Sr Software Engineer

Job description

About the team The Security and Risk Engineering organization builds scalable, AI-powered security solutions that reduce risk and protect ServiceNow and its customers. We value AI-first thinking, clean architecture, intuitive experiences, and a culture of continuous learning. This is a zero-to-one incubation. We’re building a new class of exposure analysis that ranks security work by exploitability—where an attacker could realistically get in—rather than raw severity.

The architecture is evolving, and this role helps define what good looks like. The role As a Sr Software Engineer, you build core components of a novel exploitability engine—shipping production ML that turns raw security signal into ranked, reachable attack paths. You take well-scoped problems from design to production and grow into deeper ownership as the system matures. What you’ll own Well-scoped components of the engine—evidence ingestion and connectors, entity resolution, graph construction, or parts of the probability core—built to production quality.

The correctness and reliability of what you ship

tests, evaluation, observability, and the metrics that show your component works. Turning ambiguous requirements into working code, with guidance on the calls that shape the wider system. The data and model plumbing that keeps the graph accurate—entity-resolution quality, evidence provenance, and decay. What you’ll do Design, build, test, and operate production ML components with strong engineering fundamentals. Contribute to design and code reviews, and help raise the quality bar on the team.

Prototype quickly to evaluate new AI capabilities against real cybersecurity problems. Partner with product, security R&D, and SecOps to understand the problem behind the ticket. Apply AI safety, security, and guardrail practices to what you build. What you bring Solid software engineering fundamentals and experience operating production-quality software. Hands-on experience building ML- or LLM-powered applications—RAG, embeddings, agents, or probabilistic or ML-driven scoring.

Experience taking a prototype to a reliable, maintainable production solution. Working knowledge of distributed systems, APIs, cloud-native development, and data or graph systems. Strong Python, and/or Java, Go, or TypeScript. Interest in security problems—vulnerability management, identity security, threat detection, or risk prioritization. Experience with AI-assisted development tools and coding agents such as Claude Code, Codex, Cursor, or Windsurf is a plus.

Experience with AI evaluation, safety, or guardrails is a plus.

Qualifications

3+ years of software engineering experience, or equivalent practical experience. Experience designing and delivering production software systems. Experience building or integrating AI/ML-powered applications in a production or near-production environment.

Modern AI experience

LLMs, RAG, embeddings, vector search, agentic workflows, model evaluation, or AI observability. Strong programming experience in Python and/or Java, Go, or a similar language. Cloud-native technologies, distributed systems, APIs, databases, and scalable architectures. Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in Computer Science, Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, or a related technical discipline, or equivalent practical experience.

Cybersecurity or security-product experience is a plus. For positions in this location, we offer a base pay of $128,900 - $219,100 , 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.