Senior Software Engineer - Observe by Snowflake, OpenTelemetry

Snowflake1 months ago

Location

US-CA-Menlo Park

Type

Full Time

Salary

USD 200,000 – 287,500

Level

Senior

Role

Senior Software Engineer

Posted

May 8, 2026

Full TimeSenior

The role

Summary

A Senior Software Engineer opportunity at Snowflake's Observe team, focusing on OpenTelemetry ecosystem development. The role involves pioneering instrumentation capabilities, contributing to open-source standards, and driving innovation in telemetry collection for emerging domains like AI and browser performance monitoring.

What you'll do

OpenTelemetry Instrumentation: Pioneer new instrumentation capabilities in emerging domains like LLM/AI inference, Browser RUM, and mobile technologies

OTel Collector Development: Design and implement Collector components including receivers, processors, exporters, and SDK instrumentation libraries

Open-Source Collaboration: Contribute to OpenTelemetry community by participating in SIG discussions, authoring RFCs, and reviewing pull requests

Agent Architecture: Architect and manage the Observe Agent, including its extension points, pipeline architecture, and release strategy

Semantic Conventions: Contribute to OpenTelemetry Semantic Conventions by defining standardized telemetry schemas for new and evolving technologies

Community Engagement: Represent Snowflake/Observe in the OTel community by presenting at conferences and building relationships with maintainers

What we look for

Technical

Programming LanguagesStrong programming skills in Go (for OTel Collector) and proficiency in at least one SDK language (Java, Python, JavaScript/TypeScript, or .NET)

OpenTelemetry ExpertiseDeep understanding of OTel's architecture, including Collector pipeline model, SDK internals, context propagation, and semantic conventions

Cloud InfrastructureExperience building cloud-native services and working with public cloud providers like AWS, Azure, or GCP

Education

Technical DegreeBachelor's or Master's degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering, or related technical field preferred

Experience

Open-Source Contribution5+ years of software engineering experience with meaningful involvement in the OpenTelemetry ecosystem

Multi-Vendor CollaborationExperience contributing to open-source projects with multi-vendor governance, including consensus-building and RFC authorship

Skills

Required skills

Go ProgrammingProficient in Go programming language, especially for OTel Collector development

Open-Source CollaborationStrong ability to work collaboratively in open-source community settings

Telemetry DesignStrong understanding of instrumentation design and telemetry best practices

Nice to have

LLM ObservabilityExperience with AI and LLM observability instrumentation

Front-end PerformanceKnowledge of Browser RUM and front-end performance instrumentation

OTel GovernanceApprover or maintainer status in an OpenTelemetry Special Interest Group (SIG)

Compensation & benefits

Salary

USD 200,000 – 287,500 (annual)

Benefits

Open-Source Impact

Opportunity to shape industry standards in observability and telemetry

Strategic Collaboration

Work with core OTel maintainers and leading minds in the telemetry ecosystem

Innovation Environment

Part of Snowflake's strategic investment in open-source observability

Interview process

1
Initial Screening — Review of resume and initial qualifications by recruiting team
2
Technical Phone Screen — Discussion of OpenTelemetry experience and technical background
3
Technical Interview — In-depth technical assessment of OpenTelemetry and software engineering skills
4
Team Fit Interview — Evaluation of collaboration and open-source community engagement
5
Final Interview — Meeting with hiring manager and team leadership