Senior Manager - Software Engineering Management - AI Engineering

Job description

What we do Finance and Procurement teams are at the forefront of AI-native engineering at ServiceNow—building autonomous solutions for the world's largest enterprises that handle mission-critical financial and procurement operations at unprecedented scale. They continuously learn and integrate the latest AI and cloud-native technologies to deliver performant, resilient systems that transform how businesses manage supplier lifecycles, procurement workflows, payments, and receivables. This role is for a Senior Engineering Manager who leads a high-performing team of software engineers building AI-native and cloud-native applications on the ServiceNow platform. The Senior Manager combines deep technical credibility with strong people management capabilities, fostering a culture of innovation, ownership, and continuous learning. They are responsible for team performance, career development, hiring, and execution of key business initiatives. This role requires the ability to balance people development with business results, think strategically about AI integration and platform architecture, and influence across the organization to enable team success. The ideal candidate brings experience scaling AI-native teams and a passion for building leaders. Responsibility Area: People Leadership & Development Build, grow, and maintain a high-performing, diverse team of IC2-IC5 engineers; hire and develop talent at all levels Set clear expectations for individual and team performance; establish metrics and goals aligned with business objectives Conduct regular 1:1s with direct reports; provide coaching, feedback, and career guidance tailored to each engineer's growth stage Create a culture of psychological safety, learning, and ownership; encourage experimentation and learning from failures Support engineers through career transitions—from IC2 to IC3, IC3 to IC4, and technical-to-management pathways Identify high-potential engineers and invest in their development; prepare emerging leaders for increased responsibility Address performance issues promptly and professionally; provide clear paths for improvement or transition Sponsor team members for growth opportunities, stretch assignments, and leadership development programs Celebrate wins and recognize contributions; foster a positive, collaborative team environment Model vulnerability, continuous learning, and AI-native thinking; lead by example in your own growth Responsibility Area: Hiring & Team Building Define hiring strategy and conduct recruitment for open positions; build a pipeline of qualified candidates Lead technical interviews and assessments for engineering candidates at all IC levels; make hiring decisions Partner with HR and recruiting teams on job descriptions, sourcing strategies, and candidate pipeline management Evaluate cultural fit and potential; hire for values and growth potential, not just current skills Onboard new engineers effectively; assign mentors and ensure smooth integration into the team Build a team with diverse backgrounds, experiences, and perspectives; actively work to improve representation Identify gaps in team capabilities (technical depth, domain expertise, AI/ML fluency) and address through hiring or development Build relationships with external technical communities to attract and recruit top talent Participate in employer branding and represent the organization at recruiting events and universities Responsibility Area: Technical Strategy & Product Leadership Work with product, design, and cross-functional partners to define product roadmap and technical strategy aligned with business goals Establish technical direction for the team; make architecture and technology decisions that balance innovation, quality, and delivery Ensure the team's technical approach stays current with AI/ML advancements and ServiceNow platform evolution Champion AI-native thinking across the team and organization; help teammates understand how to build with AI at the core Lead architectural reviews and technical decision-making; provide guidance on complex technical trade-offs Advocate for technical investments (refactoring, infrastructure, tooling) that improve team productivity and code quality Set quality standards for code, testing, and security; establish practices that enable sustainable delivery Partner with IC4/IC5 engineers to set multi-year technical roadmaps and long-term strategic initiatives Represent the engineering team in product and executive discussions; influence organizational priorities Responsibility Area: Team Execution & Accountability Drive team delivery of committed business objectives and product initiatives; maintain accountability for results Establish clear sprint goals, work-item prioritization, and delivery timelines; remove blockers for team success Track team metrics: velocity, quality, customer satisfaction, incident response, deployment frequency Conduct regular retrospectives; identify process improvements and drive adoption of better practices Manage team capacity; balance new feature development, technical debt reduction, and customer support Ensure team participation in on-call rotation; monitor incident response and post-incident learning Report on team progress, risks, and performance to senior leadership; provide transparent communication Escalate critical issues or resource constraints; collaborate with peer managers to solve cross-team dependencies Foster a culture of ownership where engineers take responsibility for quality, testing, and production outcomes Lead team through organizational changes and initiatives; maintain morale and focus during transitions Responsibility Area: Customer & Cross-Functional Engagement Build and maintain relationships with key customers and stakeholders; understand their needs and priorities Participate in customer meetings, technical escalations, and business reviews; represent engineering capabilities and constraints Work closely with product management, cu