Engineering Manager – Snowtrail

Engineering Manager · Manager · Full Time

US-WA-BellevueUSD 236k – 339k3mo ago
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Role

What you'll do.

Snowflake is seeking an experienced Engineering Manager to lead the Snowtrail infrastructure team, responsible for developing innovative testing and optimization infrastructure that ensures the reliability and performance of Snowflake's data platform. The ideal candidate will bring deep expertise in distributed systems, strong leadership skills, and a passion for building high-performing engineering teams.

Responsibilities

  • Team Leadership: Lead and develop the Snowtrail infrastructure team, focusing on building high-performing engineering teams
  • Infrastructure Development: Drive the evolution of Snowtrail infrastructure to support customer-specific workload testing and optimization
  • Performance Optimization: Implement and improve query replay mechanisms, machine learning-driven query sampling, and workload analysis
  • System Reliability: Ensure platform reliability, correctness, and performance through advanced testing and monitoring infrastructure

Qualifications

What we look for.

Technical

  • Distributed Systems

    10+ years of experience designing and building distributed data systems with deep understanding of architecture and complexity

  • Programming Languages

    Fluency in one or more of: SQL, Java, C++, Python, or Go

  • Computer Science Fundamentals

    Strong understanding of data structures, algorithms, and distributed systems principles

Education

  • Computer Science Degree

    Bachelor's or Master's degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering, or related technical field preferred

Experience

  • Leadership Experience

    Proven track record of leading distributed technical teams and mentoring junior engineers

  • Software Delivery

    Demonstrated ability to ship high-quality software in fast-paced, high-velocity environments

Skills

Required

  • Distributed Systems Design

    Expertise in designing scalable and reliable distributed computing architectures

  • Team Management

    Strong leadership and team-building capabilities with ability to mentor junior engineers

  • Communication

    Excellent interpersonal and cross-functional communication skills

Preferred

  • Telemetry Pipelines

    Nice to have

    Experience building at-scale telemetry or query replay pipelines

  • Database Query Engines

    Nice to have

    Background in building or testing database query engines

  • Machine Learning Operations

    Nice to have

    Knowledge of operationalizing machine learning models

Tech stack

Languages

SQLJavaPythonC++Go

Databases

Snowflake

Other

Machine Learning

Compensation

Pay and benefits.

Base·USD 236,000 – 339,200

Benefits

  • Competitive Compensation

    Salary range of $236,000 - $339,200 with potential for additional equity

  • Hybrid Work Model

    Flexible work arrangement with options for on-site work in San Mateo, CA or Bellevue, WA

  • Professional Development

    Opportunities for continuous learning and career growth in a cutting-edge cloud computing environment

Process

Interview steps.

  1. 01

    Initial Screening

    Phone or video call with recruiting team to assess initial qualifications

  2. 02

    Technical Interview

    In-depth technical discussion focusing on distributed systems, software design, and leadership experience

  3. 03

    Leadership Assessment

    Interview with engineering leadership to evaluate team management and strategic thinking skills

  4. 04

    Team Interaction

    Meeting with potential team members to assess cultural fit and collaboration potential

  5. 05

    Final Executive Interview

    Comprehensive discussion with senior leadership about vision and approach to engineering management

Full posting

Original listing.

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.

We’re hiring a talented Software Engineering Manager to lead the Snowtrail infrastructure team at Snowflake. Snowtrail is the infrastructure that enables Snowflake to deliver dedicated coverage for customer-specific workloads. Its innovative approach allows Snowflake to precisely test and measure the impact of changes on individual customers, making it essential for ensuring the platform’s reliability, correctness, and performance. Through query replay, Snowtrail helps us catch regressions early. By leveraging machine learning models to intelligently sample queries and workloads, we continuously optimize for both cost and performance. Evolving Snowtrail to incorporate new engine features while improving scalability, efficiency, and reliability is central to our continued success

OUR IDEAL MANAGER WILL HAVE :

  • Strong passion and proven track record for shipping quality software in high code velocity environments

  • 10+ years industry experience designing and building distributed data systems.

  • Excellent problem solving skills, and strong CS fundamentals including data structures, algorithms, and distributed systems.

  • Fluency in SQL, Java, C++, Python or Go.

  • Ability to collaborate well across teams, build high-performing teams and mentor junior engineers.

  • Excellent interpersonal communication skills.

  • Ability to work on-site at our San Mateo, CA or Bellevue, WA offices.

BONUS POINTS FOR EXPERIENCE WITH THE FOLLOWING :

  • Building at-scale telemetry pipeline or query replay pipeline

  • Building or testing database query engine

  • Operationalizing Machine Learning models

  • Solid understanding of shipping end to end customer experiences across clients including browsers, apps and drivers

  • Multi-tenant systems, with focus on reliability, performance, isolation, security and scalability.

  • A track record of leading distributed technical teams

Every Snowflake employee is expected to follow the company’s confidentiality and security standards for handling sensitive data. Snowflake employees must abide by the company’s data security plan as an essential part of their duties. It is every employee's duty to keep customer information secure and confidential.

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

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