Principal AI Forward Deployed Engineer

This is a rare chance to lead the technical direction of one of the fastest-growing most strategic businesses at ServiceNow. CRM & Industry Workflows is where the company is investing to win and agentic AI is at the center of that bet reshaping how customers run sales automation CPQ customer service and field service. As Principal Forward Deployed Engineer you are the lead architect for the FDE group within CRM & Industry Engineering: the person who turns that ambition into working solutions in front of real customers.

This is a customer-facing engineering role. You work directly with ServiceNow customers to analyze their business and AI use cases design agentic solutions on the ServiceNow platform and deploy them into production. As the most senior technical member of the group you set the solution architecture and deployment patterns the FDE team reuses across engagements and you own the correctness reliability and business outcomes of the agentic systems the group delivers. Your work compounds: the patterns you establish are adopted across a growing team and a growing customer base and your influence extends back into the ServiceNow platform itself.

The role rewards proximity to the customer and soundness of judgment over volume of code. Agentic solutions behave probabilistically rather than deterministically so value concentrates in framing the right use cases designing solutions that hold up in production and verifying that autonomous behavior matches customer intent. You will spend more time with customers in discovery solutioning and deployment than on any other activity and you will raise the whole groups ability to do the same. For a senior engineer who wants to shape an emerging discipline build a teams technical foundation and see their impact scale with the business the growth runway is significant.

What you get in this role:

• Analyze customer use cases. Work directly with customer business and technical teams to understand their processes data and goals across sales automation CPQ customer service and field service and translate ambiguous problem statements into well-scoped agentic AI use cases with clear success criteria. 
• Architect the solution. Design agentic AI solutions on the ServiceNow platform agent workflows tool and system integrations data and context design and guardrails that fit cleanly into the customers existing landscape and deliver measurable outcomes. 
• Deploy into production. Own the path from design to live deployment: build and configure the solution integrate with customer systems validate behavior against intent and shepherd it through the customers environment into production use. 
• Set the technical strategy and standards for the group. Define the multi-engagement technical direction reference architectures reusable deployment patterns and solution accelerators the FDE team applies across customers so successful engagements scale rather than being rebuilt each time. 
• Be the customers trusted technical advisor. Serve as the senior engineering voice in customer conversations from working sessions to executive discussions clearly communicating what agentic AI can and cannot do the tradeoffs involved and how to adopt it responsibly. 
• Verify quality reliability and safety. Confirm that deployed agents are correct secure and reliable: validate edge cases and failure modes guard against risks such as prompt injection and data leakage and put monitoring and rollback in place for behavioral drift in production. 
• Lead the FDE group technically. Provide architectural direction review and mentorship across the groups engagements unblocking the hardest technical problems and raising the overall standard of solutioning and delivery. 
• Close the loop with product and engineering. Feed field learnings recurring use cases gaps and platform friction back into ServiceNow product and engineering to improve the platform for CRM & Industry customers at large. 

Qualifications :

To be successful in this role you have:

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. Bachelors 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 bachelors degree in computer science; or 12 years and a Masters 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 ServiceNows 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 $221200 - $387100 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 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 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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Remote Work :

No

Employment Type :

Full-time