Senior Software Engineer - NatSec
Senior Software Engineer · Senior · Full Time
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Role
What you'll do.
As a Senior Software Engineer in Snowflake's National Security division, you will architect and deploy secure, compliant cloud infrastructure for public sector customers across multiple regions and verticals. This role requires deep expertise in distributed systems, cloud infrastructure, data residency compliance, and air-gapped environments, with a focus on designing scalable solutions that meet stringent security and governance requirements. You'll collaborate with product teams and customers to implement solutions for large-scale deployment challenges while maintaining the highest standards of operational excellence and compliance.
Responsibilities
- Architect Compliant Cloud Infrastructure: Lead the design and architecture of secure, auditable, and compliant cloud infrastructure for Snowflake's public sector deployments across multiple countries, regions, and industry verticals. Ensure all design decisions align with Snowflake's product architecture while meeting stringent security and governance requirements.
- Design & Implement Distributed Systems: Build and maintain highly scalable distributed systems for Snowflake's cloud automation platform, including cloud control plane services, Kubernetes container orchestration platform, traffic management, and network infrastructure supporting mission-critical workloads.
- Deploy & Manage Production Infrastructure: Deploy, configure, and maintain cloud compute servers and Kubernetes clusters powering the Snowflake platform in sensitive, air-gapped production environments. Ensure continuous availability, performance optimization, and operational excellence in restricted network contexts.
- Engineer Delivery Pipelines: Implement sophisticated software delivery pipelines supporting continuous delivery with automated compliance verification in sensitive runtime environments. Ensure all deployments maintain audit trails and compliance posture required for government customers.
- Customer-Centric Problem Solving: Work directly with public sector customers to rapidly understand critical business problems, compliance constraints, and operational requirements. Design and implement targeted solutions that address real-world deployment challenges while maintaining security and reliability commitments.
- Lead Cross-Functional Collaboration: Collaborate closely with product teams, public sector specialists, and engineering groups across Snowflake to define requirements, establish SLOs for air-gapped deployments, and ensure seamless integration of systems across platform components.
- Ensure Operational Readiness & SLAs: Maintain operational readiness of all services and systems, meeting customer commitments regarding security, reliability, availability, and performance. Implement monitoring, alerting, and incident response procedures ensuring rapid resolution of issues in production environments.
- Technical Troubleshooting & Optimization: Identify, diagnose, and resolve complex network and systems issues in distributed cloud environments. Optimize system performance, resource utilization, and latency to meet demanding performance requirements of large-scale data platform operations.
- Automation & Operational Excellence: Continuously identify routine operational tasks and implement automation solutions to reduce manual overhead, improve consistency, and enable teams to focus on strategic initiatives. Champion infrastructure-as-code practices and operational tooling across the organization.
- Build Domain Expertise: Develop and maintain broad, in-depth knowledge of cloud infrastructure, privacy regulations, governance frameworks, compliance controls, data security practices, and data residency requirements across various Snowflake implementation contexts and regulatory regimes.
Qualifications
What we look for.
Technical
7+ Years Distributed Systems Experience
Minimum seven years of professional experience designing, building, and supporting large-scale distributed systems in production environments with proven track record of system reliability and performance.
Current Air-Gapped Environment Experience
Must have hands-on, current experience deploying and maintaining systems in air-gapped or isolated network environments with restricted connectivity and enhanced security protocols.
Public Sector Deployment Track Record
Recent, direct experience deploying complex infrastructure or software solutions at public sector customers with understanding of federal compliance requirements and government IT standards.
Storage & Cloud Infrastructure Expertise
In-depth knowledge of distributed storage systems architecture, cloud infrastructure design patterns, and infrastructure-as-code implementation with Terraform, Pulumi, or equivalent tools.
Database Systems Proficiency
Strong understanding of database internals, query optimization, distributed storage patterns, and transaction processing in large-scale systems.
Multi-Cloud Platform Experience
Hands-on experience with at least two major cloud platforms (AWS, Azure, GCP) including compute, networking, storage, and managed services.
Production System Reliability
Demonstrated ability to design systems with high availability, fault tolerance, disaster recovery, and operational readiness for mission-critical environments.
Education
Advanced Degree in Computer Science
Master's degree or higher in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, or closely related field providing theoretical foundations in algorithms, distributed systems, and computational complexity.
Strong CS Fundamentals
Comprehensive understanding of data structures, algorithms, complexity analysis, distributed systems theory, and system design principles applicable to large-scale infrastructure.
Experience
7+ Years Large-Scale Systems
Seven or more years of professional software engineering experience specifically focused on designing, implementing, and operating large-scale distributed systems in production environments at scale.
Recent Public Sector Experience
Recent (within last 2-3 years) hands-on experience deploying infrastructure or systems solutions at public sector customers, including understanding of federal procurement, compliance, and operational models.
Air-Gapped Deployment Experience
Current hands-on experience designing systems for and supporting deployment in air-gapped or isolated network environments where external connectivity is restricted and security controls are enhanced.
Cloud Infrastructure at Scale
Proven experience managing and scaling cloud infrastructure supporting millions of transactions or large data volumes, including Kubernetes orchestration, networking, and compute optimization.
Skills
Required
Distributed Systems Architecture
Proven expertise designing and supporting large-scale distributed systems in production environments, with demonstrated ability to handle complex scaling challenges across multiple cloud regions and deployment models.
Cloud Infrastructure & IaC
Advanced proficiency with infrastructure-as-code tools including Terraform, Pulumi, or equivalent solutions for managing cloud resources, automation, and reproducible deployments across AWS, Azure, or GCP platforms.
Programming Languages (Java, C++, Go, Python)
In-depth development expertise in at least one of these languages with strong capability to write production-grade, performant code for backend systems and cloud infrastructure automation.
Air-Gapped Environment Expertise
Current, hands-on experience designing, deploying, and maintaining systems in air-gapped or isolated network environments with restricted external connectivity and enhanced security controls.
Public Sector Deployment Experience
Direct experience deploying complex systems at public sector customers, understanding compliance requirements, federal standards, and the unique operational constraints of government infrastructure.
Cloud Control Plane & Kubernetes
Deep expertise with Kubernetes container orchestration, cloud control plane architecture, networking, and container platform management in production environments.
Database Systems & Internals
Comprehensive knowledge of database architecture, query optimization, storage systems, and the internal mechanisms that power modern distributed data platforms.
Security & Compliance
Strong understanding of data security, privacy controls, compliance frameworks, data residency requirements, and governance standards required for regulated environments.
Computer Science Fundamentals
Solid foundation in core CS concepts including data structures, algorithms, complexity analysis, and system design patterns essential for architecting scalable solutions.
Preferred
Storage Systems Architecture
Nice to haveExperience designing or optimizing large-scale distributed storage systems, data lakes, or warehouse infrastructure that handles massive data volumes and concurrent access patterns.
DevOps & CI/CD Pipeline Development
Nice to haveExperience building and maintaining sophisticated continuous delivery pipelines with automated compliance checks, testing frameworks, and deployment orchestration.
Network & Systems Troubleshooting
Nice to haveProven ability to diagnose and resolve complex network issues, performance bottlenecks, and systems-level problems in distributed cloud environments.
Customer-Facing Technical Leadership
Nice to haveTrack record of working directly with enterprise customers to understand critical business requirements, translate them into technical architecture, and deliver customer-focused solutions.
Federal Security Standards (FedRAMP, NIST)
Nice to haveFamiliarity with federal compliance frameworks, FedRAMP requirements, NIST cybersecurity standards, and the regulatory landscape governing U.S. government technology solutions.
Low-Code AI Integration
Nice to haveOpenness to leveraging AI tools and agentic workflows to accelerate development, automate routine engineering tasks, and explore emerging AI capabilities for infrastructure automation.
Tech stack
Languages
Frameworks
Databases
Tools
Other
Compensation
Pay and benefits.
Base·USD 170,000 – 244,900
Equity·Stock options
Benefits
Health & Wellness
Comprehensive health insurance coverage including medical, dental, and vision plans with company-subsidized premiums and wellness programs supporting employee well-being.
Equity & Stock Options
Competitive equity grants providing ownership stake in Snowflake's success as a publicly traded company, with standard vesting schedules and opportunity to benefit from long-term company growth.
Flexible Work Arrangements
Flexibility to work in ways that suit your productivity and lifestyle, with options for remote work and flexible scheduling supporting work-life balance.
Professional Development
Investment in your growth through access to training programs, conference attendance, professional certifications, and internal mentorship opportunities led by industry experts.
Retirement Planning
Competitive retirement benefits including 401(k) matching and financial planning resources helping secure long-term financial well-being.
Paid Time Off
Generous paid vacation, sick leave, and holiday policies ensuring adequate time for rest, recovery, and personal pursuits alongside professional responsibilities.
Family & Parental Leave
Supportive family planning benefits including parental leave policies and family-friendly programs supporting life events and family responsibilities.
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.
Senior Software Engineer, Snowflake Natsec
Running Snowflake in public sectors in different countries and regions, even in different industry verticals, requires us to build a compliant, secure, and auditable infrastructure. Many key design decisions are deeply rooted in the Snowflake product architecture. As a Senior Software Engineer, you will be responsible for leading several key areas and collaborating with various engineering groups in addition to the Public Sector team. To be successful in the area, you will need to have (and continue to build) a broad and in-depth knowledge base on cloud infrastructure, privacy, and governance, compliance controls, data security and data residency in various aspects of Snowflake.
AS A SENIOR SOFTWARE ENGINEER AT SNOWFLAKE YOU WILL:
Solve real business needs at large scale by applying your software engineering and analytical problem solving skills.
Design, implement and maintain scalable distributed systems for our cloud automation platform that include cloud control plane, Kubernetes container platform and traffic and networking.
Work directly with customers to quickly understand their critical problems and design and implement solutions
Deploy and maintain availability of cloud compute servers and Kubernetes cluster that power the Snowflake platform in sensitive (sometimes air-gapped) production environments
Implement software and maintain delivery pipelines that support continuous delivery and automatic compliance in sensitive runtime environments.
Ensure operational readiness of the services and meet the commitments to our customers regarding security, reliability, availability, and performance
Collaborate closely with product teams on requirements & SLOs for deploying software into air-gapped environments
Identify, troubleshoot, and solve network & systems issues
Automate away routine operational tasks
OUR IDEAL SENIOR SOFTWARE ENGINEER WILL HAVE:
Must have current clearance and experience working in AIR GAP environment
7+ years of industry experience designing and supporting large-scale distributed systems in production, with recent experience in deploying at public sector customers
In-depth experience with storage systems, cloud infrastructure and IaC tools such as Terraform or Pulumi etc.
Strong CS fundamentals including data structures, algorithms, and distributed systems
In-depth development skills in Java, C++, Golang or Python
Experience with database systems and database internals
Experience with public cloud platforms such as AWS, Azure, or GCP
Advanced degree in Computer Science or related degree
Requirements:
Security Clearance
Required: Active TS/SCI clearance with Polygraph.
Condition: Must be willing and able to obtain and maintain a TS/SCI with Polygraph.
Verification: Proof of clearance is required prior to an offer of employment.
Citizenship & Screening
U.S. Citizenship: Required due to federal law and government contract restrictions; verification via valid passport or approved documentation is mandatory.
Compliance: Candidates must meet all applicable customer and government security screening requirements.
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
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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