Senior Software Engineer - Observe by Snowflake, Workflow
Backend Engineer · Senior · Full Time
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Role
What you'll do.
Senior Software Engineer on Snowflake's Observe Workflow team, responsible for designing and building scalable backend systems that power dashboards, data visualization tools, and observability interfaces. This role combines technical depth in distributed systems with cross-functional impact, working across backend/frontend boundaries to deliver production-scale features that enable thousands of companies to troubleshoot critical operational data efficiently.
Responsibilities
- Design and Develop Scalable Backend Systems: Architect and build high-quality backend features powering dashboards and data visualization tools that customers depend on daily. Focus on creating intuitive interfaces for complex data exploration and querying on the Snowflake AI Data Cloud, ensuring performance optimization at scale with hundreds of terabytes of telemetry.
- Optimize Distributed Systems Performance: Analyze, improve, and maintain performance, scalability, and availability of large-scale distributed systems and query processing engines. Identify and resolve bottlenecks in workflow systems, ensuring reliable operations across production environments serving enterprise-scale deployments.
- Lead Technical Architecture and Design: Conduct technical scoping and design reviews for complex features. Proactively identify architectural constraints and drive innovative solutions that scale. Mentor on best practices for building distributed systems and ensure adherence to software engineering principles throughout development.
- Cross-Functional Collaboration: Partner closely with Frontend, Logs, and APM engineering teams to deliver cohesive, end-to-end platform experiences. Collaborate with Product Managers to translate customer requirements into well-defined roadmap items and executable engineering plans that balance technical feasibility with business needs.
- Own Full Delivery Lifecycle: Take complete ownership of feature delivery from requirements gathering and design through coding, comprehensive testing, and production observability. Ensure reliability, maintainability, and operational excellence throughout the entire software development lifecycle while maintaining hands-on involvement.
- Drive Technical Innovation: Apply AI-native thinking and experimental mindset to discover simpler, more powerful ways to solve complex observability challenges. Work across the backend/frontend boundary to influence platform-wide engineering decisions that improve user experience and system reliability.
Qualifications
What we look for.
Technical
Proficiency in Go Programming Language
Strong expertise in Go for building high-performance systems programming applications. Demonstrated ability to write idiomatic, efficient Go code with proper error handling, concurrency patterns, and memory management. Comfortable with Go's unique approach to systems-level programming.
Computer Science Fundamentals
Deep understanding of data structures, algorithms, and algorithmic complexity analysis. Strong foundation in distributed systems principles including eventual consistency, CAP theorem, consensus algorithms, and fault tolerance. Ability to analyze and improve system design based on computer science principles.
Requirements Translation and System Design
Proven ability to take complex, ambiguous customer requirements and translate them into reliable, maintainable software solutions. Experience conducting design discussions, gathering stakeholder input, and making architectural trade-offs between scalability, latency, and operational complexity.
Query Processing and Data Systems
Knowledge of query optimization, execution engines, and data processing frameworks. Experience working with large-scale data systems, understanding query plans, and optimizing for performance on massive datasets. Familiarity with Apache Iceberg, Parquet, or similar columnar storage formats is valuable.
Education
Master's Degree in Computer Science or Related Field
Master's degree (or foreign equivalent) in Computer Science, Engineering, Information Technology, Mathematics, Physics, or related discipline. Alternatively, equivalent professional experience demonstrating deep expertise in software engineering and distributed systems.
Experience
Proven Production-Scale Architecture Experience
Demonstrated expertise designing and building user-facing features for distributed, production-scale architectures. Experience working on systems that process and serve complex data at enterprise scale with millions of concurrent users and high availability requirements.
Backend API and Service Development
Strong background building backend APIs and services for data-intensive applications. Preferred experience with dashboarding, reporting, or data visualization platforms where performance and scalability are critical. Experience designing RESTful or GraphQL APIs serving frontend applications.
Leadership and Mentorship Experience
Track record leading medium-to-large technical projects while staying hands-on in implementation. Experience mentoring and developing earlier-career engineers, conducting technical code reviews, and establishing engineering best practices across teams.
Large-Scale Observability Systems Knowledge
Familiarity with query languages, data processing systems, or large-scale observability platforms. Understanding of APM tools, log aggregation systems, distributed tracing, and metrics collection. Knowledge of how observability data flows through modern infrastructure.
Skills
Required
Go
Production-grade proficiency in Go programming language with deep understanding of concurrency models, goroutines, channels, and performance optimization techniques for systems programming.
Distributed Systems Design
Strong theoretical and practical understanding of distributed systems architecture, consistency models, replication strategies, and failure handling in large-scale production environments.
Backend API Development
Expertise designing and implementing robust backend APIs that serve frontend applications and external consumers. Experience with REST, gRPC, or other API protocols and best practices for API versioning and backwards compatibility.
Software Architecture and Design Patterns
Solid grasp of software architecture principles, design patterns, and ability to evaluate trade-offs between different architectural approaches. Experience designing systems for scale, reliability, and maintainability.
System Performance Analysis
Proficiency in analyzing, profiling, and optimizing system performance. Experience identifying bottlenecks, measuring metrics, and implementing improvements in large-scale distributed systems under production load.
Preferred
Dashboard and Visualization Platform Experience
Nice to haveBackground building user-facing features for dashboard, reporting, or data visualization platforms. Understanding of challenges around query performance, interactive analytics, and real-time data updates.
Observability Tools and Frameworks
Nice to haveExperience with observability platforms, APM tools, log aggregation systems, or distributed tracing frameworks. Familiarity with OpenTelemetry, Prometheus, Grafana, ELK Stack, or similar tools and how they integrate with backend systems.
Query Languages and SQL
Nice to havePractical experience with SQL query writing and optimization. Understanding of query execution plans, indexing strategies, and how to write efficient queries for analytical workloads on large datasets.
Kubernetes and Container Orchestration
Nice to haveExperience deploying and operating systems in Kubernetes environments. Understanding of container patterns, StatefulSets, ConfigMaps, and operational considerations for running distributed systems in cloud environments.
Data Lakehouse and Cloud Data Platforms
Nice to haveFamiliarity with cloud data platforms like Snowflake, BigQuery, or similar. Knowledge of open data formats like Apache Iceberg, Delta Lake, or Parquet. Understanding of cost-effective data storage and processing at scale.
Frontend Collaboration and Full-Stack Understanding
Nice to haveComfortable working across backend/frontend boundaries with ability to understand frontend constraints and limitations. Experience collaborating with frontend engineers and making backend decisions that optimize end-to-end user experience.
Team Leadership and Mentorship
Nice to haveDemonstrated ability leading technical teams or projects while maintaining hands-on coding involvement. Experience conducting effective code reviews, establishing technical standards, and developing junior engineers.
Tech stack
Languages
Frameworks
Databases
Tools
Other
Compensation
Pay and benefits.
Base·USD 200,000 – 287,500
Equity·Stock options
Benefits
Equity and Stock Options
Participate in company growth through equity grants and stock option packages, aligning your interests with long-term company success as a Snowflake shareholder.
Comprehensive Health and Wellness Coverage
Medical, dental, and vision insurance with company contribution toward premiums. Wellness programs, mental health resources, and preventive care support for you and eligible dependents.
Competitive Retirement Planning
401(k) retirement savings plan with company matching contributions, helping you build long-term financial security and retirement readiness.
Generous Paid Time Off
Flexible paid vacation time, sick leave, and company holidays. Unlimited PTO policies at many levels, recognizing the importance of work-life balance and personal wellbeing.
Professional Development and Learning
Tuition reimbursement, educational conference attendance, and access to professional development resources. Support for certifications, online courses, and technical skill advancement.
Flexible Work Arrangements
Remote work options and flexible scheduling accommodating modern work preferences. Ability to maintain work-life balance while delivering high impact.
Parental and Family Benefits
Paid parental leave, adoption assistance, and family planning support. Childcare resources and backup care options for working parents.
Commuter and Relocation Benefits
Commuter benefits, public transit assistance, and relocation packages for employees relocating to work locations. Support for transitioning to new geographic areas.
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.
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, rapidly testing 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.
Snowflake is about empowering enterprises to achieve their full potential, and people too. With a culture that's all in on impact, innovation, and collaboration, Snowflake is the sweet spot for building big, moving fast, and taking technology and careers to the next level.
Observe by Snowflake is an AI-powered observability platform built on the Snowflake AI Data Cloud and engineered for scale. We ingest and store logs, metrics, traces, and events on an open, scalable data lakehouse, using open formats like Apache Iceberg, at dramatically lower cost. A dynamic Context Graph and AI SRE provide rich context and automated workflows so teams can move from detection to root cause of production issue and resolution 10x faster.
Leading engineering teams at companies like Capital One, Topgolf, and Dialpad rely on Observe to troubleshoot hundreds of terabytes of telemetry daily while maintaining reliability at enterprise scale. As part of Snowflake, Observe combines startup-style ownership and velocity with the global reach, operational excellence, and ecosystem of one of the world's leading data platforms.
We are hiring a Senior Software Engineer for our Workflow team within Observe by Snowflake. This team owns the core user experience layer—dashboards, worksheets, and the surface-level interfaces through which customers explore, query, and act on their observability data. You'll build the systems that make complex data feel intuitive and reliable at scale.
AS A SENIOR SOFTWARE ENGINEER, WORKFLOW AT SNOWFLAKE, YOU WILL:
Design and build scalable, high-quality backend features that power the dashboards and data visualization tools our customers depend on every day.
Analyze, improve, and maintain the performance, scalability, and availability of large-scale distributed systems and query processing engines.
Lead technical scoping and design reviews; proactively identify architectural bottlenecks in workflow systems and drive solutions that scale.
Partner closely with Frontend, Logs, and APM engineering teams to deliver cohesive, end-to-end platform experiences.
Collaborate with Product Managers to translate customer needs into well-defined roadmap items and executable engineering plans.
Own the full delivery lifecycle—from requirements and design through coding, testing, and production observability.
OUR IDEAL SENIOR SOFTWARE ENGINEER, WORKFLOW WILL HAVE:
A Master's degree (or foreign equivalent) in Computer Science, Engineering, Information Technology, Mathematics, Physics, or a related discipline—or equivalent professional experience.
Proficiency in Go, or demonstrated expertise in another high-performance systems programming language.
Proven experience designing and building user-facing features for distributed, production-scale architectures.
Strong foundations in computer science: data structures, algorithms, and distributed systems principles.
The ability to take complex, ambiguous customer requirements and translate them into reliable, maintainable software.
BONUS POINTS FOR THE FOLLOWING:
Experience building backend APIs and services for dashboarding, reporting, or data visualization platforms.
Comfort working across the backend/frontend boundary—collaborating with and sometimes influencing frontend engineering decisions.
Familiarity with query languages, data processing systems, or large-scale observability platforms.
Experience leading medium-to-large technical projects and mentoring earlier-career engineers while staying hands-on.
WHY JOIN OUR WORKFLOW TEAM AT SNOWFLAKE?
The Workflow team sits at the intersection of observability, user experience, and distributed systems—a rare combination that makes the technical problems here genuinely interesting. You won't just be building backend infrastructure in isolation; you'll be shaping how engineers and operators across thousands of companies interact with their most critical operational data.
This is a team that values technical depth and cross-functional breadth equally. You'll have real ownership of roadmap-defining initiatives and direct visibility into how your work impacts customers. If you're drawn to building platforms that are both technically demanding and deeply meaningful to the people who use them, this is the right place.
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
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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