Senior OLTP Architect, Applied Field Engineering/Field CTO
Senior Solutions Architect · Senior · Full Time
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Role
What you'll do.
Senior OLTP Architect at Snowflake's Solution Engineering organization, responsible for architecting and delivering transactional database solutions built on the Snowflake Data Cloud. This strategic role bridges product, engineering, and field teams to drive customer adoption of Snowflake Postgres capabilities across the Americas, requiring 5+ years of OLTP database architecture experience with strong presentation skills for technical and executive stakeholders.
Responsibilities
- Deliver Technical Architecture Expertise for Snowflake Postgres: Serve as the principal technical authority on Snowflake's Postgres capabilities and transactional features, articulating strategic advantages and technical applications to prospective clients. Conduct comparative analyses with competitor OLTP database offerings (Oracle, SQL Server) to position Snowflake's value proposition to technical decision-makers and stakeholders across the Americas region.
- Design and Architect Transactional Solutions: Collaborate with cross-functional teams including product, engineering, and field organizations to architect OLTP solutions on the Snowflake Data Cloud. Translate client-defined success metrics and requirements into technical designs, addressing database migration strategies, indexing approaches, and transactional workload optimization specific to enterprise customer environments.
- Lead Proof of Concepts and Technical Validation: Partner with Snowflake account teams and customer advocates to define, execute, and deliver Proofs of Concepts that validate Snowflake's OLTP capabilities. Ensure successful technical outcomes with comprehensive executive summaries, business value assessments, and demonstrations that quantify the benefits of adopting Snowflake's transactional platform for existing Postgres and legacy OLTP environments.
- Address Technical Objections and Gap Analysis: Identify, analyze, and reconcile discrepancies between Snowflake's transactional methodologies and client-specific requirements. Provide comprehensive technical resolutions to customer concerns regarding database architecture, performance, security, privacy, and governance considerations for OLTP workloads on the Data Cloud platform.
- Deliver Custom Demonstrations and Presentations: Develop and deliver bespoke demonstrations and technical content tailored to address specific client requirements for transactional features and use cases. Present to both technical and executive audiences through whiteboarding sessions, formal readouts, and interactive demos showcasing Snowflake's competitive advantages in the OLTP space.
- Create Technical Thought Leadership Content: Develop and disseminate technical content to facilitate organizational growth and industry thought leadership, including blog articles, conference presentations, technical notebooks, demonstrations, and educational materials. Establish Snowflake's position as a leader in cloud-native OLTP architecture and transactional database innovation.
- Support Sales Progression and Customer Adoption: Convey the strategic advantages and technical application of Snowflake Postgres capabilities during customer engagements and follow-up activities to facilitate sales progression. Function as a trusted technical consultant who accelerates customer adoption and drives commercial outcomes through deep architectural expertise and consultative guidance.
Qualifications
What we look for.
Technical
OLTP Database Technologies
In-depth knowledge and hands-on experience with OLTP database platforms including Postgres, Snowflake, Oracle, SQL Server, or similar relational databases. Must understand transactional semantics, concurrency mechanisms, and performance tuning for high-transaction-volume environments.
Database Indexing and Query Optimization
Advanced expertise in database indexing strategies for transactional workloads including B-tree indexes, partial indexes, and covering indexes. Knowledge of query execution plans, statistics-based optimization, and performance tuning for OLTP patterns and access patterns.
Cloud Data Platforms and Architecture
Understanding of cloud data warehousing and analytics platforms, specifically Snowflake's architecture, SQL capabilities, and scaling characteristics. Knowledge of how Snowflake's compute and storage separation model applies to transactional workloads and OLTP optimization.
Database Security, Governance, and Compliance
Knowledge of database security principles, data privacy frameworks (GDPR, HIPAA), access control mechanisms, and governance features. Ability to articulate how Snowflake addresses enterprise security and compliance requirements for transactional data.
Enterprise Architecture and Solution Design
Experience designing end-to-end solutions that address enterprise requirements including scalability, reliability, disaster recovery, and multi-tenant considerations. Ability to create architecture diagrams, technical specifications, and design documents for complex OLTP systems.
Education
Bachelor's Degree Required
Bachelor's degree in any discipline is required for this position. The degree provides foundational knowledge and demonstrates commitment to continuous learning.
Master's Degree Preferred
Master's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, Mathematics, or related technical fields is preferred. Equivalent professional experience in database architecture, platform engineering, or technical leadership can substitute for advanced degree requirements.
Experience
OLTP Database Architecture
5+ years of hands-on experience architecting, designing, and optimizing OLTP database systems. Proven expertise in transactional database platforms including Postgres, Oracle, SQL Server, or similar systems with deep knowledge of ACID compliance, concurrency control, and distributed transaction handling.
Enterprise Database Migration
Practical experience leading or supporting database migration projects from legacy OLTP systems to modern cloud platforms. Understanding of migration strategies, data validation, cutover planning, and post-migration optimization for transactional workloads.
Customer-Facing Technical Leadership
Demonstrated ability to work effectively with C-suite and technical stakeholders at enterprise customers. Experience positioning complex database technologies to non-technical audiences and building consensus around architectural decisions through clear communication and credibility.
Field CTO or Solutions Engineering
Background in Field CTO, Solutions Architecture, or Sales Engineering roles demonstrating ability to balance technical rigor with commercial awareness. Experience accelerating deal progression through technical differentiation and customer success validation.
Skills
Required
Postgres Database Architecture
5+ years of hands-on experience with Postgres including performance tuning, replication, backup and recovery, and optimization for transactional workloads. Deep understanding of Postgres indexing strategies, query planning, and configuration for high-concurrency environments.
OLTP System Design
Expertise in designing OLTP databases and transactional systems that support high-concurrency, low-latency operations. Knowledge of normalization, transaction isolation levels, locking mechanisms, and consistency models appropriate for mission-critical applications.
Technical Presentation and Communication
Exceptional ability to present complex database concepts clearly to both technical engineers and non-technical executives. Skill in creating compelling demos, conducting whiteboarding sessions, and tailoring technical messaging for different audience levels and business contexts.
SQL and Query Optimization
Advanced proficiency with SQL including query writing, performance analysis, execution plan interpretation, and optimization techniques. Ability to analyze slow queries, identify performance bottlenecks, and recommend architectural changes to improve transactional throughput and latency.
Enterprise Data Architecture
Understanding of enterprise data platforms, integration patterns, and how transactional systems fit within broader data ecosystems. Experience with ETL/ELT processes, data modeling, and analytics integration for organizations leveraging data clouds.
Customer Engagement and Consultative Selling
Ability to understand customer business requirements, identify technical needs through discovery conversations, and propose solutions that address both technical and commercial objectives. Skill in handling technical objections with credibility and building long-term customer relationships.
Preferred
Snowflake Platform Experience
Nice to have1+ years of practical hands-on experience with Snowflake including SQL, stored procedures, performance optimization, and administration. Familiarity with Snowflake's Native Apps framework, Iceberg table format, and dynamic table features for transactional workloads.
Competitive OLTP Database Knowledge
Nice to haveHands-on experience with Oracle, SQL Server, MySQL, or other enterprise OLTP platforms enabling comparative analysis and migration path recommendations. Understanding of feature parity, performance characteristics, and licensing models across competing database systems.
Database Migration Leadership
Nice to havePractical experience leading or architecting multi-year database migration programs from legacy OLTP systems to cloud platforms. Knowledge of migration tools, cutover strategies, risk mitigation, and validation approaches for transactional data and applications.
Technical Leadership and Mentoring
Nice to havePrevious formal or informal leadership experience guiding engineering teams, mentoring junior architects, or directing technical initiatives. Ability to influence technical direction, build consensus, and develop talent within engineering organizations.
Data Cloud and Analytics Expertise
Nice to haveBackground in data warehouse architecture, analytics engineering, or business intelligence demonstrating understanding of how OLTP systems integrate with data platforms for reporting, analytics, and AI/ML workloads on the modern data stack.
Public Speaking and Thought Leadership
Nice to haveExperience speaking at industry conferences, publishing technical articles, or contributing to open-source projects. Demonstrated ability to shape industry narratives and establish credibility as a subject matter expert in database architecture and cloud data platforms.
Tech stack
Languages
Frameworks
Databases
Tools
Other
Compensation
Pay and benefits.
Base·USD 180,000 – 240,000
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.
Build the future of the Data Cloud.
Our Solution Engineering organisation is seeking a Data Platform Architect, Postgres, who can provide hands-on expertise and support while working with technical decision makers to design and architect transactional solutions built on the Snowflake Data Cloud.
This is a strategic role that works closely with cross-functional teams, including product, engineering, and the broader field organisation to ensure successful execution and customer adoption of Snowflake’s solutions.
IN THIS ROLE YOU WILL GET TO:
Convey the strategic advantages and technical application of Snowflake Postgres capabilities, address client inquiries, and conduct follow-up engagements to facilitate sales progression.
Articulate Snowflake's Postgres functionalities and provide a comparative analysis with competitor offerings for prospective clients.
Ascertain client-defined success metrics for the adoption and utilisation of Snowflake's Postgres features.
Recognise, address, and reconcile discrepancies between Snowflake's methodologies and client-specific requisites concerning transactional features.
Provide comprehensive resolutions to client objections and concerns.
Develop and deliver bespoke demonstrations that highlight Snowflake's value proposition, tailored to address specific client requirements pertaining to transactional functionalities.
Demonstrate the ability to elucidate Snowflake's security, privacy, and governance considerations with respect to transactional workloads.
Be the technical expert in the room that positions Snowflake’s Postgres features and value to technical stakeholders at Snowflake’s customers across the Americas.
Function as the principal technical authority, articulating Snowflake's transactional functionalities and value proposition to technical stakeholders within customer organisations across the Americas.
Collaborate with Snowflake account teams and customer advocates to define and execute Proof of Concepts, ensuring successful outcomes and demonstrable technical achievements that validate Snowflake's capabilities, including comprehensive executive summaries and business value assessments.
Develop and disseminate content to facilitate team and organisational growth, such as blog articles, conference presentations, and technical materials including notebooks and demonstrations.
ON DAY ONE, WE WILL EXPECT YOU TO HAVE:
5+ years Postgres architecture experience
Curiosity and drive to help companies leverage the Snowflake Data Cloud
Strong presentation skills to both technical and executive audiences, whether whiteboarding sessions or formal readouts and demos.
Bachelor’s Degree required, Masters Degree in computer science, engineering, mathematics or related fields, or equivalent experience preferred.
Knowledge of and experience with OLTP database technology (e.g. Snowflake, Postgres, Oracle, SQL Server etc.)
Knowledge of indexing strategies for transactional workloads.
BONUS POINTS FOR EXPERIENCE WITH THE FOLLOWING:
Previous leadership experience
Previous FCTO experience
Practical database migration experience
1+ years of practical Snowflake experience.
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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