Staff Software Engineer - Data Platform - Kubernetes - Distributed Systems - Federal at ServiceNow
San Diego, CA
$149,800–$262,200from the description
Aug 14, 2026
San Diego, CA
Sep 25, 2026
What this job asks for AI summary
A Staff Software Engineer role on ServiceNow's Data Platform team, focused on designing and building cloud-native platform services — including Kubernetes operators, controllers, and automation — that other internal teams depend on. The position involves hands-on coding primarily in Go, contributing to reliability and scalability, and mentoring junior engineers. It is a hybrid role requiring two days per week in a ServiceNow office.
Staff level · 8+ years · San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, CA · Full-time
“or” means any one of them counts — you don't need all of them.
We read this from the posting text with AI. Skim the description below before ruling yourself out.
How this req sits in the market our data
Roughly 310 people in the San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, CA area plausibly meet what this posting asks for (software developers). range 230–400
Applicant volume Moderate — A normal amount of company. The rare requirements below are what will separate a shortlisted application from the rest.
Rare in this occupation — lead with these, and say what you built with them.
Most people in this occupation already list these. Still required — just not what gets you shortlisted.
What the occupation pays Median $217,796 (middle half $177,469–$231,052). This posting is about at that midpoint.
Estimated from BLS employment for this occupation and area, per-skill prevalence across our listing corpus, and published wage benchmarks — as of Aug 18, 2026. It is a model, not a headcount.
Why we read it this way (8)
The role lists multiple degree/experience combinations (8+ years with a Bachelor's, 5+ with a Master's, 3+ with a PhD, or equivalent experience). The 8-year figure is used as the overall years minimum since it is the baseline for the most common path; equivalent experience is explicitly accepted, so no degree is hard-required.
The posting lists several California offices (San Francisco, Pleasanton, Santa Clara, San Diego) and one in Kirkland, WA. Santa Clara is used as the representative metro since the role sits within the Data Platform org and Santa Clara is ServiceNow's headquarters city.
Go is listed as the primary required language, with the posting accepting 'another systems language with a willingness to work primarily in Go' — Go is treated as the hard gate given the explicit expectation of working in it.
The cloud hyperscaler requirement names AWS, Azure, and GCP as alternatives; any one of the three satisfies the requirement.
The 'It also helps if you have' section covers Kubernetes operators/controller pattern, CNI/service mesh, workload identity/mTLS/secrets management, and observability — all listed as preferred.
The position requires passing USFedPASS background screening (credit, criminal, and drug test) and is restricted to US citizens, naturalized citizens, or permanent residents. No active security clearance is required.
The alt SOC (15-1244) was considered given the Kubernetes/infrastructure focus, but the role's primary output is writing and shipping platform software in Go, making 15-1252 the clear primary classification.
Ignored 1 non-technology phrase(s) as skills (responsibilities/concepts, not named tools): secrets management.
Read the full posting
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