Principal AI Forward Deployed Engineer

A demonstrated track record of designing, deploying, and operating production software and AI solutions in customer-facing settings, with clear evidence of leading complex engagements to successful business outcomes. As a Principal Engineer, this person is a recognized technical authority who is highly autonomous: they set the multi-engagement technical strategy and architecture standards the FDE group follows, drive their own agenda in alignment with org goals, navigate organizational ambiguity confidently, and coach senior engineers.

Customer-facing solution delivery. Extensive experience working directly with customers to analyze needs, architect solutions, and deploy them to production — in a forward-deployed, professional services, solution architecture, or comparable delivery role.

Agentic AI and applied ML. Hands-on experience designing and operating autonomous agent systems — planning, tool invocation, memory, context design, and guardrails — and a working command of the LLM behavior, evaluation, and failure modes needed to reason about and verify agentic solutions in production. This is not an AI research or foundation-model role.

ServiceNow platform and CRM & Industry domain. Knowledge of the ServiceNow platform and the CRM & Industry domains this role serves — sales automation, CPQ, customer service, and field service — is preferred but not mandatory.

Solution architecture and integration. Expert-level system design makes sound architecture and sequencing decisions under uncertainty, designs end-to-end solutions across systems and data, and judges what to build, buy, or configure to meet the outcome. Defines architectural patterns that hold across multiple customer engagements.

Verification, security, and reliability. A disciplined, skeptical eye for whether output meets intent, plus working knowledge of the security and reliability risks specific to AI-integrated systems and how to control them with concrete, least-privilege practices, monitoring, and rollback.

Customer engagement and communication. Excellent communication and stakeholder skills — able to run discovery and working sessions, influence customer technical and executive audiences, and clearly convey capabilities, limitations, tradeoffs, and risk.

Technical leadership. A record of leading and coaching engineers — including senior engineers — setting reusable technical standards across teams and elevating the delivery capability of a group rather than only individual output.

Education. Bachelor’s degree in computer science, Software Engineering, or a related technical field, or equivalent practical experience. Advanced degrees or relevant certifications are a plus but do not substitute for demonstrated ability to deliver reliable AI solutions to customers.

Years of Experience. 15 years of related experience with a bachelor’s degree in computer science; or 12 years and a Master's degree; or a PhD with 8 years’ experience; or equivalent experience. Software Engineering, or a related technical field, or equivalent practical experience. Advanced degrees or relevant certifications are a plus but are not a substitute for demonstrated ability to ship reliable software with AI-native practices.

What you can expect: a front-row seat in ServiceNow’s fastest-growing, most strategic business, direct access to senior customers and executives, and the room to define how agentic AI gets deployed at scale. The technical foundation and the team you build here grow with the business — and so does your impact and career.

For positions in this location, we offer a base pay of $221,200 - $387,100 , 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.