Principal Software Engineer

About Veza Veza is the identity security platform for human, non-human, and AI agent access. Customers use it to see who and what has access to what, govern it, and remediate risk across cloud, SaaS, and on-prem systems. Agent security is the inflection point. Static access reviews can't keep up with autonomous agents acting at machine speed. Security is shifting to continuous, real-time control: just-in-time access for agents, automated remediation of policy violations, and real-time governance of agent actions as they happen—replacing standing privileges and periodic reviews. Veza is in transition, growing quickly as part of ServiceNow's Security & Risk organization. The Chief Architect will shape how the platform scales to meet this new category. What you'll do - Own the end-to-end architecture of the Veza platform, including the access graph, ingestion pipeline, authorization and policy engine, and the services built on them. Lead the evolution toward a graph-native data model (Neo4j or equivalent) that scales to billions of relationships and complex permission hierarchies. Set the standards every team builds to. - Lead the next-generation data architecture. Evolve the core graph and storage model for order-of-magnitude growth in customers, entities, and relationships, with a clear migration path from today's system and no customer disruption. - Define the architecture for non-human identity and AI agent security. Make Veza the system of record for what agents can access, and design for governance, guardrails, and auditability. - Set the AI architecture for Veza's own agents and features: agentic patterns, evaluation, observability, cost and capacity planning, and a multi-vendor LLM strategy that avoids lock-in. - Modernize the integrations framework. Veza has 300+ integrations, and they drive a disproportionate share of support load. Establish a scalable, testable, self-service framework that raises reliability and cuts onboarding time. - Architect how Veza fits into ServiceNow. Veza is not built on the ServiceNow platform. Define the integration model, shared identity and data contracts, and UI surfacing patterns that deliver a unified customer experience without forcing a rewrite. - Drive deployment flexibility: multi-region SaaS, data residency, regulated-industry requirements (e.g., EU financial regulation such as DORA), and federal-grade deployment, including the compliance and operational constraints each brings. - Govern architecture across teams. Run architecture reviews, manage tech debt and the security backlog, and make clear, documented build-vs-buy and sequencing decisions. - Raise the bar on engineering practice, including heavy use of AI coding agents, automated testing coverage, defect escape reduction, and operational excellence with SRE. - Represent Veza's architecture to executives, customers, partners, and ServiceNow architecture and security leadership. - Mentor architects and senior engineers and build the next layer of technical leadership. Qualifications What you bring Core - 15+ years in software engineering, with 5+ years as a staff/principal/chief architect, or equivalent, over a large multi-team platform. - Deep experience designing multi-tenant, cloud-native SaaS at enterprise scale: distributed systems, large-scale data and graph systems, APIs, and microservices. - Hands-on Kubernetes and cloud experience (AWS required; multi-cloud a plus) and modern DevOps, IaC, and SRE practices. - Strong background in graph databases and data structures. Hands-on experience with Neo4j, or similar graph platforms; understanding of immutable or event-sourced storage models and their operational trade-offs. - A track record of leading large architectural migrations in a live production system. - Experience influencing without direct authority across multiple teams and geographies (US, EU, India). - Executive-level communication, with the ability to write and defend an architecture decision to engineers, customers, and the C-suite. - Strong proficiency in Python and Go or Java, with the ability to go deep in code and design reviews. Security and identity - Strong background in identity and access: IGA, IAM, PAM, authorization models, access reviews, lifecycle management, or adjacent security domains. - Understanding of non-human identity (service accounts, secrets, API keys, workload identity) and emerging agent identity and authorization models. - Experience building security products that meet their own security and compliance bar (SOC 2, FedRAMP or equivalent, data residency). AI - Experience delivering production AI systems: LLMs, agentic architectures, RAG, evaluation, observability, guardrails, human-in-the-loop, and managing model cost and capacity. - Active use of AI-native development tools (Claude Code, Cursor, Codex, or equivalent) and the ability to drive adoption across teams. Preferred - Experience through an acquisition or platform integration, aligning an acquired architecture with a parent platform. - Prior experience with integration-heavy platforms (hundreds of connectors) and the reliability challenges they bring. - Familiarity with graph databases or immutable/event-sourced storage models. - BS/MS in Computer Science or a related field, or equivalent experience. Success in the first 12 months - A published, org-wide architecture vision and roadmap for the next-generation platform, with committed milestones. - An integrations modernization plan in flight, with measurable reduction in escalations and onboarding time. - A defined, adopted pattern for Veza-ServiceNow integration and UI surfacing. - A sustainable architecture review and governance process the teams actually use. - Clear architecture for agent and NHI security that product and sales can take to customers. For positions in this location, we offer a base pay of $199,100 - $348,400, 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.