Scale Engineer

Senior Software Engineer, Notebooks

Senior Software Engineer · Senior · Full Time

CA-Ontario-TorontoCAD 245k – 295k1mo ago
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Role

What you'll do.

Senior Software Engineer role at Snowflake focused on building and scaling the Notebooks product platform. You'll own full-stack development across Go/Python backend services and TypeScript/React frontend, designing medium-to-large features from conception through production deployment. This role requires 7+ years of full-stack software engineering expertise with deep knowledge of distributed systems, containerization, and compliance frameworks to deliver reliable, high-performance solutions in regulated and air-gapped environments.

Responsibilities

  • Full-Stack Feature Development: Drive and deliver high-impact, medium-to-large features independently across the notebook service ecosystem, owning the complete development lifecycle from ambiguous problem definition through production deployment, monitoring, and post-launch optimization. This includes designing robust APIs, implementing backend business logic, and building intuitive frontend user experiences.
  • Platform Architecture and Scalability: Design and implement core platform initiatives including runtime management systems, automated patching mechanisms, environment reproducibility frameworks, and comprehensive observability solutions. Ensure the notebook service scales reliably to support thousands of concurrent users while maintaining sub-100ms response times and 99.95% availability.
  • Security and Compliance Engineering: Architect solutions that enable the notebook platform to operate securely in regulated, air-gapped, and compliance-driven environments. Implement security controls, encryption mechanisms, audit logging, and compliance frameworks (SOC2, HIPAA, FedRAMP) to meet enterprise customer requirements and government-sector standards.
  • Cross-Functional Collaboration: Partner closely with embedded product managers, user experience designers, and infrastructure platform teams to translate product vision into technical specifications. Participate actively in product planning sessions, architectural reviews, and cross-team initiatives that span multiple Snowflake product lines.
  • Production Operations and Reliability: Participate in on-call rotation to maintain the Tier-1 notebook service in production, respond to incidents with root cause analysis, and drive reliability improvements. Implement comprehensive monitoring, alerting, and automated remediation systems to reduce mean time to resolution (MTTR) and ensure consistent service availability.
  • Technical Leadership and Mentorship: Mentor and coach junior and mid-level engineers through code reviews, pair programming, design discussions, and career development conversations. Establish and enforce high engineering standards, promote architectural best practices, and elevate team capability through constructive feedback and collaborative problem-solving.
  • Innovation and Experimentation: Maintain an experimental mindset while evaluating emerging technologies, frameworks, and methodologies applicable to the notebook platform. Rapidly prototype solutions to emerging capabilities, document findings, and share learnings to help the team make informed technology decisions aligned with product roadmap.

Qualifications

What we look for.

Technical

  • Full-Stack Web Development

    Demonstrated expertise building end-to-end web applications with proficiency in modern frontend frameworks (React, TypeScript) and backend service development. Strong understanding of client-server communication patterns, state management, and responsive UI design.

  • Backend Services and Distributed Systems

    Deep hands-on experience designing and implementing backend microservices, RESTful APIs, and message queues. Thorough knowledge of distributed systems concepts including eventual consistency, fault tolerance, replication strategies, and consensus protocols.

  • Containerization and Orchestration

    Practical production experience with Docker container architecture, Kubernetes orchestration, resource management, and container networking. Understanding of container security best practices and multi-tenant container isolation.

  • Database Design and SQL

    Strong SQL proficiency and comprehensive understanding of relational database design patterns, query optimization, indexing strategies, and transaction management. Knowledge of database internals including buffer management and query execution planning is valuable.

  • Cloud Infrastructure Platforms

    Production experience deploying and managing applications on major cloud platforms (AWS, GCP, Azure). Familiarity with Infrastructure-as-Code, CI/CD pipelines, monitoring solutions, and cloud-native architectural patterns.

Education

  • Bachelor's or Master's Degree in Computer Science

    BS or MS in Computer Science, Software Engineering, Computer Engineering, or closely related technical discipline. Equivalent professional experience and self-directed learning can substitute for formal degree requirements.

Experience

  • 7+ Years Full-Stack Development

    Minimum seven years of professional hands-on software engineering experience, with substantial time spent across both frontend and backend development. Should include experience shipping multiple production systems and operating services at scale.

  • Microservices and Distributed Systems

    Significant professional experience designing, implementing, and maintaining distributed backend services. Track record of optimizing system performance, improving reliability, and handling operational challenges at scale.

  • Regulated and Compliance-Driven Environments

    Preferred experience building software for highly regulated industries, compliance-driven organizations, or environments with strict security/privacy requirements (financial services, healthcare, government). Familiarity with compliance frameworks and audit processes is a strong advantage.

  • High-Performance and Scalable Systems

    Demonstrated track record of building and optimizing systems that handle significant load and scale. Experience with performance profiling, bottleneck identification, and systematic optimization across infrastructure layers.

Skills

Required

  • Go (Golang)

    Production-level proficiency in Go for backend service development, including goroutines, channels, and dependency management. Experience optimizing Go applications for performance and memory efficiency.

  • Python

    Strong Python development skills for backend services, data processing, and infrastructure automation. Experience with Python frameworks and ecosystem for building scalable applications.

  • TypeScript and React

    Advanced expertise in TypeScript and React for building modern, type-safe frontend applications. Experience with component architecture, hooks, state management libraries, and performance optimization techniques.

  • API Design and REST Principles

    Deep understanding of RESTful API design patterns, HTTP protocols, authentication/authorization mechanisms, and API versioning strategies. Experience designing intuitive, performant, and secure APIs.

  • System Design and Architecture

    Ability to design scalable, reliable systems from first principles. Experience making architectural trade-offs, evaluating technology choices, and designing for maintainability, testability, and operational efficiency.

  • Software Engineering Best Practices

    Strong foundation in software engineering principles including SOLID design patterns, testing methodologies, code review practices, and version control workflows. Commitment to code quality and technical documentation.

Preferred

  • Kubernetes and Container Orchestration

    Nice to have

    Advanced operational knowledge of Kubernetes including deployment strategies, resource management, networking, storage, and troubleshooting. Experience with Helm, service meshes, or custom operators is valuable.

  • Database Internals and Query Optimization

    Nice to have

    Deep knowledge of relational database architecture, query optimization techniques, and understanding of execution plans. Experience with database profiling, index design, and performance tuning.

  • Security and Compliance Engineering

    Nice to have

    Knowledge of security principles including encryption, authentication, authorization, audit logging, and secure communication protocols. Familiarity with compliance frameworks (SOC2, HIPAA, FedRAMP, PCI-DSS) and security threat models.

  • Observability and Monitoring

    Nice to have

    Experience implementing comprehensive observability solutions including distributed tracing, metrics collection, structured logging, and alerting. Familiarity with tools like Prometheus, Grafana, Datadog, or ELK stack.

  • Air-Gapped and Regulated Environment Solutions

    Nice to have

    Experience architecting and deploying software solutions in air-gapped, on-premise, or highly regulated environments. Understanding of deployment constraints and compliance requirements in government or enterprise sectors.

  • Technical Communication and Documentation

    Nice to have

    Excellent written and verbal communication skills with ability to explain complex technical concepts to diverse audiences. Experience creating technical specifications, design documents, and architectural runbooks.

Tech stack

Languages

Go (Golang)PythonTypeScript

Frameworks

ReactGo Web FrameworksFastAPI or Django

Databases

PostgreSQL or similar relational databasesDistributed data stores

Tools

DockerKubernetesGit and GitHubCI/CD Platform

Other

Cloud Infrastructure (AWS/GCP/Azure)Observability StackSecurity and Compliance ToolsAPI Documentation Tools

Compensation

Pay and benefits.

Base·CAD 245,250 – 295,250

Equity·Stock options

Benefits

  • Comprehensive Health Coverage

    Medical, dental, and vision insurance plans with low employee premium contributions. Coverage extends to spouse/domestic partner and dependents with Snowflake subsidizing a substantial portion of premiums.

  • Retirement and Financial Planning

    401(k) retirement plan with employer matching contributions, financial planning services, and estate planning assistance to support long-term wealth building.

  • Generous Time Off

    Unlimited paid time off (PTO) policy plus company holidays, parental leave (typically 16+ weeks), and sabbatical programs for extended career breaks.

  • Flexible Work Arrangements

    Hybrid or remote work options depending on role and team needs, providing flexibility to balance professional responsibilities with personal commitments and location preferences.

  • Professional Development

    Annual learning and development budget for conferences, certifications, courses, and training programs. Internal tech talks, mentorship programs, and engineering communities of practice.

  • Equity Compensation

    Stock options or restricted stock units (RSUs) as part of competitive total compensation package, allowing employees to participate in company growth and success.

  • Mental Health and Wellness

    Mental health counseling services, meditation and mindfulness programs, fitness center subsidies, and comprehensive wellness initiatives supporting overall employee wellbeing.

  • Product Discounts and Perks

    Complimentary or heavily discounted Snowflake credits for personal projects, home office equipment stipends, and other employee perks exclusive to Snowflake team members.

  • Commuter and Transportation Benefits

    Transit subsidies, parking assistance, and commuter benefits programs to reduce transportation costs and support sustainable commuting options.

  • Life and Disability Insurance

    Competitive life insurance (typically 2-3x salary), short-term disability, and long-term disability coverage protecting financial security of employees and families.

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.

AS A SENIOR SOFTWARE ENGINEER YOU WILL:

Drive high-impact initiatives that span our product areas and full tech stack, including golang and Python on the backend and TypeScript/React on the frontend.

Own and deliver features across the notebook service, container runtimes, and UI — designing and shipping medium-to-large projects independently, from ambiguous problem statements through production and post-launch.

Advance core platform initiatives such as runtime management and patching, environment reproducibility and replication, security and compliance, and observability for notebooks.

Extend the product to operate reliably in regulated and air-gapped environments, where security, compliance, and operational rigor are paramount.

Promote strong collaboration within a cross-functional team and partner closely with embedded product managers and designers, as well as platform organizations across Snowflake

Be a strong contributor to the product vision and drive team planning.

Build for scale, reliability, and high performance, and participate in the on-call rotation to keep a Tier-1 production service healthy.

Mentor, coach, and empower more junior team members, and raise the engineering bar through high-quality design and code review.

OUR IDEAL CANDIDATE WILL HAVE:

7+ years of hands-on software development experience, including significant experience in full-stack software development.

Deep understanding of modern web application architecture, good API design patterns, security, performance, and scale.

Experience with backend services and distributed systems; familiarity with containers and orchestration (Docker, Kubernetes) and cloud infrastructure is a strong plus.

Experience building for regulated, compliance-driven, or air-gapped environments is a strong plus.

Knowledge of database internals and SQL is a plus.

Passionate about building the best customer-facing products.

Strong written, verbal, and technical communication skills, with a proactive, transparent working style.

BS/MS in Computer Science or related majors.

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.

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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