary – ~60%)  Define and drive frontend architecture standards and engineering practices across the Platform Engineering division  Evolve and mature an established, production-scale UI platform — improving performance, scalability, and developer experience  Design and implement reusable component libraries, UI frameworks, and tooling that other engineers build upon  Lead frontend testing strategies and establish quality standards across the team  Collaborate closely with UX and design teams to translate design systems and prototypes into scalable, accessible UI components  Mentor and influence engineers across teams, elevating frontend craft and consistency  Backend / Platform Engineering (Secondary – ~40%)  Design and implement scalable RESTful APIs and microservices architectures  Build and maintain backend services using Java and/or Python  Develop and deploy microservices-based applications on Kubernetes  Work with relational databases, SQL, Spring, and Hibernate  Integrate backend services cleanly with frontend systems  To be successful in this role you have: 12+ years of software engineering experience building scalable, high-quality applications  Experience in critical thinking and innovation aimed at AI integrations 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.     Demonstrated experience driving frontend architecture and engineering standards at a team or division level  Experience building AI/ML-enabled products or features, with the ability to translate AI capabilities into practical, user-facing experiences  Strong critical thinking and a track record of integrating AI into engineering processes, workflows, or decision-making Frontend / UI  Deep expertise in JavaScript and modern frameworks — React, Angular, Lit Framework  Strong command of UI design principles, usability, cross-browser compatibility, and accessibility standards  Experience with modern styling approaches including SASS, CSS-in-JS, and styled components  Proficiency with frontend testing frameworks such as Jest, Cypress, TestCafe, Mocha, or Selenium  Familiarity with design system implementation and component-driven development  Backend / Platform  Solid backend development experience with Java and/or Python  Experience with REST, JSON, AJAX, Spring, Hibernate, and relational databases  Hands-on experience with Kubernetes and microservices-based deployment  Familiarity with JVM performance tuning and optimization is a plus  Experience in designed, developed, and maintained microservices-based applications on Kubernetes, improving scalability, reliability, and deployment speed   Experience in functional programming, stateless architectures, ADTs is a plus   FD21 For positions in this location, we offer a base pay of $168,900 - $295,600, 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 spendin