Scale Engineer

Senior Software Engineer - Snowflake Streaming

Senior Software Engineer · Senior · Full Time

US-WA-BellevueUSD 200k – 288k1mo ago
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Role

What you'll do.

Join Snowflake's Streaming Platform team as a Senior Software Engineer to design and maintain mission-critical data ingestion infrastructure serving enterprise customers globally. This role focuses on building highly scalable, low-latency streaming services like Snowpipe Streaming and Datastream that enable real-time data movement at massive scale. You'll require 3-5 years of distributed systems experience, strong Java or C++ proficiency, and deep expertise in cloud-native architecture to tackle complex production challenges in a multi-tenant SaaS environment.

Responsibilities

  • Core Infrastructure Development: Design, build, and maintain critical components of Snowflake's streaming ingestion platform, including Snowpipe Streaming and Datastream services that process mission-critical data for enterprise customers at scale
  • Performance and Reliability Optimization: Improve service reliability, scalability, and latency characteristics of high-throughput production workloads, ensuring consistent performance under demanding enterprise usage patterns
  • Production Incident Management: Debug and resolve complex incidents in distributed, multi-tenant cloud services using advanced troubleshooting techniques across application, network, and infrastructure layers
  • API and Protocol Evolution: Contribute to the design and evolution of streaming APIs, SDKs, and server-side protocols that shape how customers interact with the streaming platform
  • Comprehensive Testing Strategy: Write and execute comprehensive testing suites including unit tests, integration tests, and advanced chaos/fault-injection scenarios to ensure system resilience and correctness
  • Cross-Functional Collaboration: Collaborate with partner teams including storage, query, and compute to address cross-cutting platform concerns and ensure seamless integration across Snowflake's data cloud architecture
  • Engineering Excellence and On-Call Operations: Participate in code reviews, on-call rotations, and architecture discussions to maintain engineering quality standards and ensure 24/7 platform reliability

Qualifications

What we look for.

Technical

  • Java or C++ Proficiency

    Deep proficiency in Java or C++, with the ability to write performant, maintainable code suitable for production systems at scale

  • Distributed Systems Fundamentals

    Deep understanding of distributed systems concepts including consistency models, fault tolerance mechanisms, data replication strategies, and backpressure handling in streaming contexts

  • Cloud Platform Expertise

    Strong working knowledge of cloud infrastructure (AWS, Azure, or GCP), containerization, and cloud-native service design principles

Education

  • Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science or Related Field

    Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, or equivalent practical software engineering experience demonstrating strong foundational knowledge in computing concepts

Experience

  • Distributed Systems Engineering

    3-5 years of hands-on software engineering experience designing and operating large-scale distributed systems or cloud services, with demonstrated impact on system performance and reliability

  • High-Throughput Service Production Experience

    Proven track record building or operating high-throughput, low-latency services in production environments, with experience optimizing for sub-second latencies and handling massive data volumes

  • Multi-Tenant SaaS Architecture

    Familiarity with cloud infrastructure and multi-tenant service design patterns, including isolation, resource management, and security considerations specific to enterprise cloud platforms

  • Full-Stack Debugging Expertise

    Strong debugging and troubleshooting skills across the entire technology stack, from application logic through networking protocols to storage layer internals

Skills

Required

  • Java Programming

    Production-grade Java development with expertise in concurrency, performance optimization, and building scalable backend systems

  • C++ Programming

    Low-level C++ programming for performance-critical components, with understanding of memory management and system optimization

  • Distributed Systems Design

    Ability to architect and reason about distributed systems including replication, consensus, eventual consistency, and failure scenarios

  • Stream Processing Concepts

    Understanding of event-driven architectures, stream processing pipelines, exactly-once semantics, and backpressure mechanisms

  • Production Debugging and Observability

    Proficiency in debugging complex production issues using logs, metrics, and distributed tracing in large-scale systems

  • Cloud Service Operations

    Experience operating cloud-native services including incident response, on-call procedures, and performance monitoring at scale

Preferred

  • Streaming Platform Experience

    Nice to have

    Hands-on experience building or operating streaming or ingestion systems such as Apache Kafka, AWS Kinesis, Apache Flink, or comparable technologies

  • Database Internals Knowledge

    Nice to have

    Familiarity with database architecture including Write-Ahead Logs (WAL), columnar storage formats, transaction processing, and query optimization

  • Observability at Scale

    Nice to have

    Experience implementing or working with advanced observability tooling including distributed tracing systems, metrics collection pipelines, and log aggregation platforms

  • Cloud-Native SaaS Experience

    Nice to have

    Prior experience working on cloud-native SaaS platforms such as Snowflake, Databricks, Google BigQuery, or similar enterprise data platforms

  • Data Platform Architecture

    Nice to have

    Understanding of modern data platform architecture, including ETL/ELT pipelines, data warehousing concepts, and real-time analytics infrastructure

  • API and Protocol Design

    Nice to have

    Experience designing or evolving APIs, SDKs, and communication protocols with consideration for backward compatibility and developer experience

Tech stack

Languages

JavaC++Python

Frameworks

Apache KafkaApache FlinkgRPC

Databases

Snowflake Data CloudCloud Object Storage

Tools

Distributed Tracing SystemsMetrics and Monitoring PlatformsLog Aggregation PlatformsContainer Orchestration

Other

Git Version ControlCI/CD PipelinesInfrastructure as Code

Compensation

Pay and benefits.

Base·USD 200,000 – 287,500

Equity·Stock options

Benefits

  • Competitive Equity Package

    Stock options or RSUs as part of comprehensive compensation reflecting your contribution to Snowflake's growth trajectory

  • Health and Wellness Benefits

    Comprehensive medical, dental, and vision coverage for employees and dependents, plus mental health resources and wellness programs

  • Retirement Planning

    401(k) plan with company matching contributions to support long-term financial security

  • Unlimited Time Off

    Flexible paid time off policy enabling work-life balance and personal well-being

  • Professional Development

    Learning and development opportunities, conference attendance budgets, and internal training programs to advance technical skills

  • Flexible Work Environment

    Hybrid or remote work arrangements that accommodate individual preferences and team collaboration needs

Process

Interview steps.

  1. 01

    Initial Screening Call

    Recruiter discussion (30 minutes) to understand your background, career goals, and alignment with the streaming platform team. Be prepared to discuss your experience with distributed systems and production services.

  2. 02

    Technical Phone Screen

    Engineering-focused conversation (45 minutes) covering distributed systems concepts, your approach to debugging production issues, and discussion of past projects. Expect questions about consistency models, fault tolerance, and system design trade-offs.

  3. 03

    System Design Interview

    Technical interview (60 minutes) where you'll design a streaming ingestion system or similar data pipeline, discussing scalability, reliability, and operational concerns. You'll evaluate your ability to architect high-throughput, low-latency systems.

  4. 04

    Coding Interview

    Hands-on coding assessment (60 minutes) in Java or C++, focusing on concurrent programming, performance optimization, and writing production-quality code. Problem difficulty aligns with senior-level complexity.

  5. 05

    Behavioral and Team Fit Discussion

    Interview (45 minutes) with a team member to assess collaboration style, learning mindset, and ability to thrive in fast-paced, experimental environments with a focus on AI-native thinking and rapid iteration.

  6. 06

    Final Round with Leadership

    Discussion (45 minutes) with engineering manager or tech lead about the team's strategic direction, your growth potential, and how you'll contribute to the streaming platform's evolution.

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.

Our team builds and operates Snowflake's Streaming Platform — the core infrastructure responsible for bringing data into Snowflake continuously and at scale. This includes Snowpipe Streaming and Datastream, services used by large set of enterprise customers to move mission-critical data in real time. Data is the fuel powering the new enterprise AI world, and we are the team responsible for getting it there reliably, continuously, and fast.

Responsibilities

  • Design, build, and maintain core components of Snowflake's streaming ingestion platform

  • Improve service reliability, scalability, and latency under high-throughput production workloads

  • Debug and resolve incidents in a distributed, multi-tenant cloud service

  • Contribute to the design and evolution of streaming APIs, SDKs, and server-side protocols

  • Write comprehensive tests including unit, integration, and chaos/fault-injection scenarios

  • Collaborate with partner teams (storage, query, compute) on cross-cutting platform concerns

  • Participate in code reviews, on-call rotations, and architecture discussions

Required Qualifications

  • 3–5 years of software engineering experience on large-scale distributed systems or cloud services

  • Strong proficiency in Java or C++

  • Deep understanding of distributed systems concepts: consistency, fault tolerance, replication, and backpressure

  • Experience building or operating high-throughput, low-latency services in production

  • Strong debugging skills across the stack — from application logic to network and storage layers

  • Familiarity with cloud infrastructure and multi-tenant service design

Nice to Have

  • Experience building streaming or ingestion systems (Kafka, Kinesis, Flink, or similar)

  • Familiarity with database internals — WAL, columnar storage, or transaction processing

  • Experience with observability tooling at scale (distributed tracing, metrics pipelines)

  • Prior work on a cloud-native SaaS platform (Snowflake, Databricks, Google BigQuery, etc.)

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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