Forward Deployed Software Engineer – Applied AI FDE

Company Description

It all started in sunny San Diego, California in 2004 when a visionary engineer, Fred Luddy, saw the potential to transform how we work. Fast forward to today — ServiceNow stands as a global market leader, bringing innovative AI-enhanced technology to over 8,100 customers, including 85% of the Fortune 500®. Our intelligent cloud-based platform seamlessly connects people, systems, and processes to empower organizations to find smarter, faster, and better ways to work. But this is just the beginning of our journey. Join us as we pursue our purpose to make the world work better for everyone.

Job Description

Team Bio: 

ServiceNow’s Applied AI Forward Deployed Engineering (FDE) team is where bold ideas meet transformative action. We partner with our most strategic customers to shape the future of enterprise AI. Together, we identify high-value opportunities, accelerate business outcomes, and build reusable AI-native solutions that advance the Now AI Platform. 

Our mission: We partner deeply with our customers to build intelligent, scalable AI solutions that solve their most mission-critical challenges. By embedding in real-world complexity, we deliver fast, iterate with purpose, and transform every success into reusable patterns that accelerate transformation across the Now Platform and the broader enterprise. 

Why This Role Matters:

Enterprises are raising the bar. AI initiatives must deliver business value—not just promise potential. That means taking cutting-edge LLM capabilities and turning them into resilient, secure, and scalable software. 

As a Senior Forward Deployed Software Engineer (FDSE), you act as the CTO of the build—owning everything from backend services to LLM pipelines and front-end integrations. You partner with customers in the field to design, implement, and deliver solution-ready builds in agile sprints. Your software becomes the reference implementation for scalable GenAI in the enterprise. You codify patterns, shape internal tooling, and accelerate innovation—delivering systems that are battle-tested in production and scalable across industries. 

Who You Are:

You are a systems-minded, AI-native engineer who ships real software. You own the full stack—and are equally motivated by elegant APIs, intuitive UIs, and scalable orchestration pipelines. You think like a product-minded CTO, balancing creativity with pragmatism to deliver impact. 

You embed deeply with customer teams, diagnose root problems, and architect AI-powered workflows that run at scale. You don’t just debug code—you debug systems, context, and customer pain points. 

You will: 

• Build solution-ready LLM-enabled applications that span backend logic, data orchestration, and front-end UI 
• Operate in the field, working side-by-side with customers to adapt, deploy, and iterate in live environments 
• Codify reusable assets—libraries, prompts, scaffolds—to accelerate future engagements 
• Shape developer experience by sharing feedback with platform and product teams  

What You’ll Do: 

• Deliver end-to-end builds in agile sprints—from architecture to deployment in production 
• Engineer with versatility: APIs, orchestration pipelines, vector DBs, LLM frameworks, UI components 
• Operate with agility: integrate with legacy systems, navigate ambiguity, ship safely at speed 
• Codify patterns: build scaffolds, SDKs, and documentation to scale success across customers 
• Influence platform: inform product strategy through field-tested insights and extensible code 

What Success Looks Like:

• Production-grade delivery: Your solution builds consistently convert to scaled deployments in production environments 
• Reusable impact: You author libraries, prompts, and scaffolds that power multiple deployments and projects 
• Platform influence: Your work shapes internal tooling and is integrated into platform roadmap and primitives 
• Velocity and precision: You move fast without breaking things—shaping resilient, secure systems in high-stakes contexts 
• Engineering leadership: You are trusted by architects, PMs, and customer teams to lead implementation from zero to one 

Qualifications

What You Bring:

• Experience: 8+ years of software engineering, including 2+ years building systems in customer-facing or embedded roles 
• System architecture: Proven ability to design and implement AI-native software in production environments 
• Engineering depth: Strength in backend (Python, Node.js, Java), frontend (React, Angular), APIs (REST/GraphQL) 
• LLM tooling: Familiarity with LangChain, Semantic Kernel, prompt chaining, vector search, and context management 
• Performance & observability: Skilled in debugging distributed systems, tuning for latency, and implementing monitoring 
• Platform mindset: Can contribute to shared SDKs and tools, raising engineering velocity for the whole org 
• Product sensibility: Prioritize for user value, MVP iteration, and long-term scale 
• DevOps fluency: Experience deploying in AWS, Azure, or GCP with CI/CD, containers, and infra-as-code 
• Field readiness: Able to travel up to 30% to embed onsite and deliver where it matters 

Preferred Qualifications:

• Experience integrating AI into SaaS platforms like ServiceNow or Salesforce 
• Track record of production deployments in secure, regulated enterprise environments 
• Contributions to dev experience tooling, frameworks, or reusable AI scaffolds 

Join us at the frontier of enterprise AI—where your code powers AI transformation, your systems go live in the real world, and your ideas shape how the future scales.   

 

 

 

For positions in this location, we offer a base pay of $173,100 - $303,000, 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, creed, religion, sex, sexual orientation, national origin or nationality, ancestry, age, disability, gender identity or expression, marital status, 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. 

From Fortune. ©2025 Fortune Media IP Limited. All rights reserved. Used under license.