{"id":1116568,"url":"https://alion.io/job/servicenow-senior-staff-data-platform-software-engineer-java-distributed-systems-kafka","title":"Senior Staff Data Platform Software Engineer (Java Distributed Systems & Kafka)","company":{"id":97,"name":"ServiceNow","domain":"servicenow.com","url":"https://alion.io/company/servicenow","size_band":"1001-5000","is_staffing_agency":false,"employer_type":"direct","is_intermediary":false,"listed_via":null,"ats_vendor":"SmartRecruiters","truth_index":{"grade":"B","score":80,"open_postings":30,"ghost_share":0,"stale_share":1,"repost_share":0,"time_to_fill_p50_days":16,"computed_at":"2026-09-28T05:45:00Z"}},"role":"Backend","role_family":"Backend","seniority":"staff","employment_type":"full_time","work_mode":"hybrid","remote_scope":null,"remote_scope_basis":null,"remote_working_hours":null,"hiring_geo_confidence":"structured","locations":["Hyderabad, India"],"countries":["IN"],"hiring_countries":[],"hiring_countries_total":0,"salary":null,"salary_estimate":{"min_usd":32000,"max_usd":82000,"period":"year","method":"role_seniority_country_remote_cell","sample_n":21},"experience_years_min":15,"visa_sponsorship":false,"relocation_package":false,"has_equity":false,"technologies":[{"name":"Apache Iceberg","optional":false},{"name":"Java","optional":false},{"name":"Kubernetes","optional":false},{"name":"MySQL","optional":false},{"name":"PostgreSQL","optional":false},{"name":"ServiceNow","optional":false},{"name":"Apache Kafka","optional":true},{"name":"Flink","optional":true},{"name":"Spark","optional":true}],"status":"live","first_seen_at":"2026-09-22T06:38:46Z","employer_posted_date":"2026-09-22","last_verified_at":"2026-09-28T17:36:08Z","board_verified":true,"closed_at":null,"days_open":6,"trust":{"level":"ok","repost_count":null,"flags":[],"days_open":6},"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.\nJoin us to put AI to work for people.\nOverview\nThe Data Platform group builds highly scalable, high-performance platform capabilities for data-in-motion and backend storage systems. Our customers operate at massive scale, pushing the boundaries of data volume, throughput, and concurrency. We are looking for a seasoned IC5 Senior Staff Engineer with deep expertise in distributed systems and Data Lake architectures to drive next-generation platform innovation.\nRole Summary\nAs an IC5 Senior Staff Engineer, you will architect and deliver large-scale distributed platform components, lead complex technical initiatives, and define engineering best practices. You will bring strong leadership, hands-on engineering depth, and the ability to design and operate reliable, scalable, and high-performance data systems.\nKey Responsibilities\nArchitect, design, and build high-performance distributed systems and platform components.\nBuild distributed systems data ingestion solutions with strong emphasis on scalability, quality, and operational excellence.\nDeliver high-quality, clean, modular, and reusable code while enforcing engineering best practices (code reviews, unit testing, automation, design reviews).\nBuild foundational libraries, frameworks, and tools focused on modularity, extensibility, configurability, and maintainability.\nCollaborate across engineering teams to refine requirements and deliver end-to-end solutions.\nProvide technical leadership for projects with significant complexity and risk.\nResearch, evaluate, and adopt new technologies that enhance platform capabilities.\nTroubleshoot and diagnose complex production issues across distributed systems.\n Required Skills & Experience\nExperience Level\n15-20 years of hands-on engineering experience in distributed systems, data platforms, or large-scale backend infrastructure.\nCore Engineering Expertise\nStrong fundamentals in distributed systems architecture, design patterns, and algorithms.\nDeep programming expertise in Java, including JVM internals, memory models, and garbage collection.\nProven experience in JVM performance tuning, profiling, and diagnosing performance bottlenecks.\nStrong understanding of concurrency, networking, sockets, OS internals, and performance optimization.\nHands-on experience building and operating large-scale distributed systems.\nExperience with relational databases such as Oracle, MySQL, or PostgreSQL. \nDistributed Systems Expertise\nExperience with large-scale deployments of distributed systems.\nDeep knowledge of replication, fault-tolerant, and HA strategies.\nExperience working in DevOps environments to operationalize distributed platforms.\nStrong expertise in designing and architecting platforms using:\n Kubernetes ( workload deployments, upgrades, monitoring and maintenance)\n Apache Iceberg (tables, catalogs, schema evolution, metadata management) is a plus\n Apache Kafka (high-scale clusters, topic/partition strategies, HA) is a plus\n Apache Flink (stateful stream processing, exactly-once semantics) is a plus\n Apache Spark (batch & streaming jobs, optimization, partitioning) is a plus\nExpertise in data formats such as Parquet, ORC, and Avro, along with compaction and governance strategies.\nAbility to build scalable, fault-tolerant ingestion and transformation workflows.\nExperience integrating Data Lakes with analytics engines, query services, or ML platforms.\nWork Personas\nWe 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.\nEqual Opportunity Employer\nServiceNow 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.\nAccommodations\nWe 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.\nExport Control Regulations\nFor 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.\nFrom Fortune. ©2026 Fortune Media IP Limited. All rights reserved. Used under license.","description_format":"text","description_chars":5789,"description_truncated":false,"requirements":{"experience_years_min":15,"management_years_min":null,"team_size_min":null,"manages_managers":false,"education":null,"security_clearance":false,"languages":[{"language":"English","level":"All levels","optional":false}]},"benefits":[],"hiring_locations":[{"name":"United States","iso":"US","kind":"country"},{"name":"India","iso":"IN","kind":"country"}],"hiring_excludes":[],"relocation_offered":false,"industries":["Workflow & Process Automation (RPA, BPM)","IT Service & Asset Management","AI Agents","Customer Support & Help Desk Software"],"lifecycle":[{"event":"open","at":"2026-09-22T16:10:27Z"}],"liveness":{"score":54,"band":"ok","label":"Likely open","p_open":1,"p_active":0.601,"p_room":0.9,"age_days":5,"expected_fill_days":16,"reasons":["conf:2","stale_co","velocity","win:mid","comp:brand"],"computed_at":"2026-09-28T05:45:00Z"},"pay":null,"html_url":"https://alion.io/job/servicenow-senior-staff-data-platform-software-engineer-java-distributed-systems-kafka","json_url":"https://alion.io/job/servicenow-senior-staff-data-platform-software-engineer-java-distributed-systems-kafka.json","meta":{"generated_at":"2026-09-28T23:32:47Z","cache_seconds":300,"methodology":"https://alion.io/methodology","terms":"https://alion.io/terms","contact":"https://alion.io/contact","api":"https://alion.io/developers","usage":{"tier":"crawler","counted_by":"address","units_charged":1,"used_today":1217,"day_limit":5000,"remaining_today":3783,"minute_limit":60,"resets_at":"2026-09-29T00:00:00Z"}}}