Software Engineer

Snowflake4 days ago

Location

US-CA-Menlo Park

Type

Full Time

Salary

USD 160,000 – 230,000

Level

Staff

Role

Staff Engineer

Posted

Jul 21, 2026

Full TimeStaff

The role

Summary

Join Snowflake's Apps & Experiences team as a Staff Software Engineer to architect and deliver AI-first developer platforms and infrastructure that power Snowsight and the unified Snowflake user experience. You'll design scalable developer tooling, build next-generation CI/CD pipelines, and establish engineering best practices while working on systems serving millions of enterprise users. This role requires strong expertise in distributed systems, AI/LLM applications, build system architecture, and fluency in Go, Java, or Python, with the opportunity to mentor engineers and drive 10x productivity improvements across the organization.

What you'll do

Design AI-First Developer Platforms: Architect and build next-generation developer platforms, tools, and infrastructure that integrate AI capabilities throughout the development lifecycle. Establish AI-first best practices and patterns that significantly enhance developer experience on Snowsight, making it easier for engineers to leverage agentic workflows and LLM-based features in their daily work.

Drive Developer Productivity Infrastructure: Lead strategic initiatives to reimagine developer workflows with AI as a core collaborator. Design and implement infrastructure changes that support 10x increases in developer productivity, including intelligent code generation support, automated testing frameworks, and agentic development tools that reduce manual toil and accelerate feature delivery.

Enhance Platform Reliability and Observability: Invest in comprehensive observability by designing and implementing advanced monitoring, alerting systems, and SLO frameworks across all AppEx infrastructure. Build automated remediation capabilities and incident response systems that ensure high reliability and minimal downtime for systems serving millions of Snowflake enterprise customers.

Maintain Developer Infrastructure and Tooling: Own and evolve the CI/CD pipeline architecture, build system performance, and developer tooling to ensure fast, reliable builds and deployments. Establish high engineering standards, code quality gates, and testing validation platforms that maintain system integrity while enabling rapid iteration on new features.

Foster Cross-Functional Collaboration: Partner with product managers, solution architects, fellow engineering teams, and business stakeholders to translate requirements into scalable technical solutions. Drive end-to-end initiatives that span infrastructure, developer experience, and AI/LLM capabilities, ensuring alignment across the organization.

Mentor and Develop Engineering Teams: Provide technical leadership and mentorship to junior and mid-level engineers on the team. Share expertise in distributed systems, AI applications, and platform design. Contribute to improving engineering processes, establishing best practices, and building a culture of continuous learning and innovation.

What we look for

Technical

Enterprise Build System ArchitectureHands-on experience designing, building, or significantly contributing to enterprise-grade build systems, CI/CD pipelines, or developer infrastructure at scale. Demonstrated ability to optimize build performance, reliability, and developer ergonomics in complex distributed environments.

Distributed Systems and ScalabilityStrong mastery of distributed systems fundamentals including consistency models, fault tolerance, load balancing, and scalability patterns. Ability to design systems that maintain reliability and performance while serving millions of requests and supporting thousands of developers.

AI and LLM Application DevelopmentDemonstrated experience with AI-native or LLM-based applications, including hands-on work with prompt engineering, tool/agent design, evaluation frameworks, or production AI features. Understanding of how to integrate agentic systems into developer workflows and platform experiences.

Programming Language ProficiencyProduction-level fluency in Go, Java, or Python with the ability to write clean, efficient, maintainable code at scale. Proficiency in at least one of these languages is essential; familiarity with multiple languages is valued for architectural flexibility.

Frontend Infrastructure and Platform ServicesDeep understanding of frontend architecture, component systems, state management, and shared platform services that power large-scale user experiences. Experience building infrastructure abstractions that enable product teams to move faster without sacrificing maintainability or performance.

Software Design and ArchitectureAbility to design scalable, maintainable, and extensible systems using established design patterns and architectural principles. Experience with modular architecture, API design, and building platforms that can grow with organizational needs without technical debt accumulation.

Education

Computer Science FundamentalsStrong foundation in core computer science concepts including data structures, algorithms, computational complexity analysis, and fundamental discrete mathematics. This foundation enables effective system design and problem-solving across technical challenges.

Distributed Systems KnowledgeDeep understanding of distributed systems concepts including consensus protocols, eventual consistency, failure modes, and recovery strategies. Knowledge should be practical and applicable to real-world systems, not solely theoretical.

Experience

Senior-Level Platform or Infrastructure Engineering5+ years of progressive experience in platform engineering, infrastructure engineering, developer tooling, or related domains. Demonstrated track record of owning and shipping complex systems end-to-end, from design through production support and iterative improvement.

Large-Scale System Design and DeliveryProven experience designing and delivering systems that serve enterprise-scale workloads or support thousands of developers. Familiarity with performance optimization, reliability engineering, monitoring, and the tradeoffs between feature velocity and system stability.

Cross-Functional Leadership and CollaborationExperience working effectively across multiple teams, functions, and organizational boundaries to drive complex initiatives. Demonstrated ability to influence without authority, build consensus, and navigate technical and organizational trade-offs.

Mentorship and Team DevelopmentExperience mentoring junior engineers, conducting technical interviews, or contributing to engineering culture and process improvements. Demonstrated commitment to helping other engineers grow and develop their skills.

Skills

Required skills

Go ProgrammingProduction-grade expertise in Go for building scalable backend services, CLIs, and infrastructure tools. Understanding of goroutines, concurrency patterns, and Go's approach to systems programming.

Java ProgrammingDeep expertise in Java for enterprise application development, with knowledge of JVM optimization, concurrency frameworks, and ecosystem tools for building large-scale systems.

Python ProgrammingStrong proficiency in Python for infrastructure automation, data processing, and rapid prototyping. Experience with Python frameworks, async/await patterns, and production deployment considerations.

Cloud Platform ArchitectureExpertise designing and building on cloud platforms (AWS, Azure, GCP) with knowledge of compute, storage, networking, and managed services. Understanding of scaling patterns, multi-region deployment, and cloud-native architecture.

CI/CD Pipeline DesignHands-on experience designing, implementing, and maintaining CI/CD pipelines using tools like Jenkins, GitLab CI, GitHub Actions, or similar. Understanding of build optimization, artifact management, and deployment automation.

System Observability and MonitoringExpertise implementing comprehensive monitoring, logging, and tracing systems using tools like Prometheus, Grafana, ELK Stack, Datadog, or similar. Knowledge of SLI/SLO definition and error budget management.

Large-Scale System DesignDemonstrated ability to design systems handling millions of users or requests. Understanding of caching strategies, database optimization, load balancing, and performance at scale.

Problem-Solving and Algorithmic ThinkingExcellent problem-solving skills with strong fundamentals in data structures and algorithms. Ability to analyze complex problems, break them into manageable components, and implement efficient solutions.

Nice to have

Agentic AI DevelopmentExperience building or working closely with agentic systems, autonomous agents, or multi-step reasoning systems powered by LLMs. Familiarity with agent orchestration frameworks and prompt/tool engineering at scale.

LLM Integration and RAGHands-on experience integrating Large Language Models into production applications, including retrieval-augmented generation (RAG), fine-tuning, and cost optimization for LLM-powered features.

Developer Experience (DevEx) EngineeringTrack record of improving developer productivity through better tooling, documentation, or process improvements. Passion for making engineering workflows more efficient and enjoyable.

React or Modern Frontend FrameworksExperience building scalable frontend applications with React or similar frameworks. Understanding of component design, state management, performance optimization, and testing strategies for frontend systems.

TypeScriptProficiency with TypeScript for type-safe frontend or backend development. Familiarity with TypeScript tooling ecosystem and best practices for large-scale applications.

Data Warehouse or Analytics ExperienceUnderstanding of data warehouse architecture, query optimization, or analytics engineering. Knowledge of how SQL databases process queries and perform at enterprise scale.

Open Source ContributionsActive contributions to open-source projects, particularly those related to developer tools, CI/CD, or infrastructure. Demonstrated ability to work in collaborative, distributed development environments.

Mentorship and Technical LeadershipProven experience mentoring other engineers, conducting technical interviews, leading design reviews, or contributing to engineering culture improvements. Ability to elevate team capabilities through knowledge sharing.