# Director of Engineering, Frontier Engineering
**Company:** [Snowflake](https://scaleengineer.com/companies/snowflake)
Lead Snowflake's Frontier Engineering organization, building and scaling a multi-country team of Forward Deployed Engineers who partner directly with strategic enterprise customers to deliver production outcomes on the AI Data Cloud. This senior leadership role combines hands-on technical direction with executive customer-facing responsibilities, requiring 12+ years of software engineering experience with proven success building and scaling embedded/customer-facing engineering teams globally.
**Role:** Director of Engineering
**Seniority:** Director
**Locations:** AU-Sydney
**Salary:** 280000–380000 USD
[Apply](https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/snowflake/43c2b225-e3fd-4706-a66f-154dd6a23025)
Canonical: https://scaleengineer.com/jobs/snowflake/director-of-engineering-frontier-engineering
---
## Responsibilities

- Lead Multi-Country Engineering Organization: Build, scale, and manage a sizeable Frontier Engineering team spanning multiple countries and time zones, establishing organizational structure, hiring practices, and operational frameworks that support distributed teams working across diverse geographies including APJ regions.
- Define Technical and Operating Vision: Set strategic direction and technical standards for how Forward Deployed Engineers scope, build, and ship products on Snowflake's core capabilities including Snowpark, Cortex AI, and Snowflake Horizon, ensuring alignment with product roadmap and customer requirements.
- Drive Strategic Customer Engagement: Serve as senior customer-facing leader partnering directly with C-suite executives at strategic accounts to shape engineering engagements, demonstrate hands-on technical expertise, and build trust as both a relationship owner and active technical contributor.
- Build High-Performing Engineering Culture: Attract, hire, and develop exceptional senior engineering talent through industry networks and recruitment strategies; coach and mentor managers and senior engineers to create an engineering-first culture emphasizing production quality, technical excellence, and collaborative problem-solving.
- Connect Customer Needs to Product Strategy: Partner cross-functionally with Sales, Product, and global Frontier Engineering leadership to translate customer feedback and real-world implementation challenges into product development priorities and actionable engineering outcomes.
- Build and Scale Forward Deployed Engineer Practice: Design, build, and iterate on the operating model for an embedded engineering practice that works directly with customers on their most ambitious AI Data Cloud initiatives, defining processes, tools, and success metrics for FDE team effectiveness.
- Set High Technical Bar and Ensure Delivery Excellence: Leverage deep hands-on engineering foundation to establish and maintain production-quality standards, oversee delivery of complex customer solutions, conduct technical reviews, and mentor engineers in advanced cloud data platform and AI/ML implementation patterns.

## Requirements

### education

- {"name":"Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science or Related Field","description":"Undergraduate degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Mathematics, or equivalent practical experience demonstrating strong foundational technical knowledge."}

### technical

- {"name":"Cloud Data Platform Architecture","description":"Strong understanding of modern cloud data platform architectures, data warehouse design patterns, and analytical query optimization; experience with data platform strategic capabilities and implementation considerations."}
- {"name":"AI/ML and Machine Learning Systems","description":"Hands-on experience with AI/ML systems development, machine learning model deployment, and modern machine learning platforms; understanding of production ML system challenges, scaling considerations, and data requirements."}
- {"name":"Modern Application Development Practices","description":"Current knowledge of contemporary software development methodologies including CI/CD pipelines, infrastructure-as-code, containerization, microservices architectures, and cloud-native application design patterns."}

### experience

- {"name":"12+ Years of Software Engineering Leadership","description":"Extensive experience building, scaling, and managing software engineering teams at significant scale, including direct experience managing managers and leading matrix organizations across multiple business units or geographies."}
- {"name":"Proven Forward Deployed Engineering or Embedded Team Leadership","description":"Demonstrated track record building or significantly scaling Forward Deployed Engineer (FDE) style teams or embedded engineering practices where engineers work directly with customers on production solutions, defining operating models and driving outcomes."}
- {"name":"Multi-Country and Multi-Timezone Team Leadership","description":"Proven experience leading distributed engineering organizations across multiple countries and time zones, ideally including Asia-Pacific Japan (APJ) region, with demonstrated success managing global teams and coordinating across diverse regions."}
- {"name":"Executive-Level Customer Relationship Experience","description":"Strong track record of working directly with customer C-suite executives, building technical credibility, and influencing strategic decisions through hands-on engineering expertise combined with executive communication presence."}
- {"name":"Technical Hiring and Talent Acquisition","description":"Demonstrated ability to attract senior engineering talent through established professional networks, build strong recruiting pipelines, and create compelling opportunities that draw world-class engineers to join growing organizations."}
- {"name":"Organizational Change and Restructuring","description":"Experience reshaping, consolidating, or transforming engineering teams during periods of organizational change; comfort navigating ambiguity and defining team structure, processes, and operating models where none previously existed."}
- {"name":"Hands-On Production Software Development","description":"Deep technical foundation with substantial experience building and shipping production software systems at scale, maintaining current technical knowledge to effectively oversee complex engineering work and set credible technical standards."}

## Skills

### required

- {"name":"Engineering Team Leadership at Scale","description":"Proven ability to build, scale, and lead engineering organizations with multiple reporting levels including managers and senior individual contributors; demonstrated success in organizational design and team development."}
- {"name":"Forward-Deployed/Embedded Engineering Expertise","description":"Deep experience designing and operating embedded engineering teams that work directly with customers; understanding of customer success metrics, delivery excellence, and relationship management in customer-facing engineering contexts."}
- {"name":"Customer Executive Engagement","description":"Strong executive presence and communication skills for engaging directly with customer C-level stakeholders; ability to translate customer business objectives into technical requirements and demonstrate technical credibility at strategic levels."}
- {"name":"Production Software Development and Architecture","description":"Hands-on experience designing, building, and deploying production software systems; ability to establish technical standards, conduct architecture reviews, and mentor engineers in complex system design."}
- {"name":"Global Team Management and Cross-Cultural Leadership","description":"Demonstrated success managing distributed teams across multiple time zones and geographies; ability to coordinate across cultural differences, build cohesive culture remotely, and enable asynchronous effective collaboration."}
- {"name":"Strategic Recruitment and Talent Development","description":"Established professional networks in engineering talent market; proven ability to attract senior engineers, conduct effective technical interviews, and mentor high-potential engineers through career development."}
- {"name":"Technical Roadmapping and Product Strategy","description":"Experience collaborating with product, sales, and business leaders to define engineering roadmaps, translate customer requirements into technical solutions, and align engineering initiatives with business objectives."}

### preferred

- {"name":"Snowflake Platform Experience","description":"Hands-on familiarity with Snowflake architecture, capabilities, and ecosystem; experience building solutions with Snowpark for data processing, Cortex AI for machine learning, or Snowflake Horizon for application development."}
- {"name":"Comparative Cloud Data Platform Knowledge","description":"Experience working with competing cloud data and AI platforms including AWS (Redshift, SageMaker), Azure (Synapse, Azure ML), GCP (BigQuery, Vertex AI), or Databricks; understanding of comparative strengths and tradeoffs."}
- {"name":"Generative AI and Agentic Application Development","description":"Production experience building with Generative AI and agentic application patterns; understanding of LLM deployment considerations, agentic workflow design, and RAG (Retrieval-Augmented Generation) architectures."}
- {"name":"Strategic Customer Account Leadership","description":"Experience leading customer engineering outcomes for enterprise strategic accounts including design, implementation, and optimization of customer-specific solutions aligned with customer business outcomes."}
- {"name":"Data Engineering and Analytics Expertise","description":"Background in data engineering, analytics engineering, or analytics platforms; understanding of modern data stack tools, ETL/ELT patterns, and analytics infrastructure challenges."}
- {"name":"Asia-Pacific Japan (APJ) Regional Experience","description":"Prior experience leading teams across Asia-Pacific Japan region or managing significant business operations in APJ; understanding of regional market dynamics, cultural considerations, and customer base characteristics."}

## Tech stack

### tools

- {"name":"Snowflake Horizon","description":"Snowflake's governance and application development platform; core capability for developing customer-facing applications on Snowflake infrastructure."}
- {"name":"Git and GitHub/GitLab","description":"Version control and collaborative development platforms; essential for managing distributed engineering teams and infrastructure-as-code practices."}
- {"name":"Docker and Kubernetes","description":"Containerization and orchestration technologies for cloud-native application deployment; fundamental to modern application development and infrastructure management."}
- {"name":"CI/CD Platforms (GitHub Actions, GitLab CI, Jenkins)","description":"Continuous integration and continuous deployment platforms for automated testing and deployment; essential for production software delivery excellence."}
- {"name":"Terraform and Infrastructure-as-Code","description":"Infrastructure automation and management tools; critical for managing cloud infrastructure at scale and ensuring reproducible deployments."}

### others

- {"name":"Generative AI and Large Language Models (LLMs)","description":"Modern AI technologies including ChatGPT, Claude, and other LLMs; increasingly central to application development and customer solutions on AI Data Cloud."}
- {"name":"Machine Learning Operations (MLOps)","description":"Practices and tools for managing machine learning model lifecycle including training, deployment, monitoring, and versioning; essential for production AI/ML systems."}
- {"name":"Agentic Application Patterns","description":"Design patterns for autonomous agent systems powered by AI; emerging capability set representing next generation of AI application development relevant to Snowflake's platform vision."}
- {"name":"Cloud Data Platform Architecture","description":"Understanding of cloud data warehouse design, data lakehouse architectures, and modern data stack patterns; foundational knowledge for working with strategic customers on data platform strategy."}

### databases

- {"name":"Snowflake","description":"Cloud-native data platform and primary system for this role; serves as foundation for AI Data Cloud capabilities and customer solution architecture."}
- {"name":"AWS Redshift","description":"Amazon's cloud data warehouse offering; important for understanding competitive landscape and alternative cloud data platform approaches."}
- {"name":"Azure Synapse","description":"Microsoft's cloud analytics platform; competitive cloud data warehouse solution important for comparative platform knowledge."}
- {"name":"Google BigQuery","description":"Google Cloud's serverless data warehouse; competitive offering in cloud data platform market with distinct architecture and capabilities."}

### languages

- {"name":"Python","description":"Primary language for data engineering, ML/AI development, and Snowpark programming; essential for building solutions on the AI Data Cloud and understanding modern data workflows."}
- {"name":"SQL","description":"Critical for cloud data warehouse operations, query optimization, and data platform work; fundamental to Snowflake and all modern analytics platforms."}
- {"name":"Java","description":"Common language for enterprise application development and distributed systems; widely used in large-scale data infrastructure and backend services."}
- {"name":"Go","description":"Modern systems language used for cloud infrastructure, microservices, and high-performance backend systems; popular in cloud platform development."}

### frameworks

- {"name":"Snowpark","description":"Snowflake's developer framework for building data applications and ML workflows directly within Snowflake; core to Frontier Engineering's customer solution delivery."}
- {"name":"Cortex AI","description":"Snowflake's native AI/ML capabilities for machine learning model deployment and generative AI features; strategic platform capability for customer applications."}
- {"name":"Streamlit","description":"Python framework for rapid application development and data application prototyping; commonly used with Snowflake for building interactive analytics applications."}
- {"name":"Apache Spark","description":"Distributed computing framework for large-scale data processing; foundational technology in modern data platforms and complementary to cloud data warehouses."}

## Benefits

### benefits

## Compensation

- **max:** 380000
- **min:** 280000
- **currency:** USD
- **stockOptions:** true

## Interview process

### steps

- {"name":"Initial Screening and Career Conversation","description":"Recruiter-led conversation reviewing background, career trajectory, and strategic fit for the Director role; discussion of leadership experience, team scale managed, and customer-facing accomplishments."}
- {"name":"Technical Leadership Discussion","description":"Conversation with senior Snowflake engineer or technical hiring manager exploring hands-on technical foundation, production system design experience, and current technical knowledge; detailed discussion of technology architecture decisions and technical judgment."}
- {"name":"Organizational Leadership and Strategy","description":"Interview with current or peer-level Director exploring organizational design, team scaling experiences, and approaches to building high-performing engineering cultures; discussion of change management and defining operating models."}
- {"name":"Customer-Facing Executive Presence","description":"Conversation with customer-facing Snowflake leader or VP covering customer relationship management experience, executive-level communication skills, and track record of influencing customer executives; exploration of customer success stories and technical credibility."}
- {"name":"Frontier Engineering Context and Vision","description":"Discussion with Frontier Engineering leadership exploring understanding of Forward Deployed Engineer model, customer-centric engineering practices, and vision for building and scaling the FDE organization; alignment on strategy and culture."}
- {"name":"Final Leadership Conversation","description":"Conversation with VP of Engineering or senior executive leadership exploring strategic thinking, vision for role, cultural fit with Snowflake values, and mutual interest in building the Frontier Engineering practice long-term."}

## Full description
At Snowflake, we are powering the era of the agentic enterprise. To usher in this new era, we seek AI-native thinkers across every function who are energized by the opportunity to reinvent how they work. You don’t just use tools; you possess an innate curiosity, treating AI as a high-trust collaborator that is core to how you solve problems and accelerate your impact. We look for low-ego individuals who thrive in dynamic and fast-moving environments and move with an experimental mindset — who rapidly test emerging capabilities to discover simpler, more powerful ways to deliver results. At Snowflake, your role isn't just to execute a function, but to help redefine the future of how work gets done.

Frontier Engineering is Snowflake's forward deployed engineering practice: senior engineers and engineering leaders who embed with our most strategic customers to build on the AI Data Cloud and turn ambitious ideas into production outcomes. As Director of Engineering, you will build and scale a world-class team of Forward Deployed Engineers (FDEs). You will operate with executive presence in front of customers while staying close enough to the work to raise the engineering bar.

**AS A DIRECTOR OF ENGINEERING AT SNOWFLAKE, YOU WILL:**

* Lead a sizeable, multi-country engineering organization
* Set the technical and operating vision for Frontier Engineering: how FDE teams scope, build, and ship on Snowflake capabilities such as Snowpark, Cortex AI, and Snowflake Horizon
* Serve as a senior customer-facing leader, partnering directly with customer executives to shape engineering engagements and earn trust as a hands-on technical leader, not only a relationship owner
* Attract and hire exceptional engineering talent, drawing on your own network to fill open roles, and coach and develop managers and senior engineers to build a durable, high-performing, engineering-first culture across multiple countries and time zones
* Partner with Sales, Product, and the global Frontier Engineering organization to connect customer needs to product direction and real engineering outcomes

**OUR IDEAL DIRECTOR OF ENGINEERING WILL HAVE:**

* 12+ years of software engineering experience with significant time leading engineering teams, including managing managers
* A genuine engineering foundation: you have built and shipped production software and can set a high technical bar and oversee delivery
* Proven experience building or scaling Forward Deployed Engineer (FDE) style teams, or embedded engineering teams that build directly with and for customers
* Strong customer-facing executive presence, with a track record of working directly with customer executives and winning technical credibility
* Experience leading engineering organizations across multiple countries and time zones, ideally across APJ
* Demonstrated ability to attract senior engineering talent through an established network
* Comfort with ambiguity and organizational change: you have reshaped, consolidated, or transformed teams and defined structure where none existed
* Experience with cloud data platforms, AI/ML, or modern data and application development

**BONUS POINTS FOR THE FOLLOWING:**

* Hands-on familiarity with Snowflake or comparable cloud data and AI platforms (AWS, Azure, GCP, Databricks)
* Experience building with GenAI and agentic application patterns in production

**WHY JOIN OUR TEAM AT SNOWFLAKE?** 

Frontier Engineering sits at the leading edge of how customers adopt the AI Data Cloud, pairing deep engineering talent with the most strategic accounts. This is a rare opportunity to shape a new engineering-first practice from a position of real ownership: you will define the organization, build the team, and set the bar for how Snowflake engineers alongside its customers. You will have the backing of a global Frontier Engineering organization and the mandate to build something lasting.

Snowflake is growing fast, and we’re scaling our team to help enable and accelerate our growth. We are looking for people who share our values, challenge ordinary thinking, and push the pace of innovation while building a future for themselves and Snowflake.

How do you want to make your impact?

For jobs located in the United States, please visit the job posting on the Snowflake Careers Site for salary and benefits information: [careers.snowflake.com](http://careers.snowflake.com)