Staff Software Engineer

Job Description

As a Staff Software Engineer on the Design System team, you will build and evolve the engineering surface of the design system: the theme system, the design tokens, and the tooling that lets engineers, designers, and product teams apply it correctly. You will work in close partnership with design and product counterparts, and your decisions will ripple across internal product teams and external customers, so systems thinking and a working command of accessibility are as important as your front-end craft.

Roles and responsibilities

• Evolve the theme system and its design token architecture, covering token taxonomy, platform transforms, theming APIs, and the guardrails that keep themes accessible.

• Engineer tooling that makes the design system easy to adopt: theme builders, linting and audit rules, codemods, Figma to code workflows, and local development aids.

• Build AI skills and tooling that put the design system to work for engineers, designers, and product partners, so prototypes and production code generate on-system by default.

• Partner closely with design system designers and product managers, weighing design intent, customer need, and engineering cost in every decision rather than optimizing for one.

• Trace the downstream impact of every change across consuming teams and customer instances, and manage versioning, deprecation, and breaking-change communication accordingly.

• Hold the system to WCAG 2.2 Level AA, including contrast, forced colors, focus visibility, and reflow, and build automated checks that catch regressions before release.

• Collaborate with component authors and the component engine team on API contracts, token consumption, and release sequencing.

• Maintain the enablement surface for the system, including API documentation, usage guidance, and migration paths.

• Support adopters directly: triage issues, unblock teams, and feed recurring friction back into the roadmap.

• Raise the bar through technical design review, code review, and mentorship across the design system and consuming teams.

Qualifications

• 8+ years of professional front-end engineering experience, including significant time building or operating a design system used by multiple teams.

• Advanced TypeScript and modern JavaScript, with deep command of the browser platform: DOM, events, Custom Elements, and Shadow DOM.

• Hands-on experience with design tokens: schema design, transform pipelines such as Style Dictionary, and multi-platform or multi-brand distribution.

• Expert CSS, particularly theming at scale with custom properties, cascade layers, modern layout, container queries, and forced colors mode.

• Current working knowledge of WCAG 2.2 Level AA and how to apply it to tokens, themes, and components, with hands-on screen reader and keyboard testing.

• Fluency applying AI tooling in your own engineering practice, including agentic coding tools, and sound judgment about where generated output needs human review.

• Strong front-end build, release, and versioning skills across tooling such as Vite, Rollup, or Webpack, plus semantic versioning in a monorepo.

• Demonstrated systems thinking: you reason about cascading impact across dependent teams and customers, and you plan migrations instead of shipping surprises.

• Proven track record of collaborating as a peer with designers and product managers, and of influencing technical direction across teams without direct authority.

• Clear technical writing, with experience documenting APIs and guiding other engineers through adoption.

Nice to have

• Experience building AI tooling for other engineers, designers, or product partners to use, such as agent skills, MCP servers, or prompt-driven UI generation.

• Experience building developer-facing documentation or enablement sites.

For positions in this location, we offer a base pay of $149,800 - $262,200, 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.

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 globaltalentss@servicenow.com 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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Company Description

It all started when engineer Fred Luddy wrote code that automated a tedious task for his coworker, Phyllis. She cried tears of joy. That moment inspired Fred to build a company that could do that for everyone—freeing people from busywork so they could focus on meaningful work. Today, ServiceNow is the AI control tower for business reinvention. Our ServiceNow AI platform brings together any AI, any data, and any workflow— helping 85% of the Fortune 500® work smarter, faster, and better. We're building an AI-native culture where technology and talent are unstoppable together. And we're just getting started.

Join us to put AI to work for people.