Senior AI/ML Architect, Applied Field Engineering/Field CTO

Snowflake2 months ago

Location

Tokyo, Japan

Type

Full Time

Salary

JPY 12,000,000 – 18,000,000

Level

Senior

Role

ML Engineer

Posted

Jan 6, 2026

Full TimeSenior

The role

Summary

Snowflake is seeking a Senior AI/ML Architect to join their Applied Field Engineering team in Tokyo, leading technical sales engagements and architecting cloud data solutions for enterprise clients. This role combines deep technical expertise in data platforms with customer-facing responsibilities including pre-sales, demos, and strategic solution design across multi-cloud environments.

What you'll do

Technical Sales Leadership: Present Snowflake technology and vision to executives and technical stakeholders at strategic prospects, existing customers, and partner companies using multi-cloud data architecture expertise

Customer Engagement: Work hands-on with customers throughout the entire sales cycle from demos to POCs, design, and implementation to demonstrate and communicate the value of Snowflake technology

Competitive Intelligence: Stay current with the evolving industry landscape, understand competitive and complementary technologies/vendors, and articulate Snowflake's positioning against them

Cross-functional Collaboration: Partner with Product Management, Engineering, and Marketing teams to contribute to continuous improvement of Snowflake's products and marketing initiatives

Solution Architecture: Design interoperable data lakehouse architectures and integrate customer architecture frameworks with Snowflake's data architecture

Technical Demonstrations: Deliver compelling value-based demonstrations and support enterprise proof-of-concepts using platform capabilities across data ingestion, transformation, and lakehouse workloads

What we look for

Technical

Data Architecture Experience10+ years of architecture and data engineering experience in enterprise data domain

Pre-sales Experience5+ years in pre-sales environments as Sales Engineer, Solution Engineer, or Solution Architect

Big Data TechnologiesExtensive experience with large-scale databases, data warehouse technologies, ETL, analytics, and cloud technologies

Development SkillsHands-on development experience with SQL, Python, Pandas, Spark, PySpark, Hadoop, Hive, and other big data technologies

Data Integration ExpertiseDeep understanding of data integration services and tools for building ETL/ELT pipelines

Streaming TechnologiesKnowledge of streaming technologies and real-time/near real-time use cases including CDC

Data Lakehouse ArchitectureExperience designing interoperable data lakehouse architectures using Iceberg, Delta, and Parquet

Language ProficiencyBusiness-level or higher proficiency in both Japanese and English (required)

Education

Bachelor's DegreeBachelor's degree required in any field

Advanced Degree PreferredMaster's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, Mathematics, or related field preferred, or equivalent experience

Experience

Enterprise Data ExperienceMinimum 10 years in enterprise data architecture and engineering

Pre-sales ExperienceMinimum 5 years in technical pre-sales roles

Presentation SkillsExceptional presentation skills for both technical and executive audiences through whiteboarding, presentations, and demos

Customer Solution MappingProven ability to connect customer-specific business challenges with Snowflake solutions

Skills

Required skills

Multi-cloud ArchitectureExpertise in designing and implementing solutions across AWS, Azure, and GCP

Data EngineeringStrong architectural expertise in data engineering with ability to present confidently to executives and technical audiences

Technical PresentationExceptional ability to deliver impromptu whiteboard explanations, presentations, and demos

Solution DesignCapability to map customer business challenges to technical solutions

Customer Architecture IntegrationSkill in diving deep into customer architecture frameworks and integrating with Snowflake

Bilingual CommunicationBusiness-level proficiency in both Japanese and English

Nice to have

Industry KnowledgeDeep understanding of competitive and complementary data technologies and vendors

Product CollaborationExperience working with product management and engineering teams on product improvements

Enterprise SalesBackground in technical sales cycles for enterprise software solutions

Advanced AnalyticsExperience with advanced analytics and AI/ML workloads on cloud platforms

Compensation & benefits

Salary

JPY 12,000,000 – 18,000,000 (annual)

Stock options

Available

Benefits

Stock Options

Equity participation in fast-growing cloud computing company

Professional Development

Opportunities for continuous learning in cutting-edge cloud data technologies

Global Impact

Work on enterprise-scale solutions affecting major organizations worldwide

Innovation Culture

Culture focused on impact, innovation, and collaboration

Career Growth

Opportunities to advance within rapidly scaling organization

Interview process

1
Initial Screen — Phone/video interview with recruiting team to assess basic qualifications and cultural fit
2
Technical Assessment — Technical discussion covering data architecture, cloud platforms, and hands-on experience with relevant technologies
3
Presentation Round — Candidate delivers technical presentation or whiteboard session demonstrating ability to explain complex concepts to different audiences
4
Customer Scenario — Role-play exercise simulating customer engagement, solution design, and objection handling
5
Final Interviews — Meetings with hiring manager, cross-functional team members, and potential executive stakeholders
6
Reference Check — Verification of technical expertise and customer-facing experience with previous employers