# Software Engineer — Engineering Systems, Continuous Integration
**Company:** [Snowflake](https://scaleengineer.com/companies/snowflake)
Software Engineer for Snowflake's Continuous Integration team within Engineering Systems, focused on designing, developing, and operating distributed systems that power build automation, test orchestration, and developer productivity infrastructure across a multi-cloud environment. This IC2-level position requires 3+ years of production software engineering experience with strong distributed systems fundamentals and proficiency in languages like Java, C++, Python, or Go. The ideal candidate will drive reliability and scalability improvements for CI/CD platforms serving thousands of engineers globally.
**Role:** Software Engineer
**Seniority:** Mid
**Locations:** US-WA-Bellevue
**Salary:** 160000–230000 USD
[Apply](https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/snowflake/37ad5524-1716-4b54-8c3a-a81429592a91)
Canonical: https://scaleengineer.com/jobs/snowflake/software-engineer-engineering-systems-continuous-integration
---
## Responsibilities

- Design and Develop Distributed CI Systems: Architect, develop, test, and operate robust distributed systems that form the backbone of Snowflake's continuous integration platform, ensuring reliability and scalability across thousands of engineer users and a rapidly expanding multi-cloud codebase.
- Build High-Performance Services and Tooling: Create APIs, services, and automation tools using Java, C++, Python, or Go to improve build reliability, test execution speed, developer productivity, and overall software delivery velocity across the organization.
- Architect Scalable Cloud Infrastructure: Contribute to the design and implementation of enterprise-grade CI infrastructure that spans multiple cloud environments (AWS, Azure, GCP), addressing challenges around resource allocation, multi-tenancy, and cross-cloud orchestration.
- Troubleshoot Complex Infrastructure Issues: Investigate and resolve critical issues involving build failures, test infrastructure performance degradation, reliability concerns, and developer workflow impediments; perform root-cause analysis and implement preventative measures.
- Collaborate Cross-Functionally: Partner with engineering teams across Snowflake to understand CI/CD needs, gather requirements, and deliver pragmatic, operationally simple solutions that align with platform constraints and business objectives.
- Own Code Quality and Reliability: Participate actively in design reviews, code reviews, and comprehensive testing practices; apply strong engineering judgment to enhance system performance, reliability, security, and long-term maintainability.
- Support Production Operations: Contribute to on-call rotation and production support activities, ensuring platform stability and rapid incident response for mission-critical CI/CD infrastructure serving the entire engineering organization.
- Advance CI/CD Practices and Tooling: Help evolve CI practices, tooling, automation, and operational processes as Snowflake scales; contribute to technical documentation, postmortems, and knowledge-sharing initiatives that elevate engineering standards.
- Foster Inclusive Engineering Culture: Contribute to an inclusive, collaborative engineering culture through thoughtful documentation, mentorship, knowledge sharing, and participation in design decisions and architectural discussions.

## Requirements

### education

- {"name":"Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science or Related Field","description":"A four-year degree in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, or equivalent practical experience demonstrating mastery of core software engineering principles and practices."}
- {"name":"Strong Fundamentals","description":"Demonstrated proficiency in algorithms, data structures, and system design concepts through academic coursework, certifications, or professional portfolio."}

### technical

- {"name":"Distributed Systems Design and Implementation","description":"Demonstrated experience designing and implementing reliable, scalable distributed systems with understanding of consistency models, fault tolerance, and message passing architectures."}
- {"name":"Production Software Engineering","description":"3+ years of professional software engineering experience building, deploying, testing, and operating production-grade systems at scale with focus on reliability and performance."}
- {"name":"Programming Language Proficiency","description":"Strong proficiency in at least one modern programming language such as Java, C++, Python, or Go; ability to write clean, maintainable code with attention to performance and resource efficiency."}
- {"name":"Cloud Architecture and Multi-Cloud Development","description":"Practical experience developing and deploying applications on cloud platforms (AWS, Azure, GCP); understanding of containerization, orchestration, and cloud-native patterns."}
- {"name":"Testing, Debugging, and Monitoring","description":"Hands-on experience with comprehensive testing strategies, debugging complex distributed system issues, production monitoring, observability tools, and performance profiling."}
- {"name":"Computer Science Fundamentals","description":"Strong grasp of foundational computer science concepts including data structures, algorithms, time/space complexity analysis, and system design principles."}
- {"name":"Problem-Solving in Ambiguous Contexts","description":"Ability to tackle poorly-defined technical challenges, break down complex problems into manageable components, and propose pragmatic solutions with minimal guidance."}

### experience

- {"name":"3+ Years Production Systems Engineering","description":"Minimum three years of professional software engineering experience building, testing, deploying, and maintaining production systems with emphasis on reliability, scalability, and performance optimization."}
- {"name":"Distributed Systems Experience","description":"Practical exposure to designing and operating distributed systems, understanding trade-offs between consistency, availability, and partition tolerance, and handling system failures gracefully."}
- {"name":"CI/CD Platform Familiarity (Preferred)","description":"Prior experience with continuous integration, continuous delivery systems, or developer productivity platforms; exposure to CI/CD toolchains such as Jenkins, GitHub Actions, ArgoCD, Bazel, or equivalent platforms."}
- {"name":"Build Systems and Test Orchestration (Preferred)","description":"Experience working with build systems, test orchestration frameworks, distributed job scheduling, resource management, or infrastructure automation."}
- {"name":"Large-Scale Repository and Pipeline Operations (Preferred)","description":"Hands-on experience supporting large codebases, complex build pipelines, monorepos, or multi-cloud engineering platforms at significant scale."}

## Skills

### required

- {"name":"Java","description":"Production-level proficiency in Java including understanding of concurrency models, memory management, and building performant backend services."}
- {"name":"Python","description":"Solid ability to write Python for scripting, automation, data processing, and building tools that support CI/CD workflows and infrastructure management."}
- {"name":"C++","description":"Competency in C++ for systems programming, performance-critical components, and scenarios requiring fine-grained control over resource allocation."}
- {"name":"Go","description":"Proficiency in Go for building concurrent, networked systems and cloud-native applications with emphasis on simplicity and deployment efficiency."}
- {"name":"Distributed Systems Concepts","description":"Deep understanding of distributed system principles including consensus algorithms, replication strategies, failure detection, and scalability patterns."}
- {"name":"Cloud Platforms (AWS/Azure/GCP)","description":"Hands-on experience with major cloud platforms; proficiency with compute services, networking, storage, and managed services relevant to CI/CD infrastructure."}
- {"name":"Containerization and Orchestration","description":"Working knowledge of Docker, container runtimes, and Kubernetes for deploying, scaling, and managing containerized applications in production environments."}
- {"name":"API Design and Development","description":"Ability to design clean, extensible APIs; expertise in REST patterns, gRPC, event-driven architectures, and service integration strategies."}
- {"name":"System Performance Optimization","description":"Proven ability to identify performance bottlenecks through profiling and metrics analysis, then implement targeted optimizations for CPU, memory, and I/O efficiency."}
- {"name":"Observability and Monitoring","description":"Experience instrumenting systems with logging, metrics, and distributed tracing; proficiency with observability platforms for real-time system visibility and alerting."}

### preferred

- {"name":"Jenkins","description":"Familiarity with Jenkins architecture, plugin development, pipeline configuration, and scaling Jenkins controllers for large engineering organizations."}
- {"name":"GitHub Actions","description":"Experience designing and implementing workflows using GitHub Actions; understanding of runners, self-hosted infrastructure, and CI/CD orchestration at scale."}
- {"name":"ArgoCD","description":"Knowledge of GitOps principles and ArgoCD for continuous deployment, declarative infrastructure management, and multi-environment deployments."}
- {"name":"Bazel","description":"Experience with Bazel build system including writing build rules, optimizing build performance, and managing monorepo build complexity."}
- {"name":"Kubernetes Operations","description":"Practical experience operating Kubernetes clusters, resource management, networking, security policies, and managing multi-tenant environments."}
- {"name":"Build System Architecture","description":"Understanding of modern build system design, incremental builds, dependency management, and techniques for reducing build and test cycle times."}
- {"name":"Reliability Engineering","description":"Knowledge of SRE practices including SLOs/SLIs, error budgets, chaos engineering, and systematic approaches to improving system reliability."}
- {"name":"Security and Isolation","description":"Experience implementing security controls, multi-tenant isolation, secrets management, and compliance patterns in shared infrastructure platforms."}
- {"name":"Root Cause Analysis","description":"Experience conducting thorough postmortem investigations, identifying systemic issues, and implementing preventative measures to avoid future failures."}

## Tech stack

### tools

- {"name":"Jenkins","description":"Widely-adopted continuous integration platform; understanding of pipelines, distributed builds, and plugin ecosystems."}
- {"name":"GitHub Actions","description":"Modern CI/CD platform integrated with GitHub for workflow automation and containerized job execution."}
- {"name":"ArgoCD","description":"GitOps continuous deployment platform for managing applications and infrastructure declaratively."}
- {"name":"Bazel","description":"Advanced build system designed for monorepos, fast builds, and complex build graphs."}
- {"name":"Kubernetes","description":"Container orchestration platform for deploying, scaling, and managing distributed CI/CD infrastructure."}
- {"name":"Docker","description":"Container runtime and image format for standardizing build environments and test execution."}
- {"name":"Prometheus","description":"Time-series metrics database and monitoring platform for observability and alerting."}
- {"name":"ELK Stack / Datadog","description":"Centralized logging and observability solutions for distributed system monitoring and troubleshooting."}
- {"name":"Terraform / Infrastructure-as-Code","description":"Tools for provisioning and managing cloud infrastructure declaratively across multiple cloud providers."}

### others

- {"name":"AWS Cloud Services","description":"Compute (EC2), networking (VPC, Load Balancers), storage, and managed services for CI/CD infrastructure."}
- {"name":"Azure Cloud Platform","description":"Alternative cloud provider offering; experience with compute, networking, and managed services."}
- {"name":"GCP Cloud Platform","description":"Google Cloud services for compute, networking, and specialized data platform integrations."}
- {"name":"Multi-Cloud Architecture","description":"Designing and operating systems that span multiple cloud providers with consistent abstractions."}
- {"name":"Distributed Job Scheduling","description":"Experience with systems that distribute work across multiple machines (e.g., task schedulers, queue systems)."}
- {"name":"Build Performance Optimization","description":"Techniques for reducing build times including caching strategies, parallelization, and incremental compilation."}
- {"name":"Test Infrastructure Automation","description":"Building scalable test execution platforms with resource pooling, test isolation, and result aggregation."}

### databases

- {"name":"PostgreSQL","description":"Relational database for transactional CI/CD metadata, build history, and operational state management."}
- {"name":"Redis","description":"In-memory data store for caching, session management, and high-performance build queue operations."}
- {"name":"Distributed Data Stores","description":"Experience with eventually-consistent or strongly-consistent distributed data systems for scale-out scenarios."}

### languages

- {"name":"Java","description":"Enterprise-grade backend services, high-performance systems, and production-scale applications."}
- {"name":"Python","description":"Scripting, automation, infrastructure-as-code, and tooling for CI/CD pipeline orchestration."}
- {"name":"Go","description":"Cloud-native services, concurrent systems, and efficient network applications with excellent deployment characteristics."}
- {"name":"C++","description":"Performance-critical systems programming and components requiring low-level resource control."}

### frameworks

- {"name":"gRPC","description":"High-performance RPC framework for inter-service communication in distributed CI/CD systems."}
- {"name":"Protocol Buffers","description":"Efficient serialization format for service definitions and data exchange in distributed architectures."}
- {"name":"REST/HTTP APIs","description":"Standard architectural patterns for building scalable web services and integration endpoints."}

## Benefits

### benefits

- {"name":"Medical Insurance","description":"Comprehensive health coverage including preventative care, specialist visits, and prescription drug benefits."}
- {"name":"Dental and Vision Insurance","description":"Full coverage for routine dental care, orthodontics, and vision correction needs."}
- {"name":"401(k) Retirement Plan","description":"Tax-advantaged retirement savings with employer matching contributions for long-term financial security."}
- {"name":"Employee Stock Purchase Plan (ESPP)","description":"Opportunity to purchase Snowflake stock at a discount, enabling direct ownership in company growth."}
- {"name":"Equity / RSU Grants","description":"Restricted Stock Unit grants as part of total compensation package, aligning employee interests with long-term company success."}
- {"name":"Paid Time Off","description":"Generous PTO policy supporting work-life balance, flexible time for vacation, personal days, and mental health."}
- {"name":"Parental Leave","description":"Paid leave for new parents (birth and adoption) supporting family planning and work-life integration."}
- {"name":"Disability Insurance","description":"Short-term and long-term disability coverage protecting income in case of medical events."}
- {"name":"Company-Paid Life Insurance","description":"Basic life insurance coverage with options for additional supplemental coverage for financial protection."}
- {"name":"Professional Development","description":"Support for continuous learning, conference attendance, and skill development opportunities to advance technical careers."}
- {"name":"Inclusive Culture","description":"Commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusive workplace practices; equal opportunity employer regardless of protected characteristics."}

## Compensation

- **max:** 224400
- **min:** 170000
- **currency:** USD
- **stockOptions:** true

## Interview process

### steps

- {"name":"Initial Screening and Recruiter Call","description":"30-minute conversation with a Snowflake recruiter to discuss background, experience, and role expectations; confirms mutual fit before proceeding to technical interviews."}
- {"name":"Technical Phone Screen","description":"60-minute technical interview covering distributed systems concepts, system design fundamentals, and coding problem-solving in your language of choice (Java, Python, Go, or C++)."}
- {"name":"System Design and Architecture Interview","description":"90-minute in-depth conversation focused on designing large-scale distributed systems; you'll discuss approaches to building scalable CI/CD infrastructure, handling failure scenarios, and making trade-offs."}
- {"name":"Behavioral and Team Fit Interview","description":"60-minute discussion exploring collaboration style, problem-solving approach, communication skills, and alignment with Snowflake's engineering culture and values."}
- {"name":"Senior Engineer / Team Lead Conversation","description":"60-minute technical deep-dive with senior engineers or team lead; focus on CI/CD platform specific challenges, infrastructure decisions, and your perspectives on engineering excellence."}
- {"name":"Executive Sponsorship and Offer","description":"Final approval stage with hiring manager and leadership; if all interviews are successful, you'll receive a comprehensive offer including base salary, equity, and benefits details."}

## Full description
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.

## **About Snowflake**

Snowflake is building the AI Data Cloud, enabling organizations around the world to mobilize data and develop applications at global scale. The Engineering Systems organization builds the tools, infrastructure, and platforms that help Snowflake engineers develop, test, and deliver high-quality software efficiently.

The Continuous Integration team is responsible for the systems that power builds, tests, validation, and developer workflows across Snowflake's engineering organization. As a Software Engineer on this team, you will help build reliable, scalable CI services that support thousands of engineers and a rapidly growing multi-cloud codebase.

## **Responsibilities**

* Design, develop, test, and operate distributed systems that power Snowflake's continuous integration platform.
* Build services and tooling that improve build reliability, test execution, developer productivity, and software delivery velocity.
* Contribute to the architecture and implementation of scalable CI infrastructure across cloud environments.
* Develop reliable APIs, services, and automation using languages such as Java, C++, Python, or Go.
* Investigate and resolve issues involving build failures, test infrastructure, performance, reliability, and developer workflows.
* Partner with engineers across Snowflake to understand CI needs and deliver solutions that are simple, scalable, and easy to operate.
* Participate in design reviews, code reviews, testing, and production support.
* Apply strong engineering judgment to improve system performance, reliability, security, and maintainability.
* Help evolve CI practices, tooling, and operational processes as Snowflake grows.
* Contribute to an inclusive engineering culture through collaboration, documentation, and knowledge sharing.

## **Our Ideal Candidate**

* 3+ years of software engineering experience building production systems.
* Strong computer science fundamentals, including data structures, algorithms, and distributed systems.
* Experience designing and implementing reliable software services.
* Proficiency in at least one programming language such as Java, C++, Python, or Go.
* Familiarity with cloud-based development environments and distributed applications.
* Experience with testing, debugging, monitoring, and operating production systems.
* Strong problem-solving skills and the ability to work through ambiguous technical challenges.
* Effective written and verbal communication skills.
* Ability to collaborate with engineers, product partners, and teams across the organization.
* A strong sense of ownership and commitment to delivering high-quality software.

## **Preferred Qualifications**

* Experience with continuous integration, continuous delivery, or developer productivity systems.
* Familiarity with tools such as Jenkins, GitHub Actions, ArgoCD, Bazel, or similar CI/CD platforms.
* Experience with build systems, test orchestration, distributed job scheduling, or resource management.
* Knowledge of multi-tenant systems, reliability engineering, performance optimization, or security isolation.
* Experience working with Kubernetes, containers, or public cloud platforms such as AWS, Azure, or GCP.
* Experience supporting large-scale repositories, build pipelines, or engineering platforms.
* Familiarity with observability tools and production metrics.
* Experience contributing to technical design documents, postmortems, or root-cause analyses.

## **Why Engineering Systems at Snowflake?**

* Build infrastructure used by Snowflake engineers around the world.
* Work on challenging distributed systems and developer productivity problems.
* Help improve the speed, reliability, and quality of software delivery at Snowflake.
* Collaborate with engineers across a multi-cloud data platform.
* Grow your technical skills while working on systems with broad organizational impact.
* Join a team that values ownership, thoughtful engineering, and continuous improvement.

## **Compensation**

Snowflake is committed to pay equity and transparency. Actual compensation will be determined based on factors including experience, skills, location, and internal equity.

For the Bellevue, WA market, the compensation range for this IC2 role is:

* **Base salary:** `$170,000–$204,000 USD`
* **Target bonus:** `10%`
* **Total target compensation:** `$187,000–$224,400 USD`
* **Equity:** Eligible for an RSU grant in addition to base salary and bonus

Snowflake also offers a comprehensive benefits package, including medical, dental, vision, 401(k), ESPP, paid time off, parental leave, disability coverage, and company-paid life insurance.

Snowflake is an equal opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability, veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by applicable law.

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](http://careers.snowflake.com)