Principal Enterprise Architect, Data and AI (FSI), Applied Field Engineering
Principal Enterprise Architect · Principal · Full Time
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Role
What you'll do.
Join Snowflake's Applied Field Engineering team as a Principal Enterprise Architect focusing on Financial Services Industry (FSI) in Australia. This high-impact role positions you as a strategic technical advisor to Australia's largest banks, insurers, and capital markets firms, translating enterprise business strategy into scalable data and AI architectures on the Snowflake platform. You'll drive architectural influence across the organization, shape industry outcomes through reference architectures and modernization roadmaps, and represent Snowflake as a thought leader in the FSI regulatory and technology landscape.
Responsibilities
- Executive Technical Advisory: Serve as senior technical authority and trusted advisor to C-suite executives and chief architects at Australia's premier financial institutions, translating strategic business objectives into defensible, enterprise-grade data and AI architectures that align with organizational goals and regulatory compliance requirements.
- Reference Architecture Design: Define and codify reference architectures and comprehensive modernization roadmaps for FSI workloads including risk management, fraud detection, regulatory reporting, customer 360 analytics, and generative AI applications leveraging Snowflake platform capabilities including Cortex AI and Snowpark.
- High-Stakes Architectural Engagement Leadership: Lead complex, multi-phase architectural engagements from discovery through target-state design validation, ensuring solutions balance governance, data residency, regulatory compliance, and operational resilience requirements specific to Australian financial institutions.
- Product Roadmap Influence: Synthesize and channel field insights, customer pain points, and FSI regulatory requirements back to Snowflake product and engineering leadership to shape platform capabilities and ensure product-market fit for the financial services sector.
- Cross-Functional Enablement: Partner strategically with account management teams, solution engineers, system integrators (SI), and global systems integrators (GSI) to resolve technical blockers, accelerate platform adoption, and unlock complex architectural solutions for enterprise customers.
- Practice Leadership and Mentorship: Set the technical bar and establish best practices for the Field CTO organization across the Australia region, actively mentoring architects and solution engineers, and codifying reusable architectural patterns and design frameworks.
- Thought Leadership and Market Representation: Represent Snowflake as a recognized industry thought leader at executive briefings, industry conferences, regulatory working groups, and technology forums across the Australian FSI market to enhance brand authority and customer trust.
Qualifications
What we look for.
Technical
FSI Regulatory and Compliance Framework
Fluency in Australian financial services regulatory landscape including data governance, data residency requirements, privacy regulations (Privacy Act), operational resilience standards, and risk management frameworks relevant to APRA-regulated institutions.
Enterprise Data Architecture
Mastery of data warehouse design, data lake architecture, data mesh patterns, enterprise data governance, and metadata management across complex organizational structures.
Cloud Data Platforms
Expert-level knowledge of Snowflake platform architecture including its separation of compute and storage model, multi-cluster architecture, and native integration with cloud infrastructure.
Modern AI and ML Architecture
Advanced understanding of machine learning infrastructure, feature engineering platforms, model serving architectures, and specific expertise in generative AI application design within regulated environments.
API Design and Integration Architecture
Proficiency in enterprise integration patterns, API-driven architecture, event-driven design, and middleware solutions for connecting legacy banking systems with modern cloud platforms.
Education
Advanced Technical Degree
Bachelor's degree or higher in Computer Science, Software Engineering, Information Systems, or related technical discipline, or equivalent professional experience demonstrating advanced technical knowledge.
Experience
Data Architecture and Enterprise Platforms
10+ years of professional experience in data architecture, cloud data platform engineering, or enterprise architecture with demonstrated success designing and implementing systems for large-scale organizations.
Financial Services Industry Expertise
Deep, hands-on exposure to financial services sector architecture, operations, and technology challenges including banking, insurance, and capital markets firms with understanding of their unique technical and regulatory demands.
Strategic Influence at Scale
Proven track record of company-wide or industry-wide technical influence, demonstrating ability to shape critical architecture decisions at the C-level and among senior stakeholder groups with competing priorities.
Data Platform and AI Architecture
Deep technical understanding of modern data platform architecture, analytics infrastructure, AI and machine learning design patterns, including contemporary approaches to generative AI, prompt engineering, retrieval-augmented generation (RAG), and large language model applications.
Personal Technical Leadership
Demonstrated ability to personally lead technical discovery sessions, solutioning workshops, and detailed design work alongside specialists rather than solely orchestrating others, showing continued hands-on technical capability.
Telecommunications Industry (Preferred)
While focused on FSI, hands-on experience in the telecommunications sector is highly desirable given similar scale, regulatory complexity, and data management challenges.
Skills
Required
Enterprise Architecture
Expert capability in designing enterprise-scale systems that balance business requirements, technical constraints, governance, and regulatory compliance.
Cloud Data Platform Expertise
Deep technical knowledge of modern cloud data warehousing, data lake architecture, and analytics platforms with hands-on experience deploying solutions.
Executive Communication
Advanced ability to translate complex technical concepts for executive audiences, articulate business value propositions, and influence decision-making at C-level without simplifying technical accuracy.
Regulatory and Compliance Knowledge
Comprehensive understanding of financial services compliance frameworks, data governance, and regulatory risk that shapes technical architecture decisions.
Solution Design and Solutioning
Demonstrated ability to conduct discovery workshops, synthesize requirements, and design target-state solutions that balance multiple competing objectives.
Technical Influence and Thought Leadership
Proven ability to influence senior stakeholders, shape technical direction, establish best practices, and mentor others through credibility and expertise.
Preferred
Snowflake Platform Proficiency
Nice to haveHands-on experience with Snowflake architecture, SQL capabilities, data sharing, role-based access control (RBAC), and performance optimization techniques.
Cortex AI and Generative AI Applications
Nice to havePractical experience building or architecting generative AI and large language model solutions within regulated environments with understanding of prompt engineering, fine-tuning, and RAG approaches.
AWS, Azure, and GCP Data Services
Nice to haveComparative knowledge of major cloud providers' data services including AWS (S3, Redshift, Glue), Azure (Synapse, Data Factory), and Google Cloud (BigQuery, Dataflow).
Field CTO and Customer-Facing Architecture
Nice to havePrior experience in Field CTO offices, Office of the CTO, principal customer-facing architect roles, or customer advisory boards in enterprise software contexts.
Australian FSI Ecosystem Knowledge
Nice to haveFamiliarity with Australian financial services partner ecosystem, system integrators (SI/GSI), and regional technology suppliers and service providers.
Risk and Fraud Architecture
Nice to haveDomain expertise in designing risk management systems, fraud detection platforms, regulatory reporting infrastructure, and anti-money laundering (AML) solutions.
Tech stack
Languages
Frameworks
Databases
Tools
Other
Compensation
Pay and benefits.
Base·AUD 250,000 – 350,000
Equity·Stock options
Benefits
Equity and Stock Options
Competitive equity grants reflective of Principal-level seniority, enabling long-term wealth building and alignment with Snowflake's growth trajectory.
Comprehensive Health Coverage
Medical, dental, and vision insurance with coverage extending to family members, ensuring comprehensive preventive and treatment care.
Retirement Planning Support
Superannuation contributions above statutory minimums plus access to financial planning resources and retirement advisory services.
Professional Development Investment
Annual learning and development budget for certifications, conference attendance, executive education, and professional growth aligned with career progression.
Flexible Work Arrangements
Flexibility to balance remote and in-office work, enabling optimization of productivity for customer engagement and collaborative work.
Executive Wellness Programs
Mental health support, fitness benefits, and wellness initiatives designed for senior leaders managing complex, high-stakes responsibilities.
Performance Bonus Structure
Annual cash bonus program tied to individual and company performance metrics, recognizing achievement of strategic objectives.
Generous Time Off
Competitive annual leave allowance, paid parental leave, and sabbatical opportunities supporting work-life balance and personal wellbeing.
Process
Interview steps.
- 01
Initial Talent Screening
30-minute conversation with Snowflake recruiting team to assess background, motivation, and alignment with the Principal Enterprise Architect role's unique demands in the Australian FSI market.
- 02
Technical Architecture Screening
60-minute technical discussion with a senior architect or principal engineer to evaluate cloud data platform expertise, enterprise architecture thinking, and ability to articulate complex solutions for executive audiences.
- 03
FSI Domain Deep Dive
60-minute conversation with experienced Snowflake field leadership focused on financial services regulatory knowledge, experience with FSI customers, and understanding of banking and capital markets technology challenges.
- 04
Customer Engagement Simulation
90-minute exercise simulating a customer discovery workshop or executive briefing where you present architectural recommendations, respond to challenging questions, and demonstrate executive communication capabilities.
- 05
Leadership and Culture Fit Interview
60-minute conversation with the hiring manager and potentially Field CTO leadership to explore mentorship philosophy, thought leadership aspirations, cross-functional collaboration style, and alignment with Snowflake's AI-native, experimental innovation culture.
- 06
Executive Reference Validation
Snowflake may conduct reference checks with former customers, peers, or mentees to validate track record of technical influence, thought leadership, and impact at the principal architect level.
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 are hiring a Principal Enterprise Architect, Data and AI for our Applied Field Engineering (Field CTO) team, focused on the Financial Services Industry across Australia. This role sits at the intersection of Snowflake's most strategic FSI customers and our product and engineering organizations, shaping how banks, insurers, and capital markets firms adopt the AI Data Cloud. Success here is measured not by artifacts produced, but by the architecture decisions you influence and the industry outcomes you unlock.
AS A PRINCIPAL ENTERPRISE ARCHITECT AT SNOWFLAKE, YOU WILL:
Serve as the senior technical authority and trusted advisor to CxO and chief-architect stakeholders at Australia's largest financial institutions, translating business strategy into durable data and AI architecture.
Define reference architectures and modernization roadmaps for FSI workloads such as risk, fraud, regulatory reporting, customer 360, and generative AI, grounded in the Snowflake platform including Cortex AI and Snowpark.
Lead high-stakes architectural engagements end to end, from discovery through to a defensible target-state design that balances governance, data residency, and regulatory requirements.
Influence the Snowflake product roadmap by channeling field insight and FSI regulatory needs back to product and engineering teams.
Partner with account teams, solution engineers, and SI and GSI partners to unblock the most complex technical decisions and accelerate platform consumption.
Set the technical bar for the Field CTO practice in the region, mentoring architects and solution engineers and codifying reusable patterns.
Represent Snowflake as a thought leader at executive briefings, industry forums, and regulatory working groups across the Australian FSI market.
OUR IDEAL PRINCIPAL ENTERPRISE ARCHITECT WILL HAVE:
10+ years of experience in data architecture, cloud data platforms, or enterprise architecture, with deep exposure to financial services.
A track record of company-wide or industry-wide technical influence, shaping architecture decisions at the most senior stakeholder levels.
Deep understanding of data platform, analytics, and AI and machine learning architecture, including modern approaches to generative AI and retrieval-augmented workflows.
Fluency in the FSI regulatory and risk landscape, including data governance, residency, privacy, and operational resilience expectations relevant to Australian financial institutions.
While the role primarily focuses on Financial Services Industry (FSI), experience in the Telecommunications sector is highly desirable.
Proven ability to personally lead technical discovery and solutioning, not only to orchestrate specialists.
Excellent communication and influencing skills with executive and technical audiences, or equivalent experience.
BONUS POINTS FOR THE FOLLOWING:
Hands-on experience with Snowflake, or comparable cloud data platforms across AWS, Azure, or GCP, as a supporting capability.
Experience building or advising on generative AI and large language model applications in a regulated environment.
Familiarity with the Australian FSI partner, SI, and GSI ecosystem.
Prior experience in a Field CTO, office of the CTO, or principal customer-facing architect capacity.
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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