# Software Engineer Manager, Data Processing
**Company:** [Snowflake](https://scaleengineer.com/companies/snowflake)
Lead Snowflake's Data Processing team at Observe in Zurich, managing backend engineers focused on compiler internals, distributed scheduling, query execution, and data materialization at petabyte scale. This role requires proven expertise in database systems, distributed systems architecture, and team leadership in fast-paced environments, with hands-on coding ability to drive both technical excellence and operational reliability.
**Role:** Engineering Manager
**Seniority:** Manager
**Locations:** CH-Zurich-Observe
**Salary:** 204000–293250 CHF
[Apply](https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/snowflake/499b0652-047b-48a9-a056-2083b8d53bab)
Canonical: https://scaleengineer.com/jobs/snowflake/software-engineer-manager-data-processing
---
## Responsibilities

- Team Leadership and Development: Lead, mentor, and grow a team of backend engineers specializing in compiler internals, distributed scheduling, query execution, and incremental view maintenance. Develop career paths for team members, provide coaching on technical and professional growth, and create an environment where engineers can reach their full potential.
- Talent Acquisition and Recruitment: Hire top-tier engineering talent through strategic sourcing, interviewing, and candidate engagement. Represent Observe and Snowflake as an employer brand, communicate the vision and impact of the Data Processing team, and build a pipeline of exceptional backend and infrastructure engineers.
- Cross-Functional Collaboration: Collaborate with Observe product and backend teams to plan and execute new features while scaling existing systems. Partner with core Snowflake engineering teams in Germany and the US to integrate Observe deeper with Snowflake technologies, clearly communicate team needs, and drive platform improvements.
- Technical Debt Management: Strategically identify, prioritize, and reduce technical debt in the data processing systems. Build comprehensive debt reduction plans, balance paydown against new feature development, and ensure the codebase remains maintainable and performant at scale.
- Project Portfolio Management: Orchestrate multiple concurrent projects by setting clear priorities, managing dependencies, and ensuring critical initiatives receive appropriate resources. Prevent scope creep and maintain momentum across the team's engineering roadmap.
- Operational Excellence and Reliability: Own the operational health of data processing systems including performance optimization, compute cost efficiency, on-call load management, and support cost reduction. Lead the team through production incidents and customer escalations, facilitate postmortems, and drive follow-up work to prevent recurrence.
- Hands-On Engineering: Stay actively engaged with the codebase by writing, reviewing, and fixing production code. Debug complex distributed systems issues, investigate real production workloads with the team, and maintain technical credibility through regular coding contributions.

## Requirements

### education

- {"name":"Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science or Related Field","description":"Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, or equivalent technical discipline providing foundational knowledge in algorithms, systems design, and software architecture."}
- {"name":"Advanced Degree","description":"Master's degree or Doctorate in Computer Science, Engineering, or related field preferred but not required. Advanced education particularly valuable for deep theoretical understanding of database systems and compilers."}

### technical

- {"name":"Backend Engineering and Systems Programming","description":"Strong hands-on programming skills in languages commonly used for systems work such as Java, C++, Go, or Python. Ability to write, review, and debug production code in complex backend systems."}
- {"name":"Query Processing and Compilation","description":"Experience or deep understanding of query language design, parsing, optimization, and compilation. Familiarity with concepts like query plans, cost-based optimization, and execution engines."}
- {"name":"Distributed Scheduling and Resource Management","description":"Knowledge of scheduling algorithms, resource allocation, workload management, and auto-scaling systems. Understanding of how to pack workloads efficiently, maintain low latencies, and optimize infrastructure utilization."}
- {"name":"Data Pipeline and ETL Architecture","description":"Experience designing and operating data processing pipelines, materialized views, incremental computation systems, and change data capture mechanisms that handle massive data volumes."}
- {"name":"Performance Optimization and Cost Efficiency","description":"Demonstrated capability in profiling, analyzing, and optimizing systems for performance and cost. Experience making data-driven tradeoff decisions between latency, throughput, and resource consumption."}

### experience

- {"name":"Team Leadership Experience","description":"Proven track record managing a team of 5 or more engineers in a fast-paced environment, delivering complex backend or infrastructure systems. Demonstrated ability to hire, mentor, and scale teams while maintaining high engineering standards."}
- {"name":"Database Systems Expertise","description":"Deep background in database systems including query processing, query optimization, storage internals, or compiler design. Understanding of how modern databases execute queries, optimize resource utilization, and maintain consistency at scale."}
- {"name":"Distributed Systems Experience","description":"Solid hands-on experience designing, building, and operating distributed systems at scale. Familiarity with challenges such as consistency, fault tolerance, scalability, and cross-system communication patterns."}
- {"name":"Production Systems Ownership","description":"Experience running and operating production services with on-call responsibilities. Demonstrated capability in incident response, reliability engineering, observability, and balancing operational stability with feature development."}
- {"name":"Multi-Project Management","description":"Proven ability to manage multiple concurrent technical initiatives, prioritize between competing demands, and ensure execution across complex project portfolios in resource-constrained environments."}

## Skills

### required

- {"name":"Technical Leadership","description":"Ability to make sound architectural decisions, guide technical strategy for complex systems, and maintain hands-on involvement in key engineering decisions while supporting team autonomy."}
- {"name":"Team Mentorship and Coaching","description":"Talent for identifying engineer strengths and growth opportunities, providing constructive feedback, and creating career development opportunities that advance both individual and team capabilities."}
- {"name":"Cross-Functional Communication","description":"Clear, concise communication across technical and non-technical audiences, time zones, and organizational boundaries. Ability to translate complex technical concepts for product and business stakeholders."}
- {"name":"Incident Management and Postmortem Leadership","description":"Experience leading teams through production incidents with calm prioritization, clear communication, and systematic problem-solving. Capability to conduct thorough postmortems and drive meaningful follow-up actions."}
- {"name":"Technical Depth in Database Systems","description":"Deep expertise in modern data platform internals, query execution architectures, distributed data processing, and how commercial databases and data warehouses operate at enterprise scale."}
- {"name":"Project Prioritization and Execution","description":"Skill in breaking down complex initiatives into manageable components, sequencing work, managing dependencies, and sustaining momentum across parallel projects in resource-constrained environments."}
- {"name":"Production Operations Expertise","description":"Understanding of operational best practices including monitoring, alerting, capacity planning, cost optimization, and on-call rotations. Experience optimizing compute efficiency while maintaining service reliability."}

### preferred

- {"name":"Snowflake Platform Knowledge","description":"Hands-on experience or deep familiarity with Snowflake's architecture, query processing, warehouse mechanics, or unique design patterns that differentiate it in the data platform market."}
- {"name":"Observability Platform Experience","description":"Background with observability tools, monitoring solutions, or APM platforms. Understanding of telemetry collection, analysis, and how observability platforms help engineers troubleshoot production systems at scale."}
- {"name":"Enterprise SaaS Development","description":"Experience building and operating multi-tenant, enterprise-grade SaaS products with high reliability requirements, complex customer deployments, and significant compliance and security considerations."}
- {"name":"Large-Scale Data Platform Experience","description":"Prior exposure to other major data platforms like BigQuery, Redshift, or Databricks. Understanding of their architectures, competitive positioning, and how different design choices impact performance and cost."}
- {"name":"Compiler and Language Design","description":"Background in compiler development, domain-specific language design, or query language implementation. Experience with parsing, semantic analysis, optimization passes, or code generation."}
- {"name":"Apache Iceberg and Open Data Formats","description":"Experience with Apache Iceberg, Apache Parquet, or other modern open data formats. Understanding of their design principles and advantages for analytical workloads and data lakehouse architectures."}

## Tech stack

### tools

- {"name":"Git and Version Control","description":"Standard distributed version control for managing codebase changes, collaborating across teams, and maintaining code history."}
- {"name":"CI/CD Pipelines","description":"Continuous integration and deployment systems for automating testing, building, and releasing software reliably."}
- {"name":"Monitoring and Observability Tools","description":"Logging, metrics, and tracing platforms for understanding system behavior, debugging issues, and optimizing performance in production."}
- {"name":"Issue Tracking and Project Management","description":"Tools for managing engineering work, dependencies, and project coordination across distributed teams."}
- {"name":"Code Review Platforms","description":"Systems for peer review, quality assurance, and collaborative code improvement ensuring production code quality."}

### others

- {"name":"Distributed Systems Architecture","description":"Core competency for understanding consensus algorithms, fault tolerance, scalability patterns, and eventual consistency tradeoffs in large-scale systems."}
- {"name":"Query Optimization","description":"Deep knowledge of cost-based optimization, execution planning, statistics gathering, and how databases decide optimal query execution strategies."}
- {"name":"Compiler Design","description":"Understanding of parsing, semantic analysis, intermediate representations, and code generation relevant to OPAL language compilation."}
- {"name":"Performance Profiling and Analysis","description":"Techniques for identifying bottlenecks, measuring system characteristics, and making data-driven optimization decisions at scale."}
- {"name":"Infrastructure Cost Optimization","description":"Strategies for managing cloud infrastructure costs, workload consolidation, and balancing performance against spending in multi-tenant environments."}

### databases

- {"name":"Snowflake","description":"The primary platform that Observe is built on. Deep understanding of Snowflake's architecture, query processing, and capabilities is essential."}
- {"name":"Apache Iceberg","description":"Open table format used by Observe for storing logs, metrics, traces, and events. Understanding its design principles and query execution is valuable."}
- {"name":"Time-Series Databases","description":"Familiarity with time-series database design patterns, relevant for handling metrics and event data at scale."}

### languages

- {"name":"Java","description":"Primary language for backend systems development at Snowflake, used extensively in query execution engines and distributed processing frameworks."}
- {"name":"C++","description":"Low-level systems programming for performance-critical components in query execution and data processing pipelines."}
- {"name":"Go","description":"Increasingly common for distributed systems and infrastructure components requiring high concurrency and operational simplicity."}
- {"name":"Python","description":"Used for scripting, automation, and integration work, particularly relevant for data engineering and operational tooling."}
- {"name":"SQL","description":"OPAL, Snowflake's query language, compiles to SQL. Understanding SQL semantics, optimization, and execution is fundamental to this role."}

### frameworks

- {"name":"Apache Spark","description":"Distributed data processing framework relevant for understanding large-scale data processing patterns and architecture."}
- {"name":"Kubernetes","description":"Container orchestration platform used for deploying and managing distributed systems at scale in modern cloud environments."}
- {"name":"gRPC","description":"High-performance RPC framework commonly used for inter-service communication in distributed systems."}

## Benefits

### benefits

- {"name":"Equity Compensation","description":"Competitive stock option packages aligned with company growth, providing long-term wealth building and direct stake in Snowflake's success as a public company."}
- {"name":"Health and Wellness","description":"Comprehensive medical, dental, and vision coverage. Mental health resources, wellness programs, and fitness benefits supporting holistic employee wellbeing."}
- {"name":"Retirement Planning","description":"401(k) plans with employer matching contributions, enabling long-term financial security and retirement savings."}
- {"name":"Flexible Work Arrangements","description":"Flexible work location and scheduling policies accommodating work-life balance, particularly relevant for Zurich-based position with distributed team collaboration."}
- {"name":"Professional Development","description":"Learning budgets, conference attendance support, and internal training programs enabling continuous skill development and industry engagement."}
- {"name":"Paid Time Off","description":"Generous vacation policies, paid parental leave, and sabbatical programs supporting work-life balance and family needs."}
- {"name":"Global Mobility","description":"Access to Snowflake's global presence and resources, supporting career growth across multiple geographies and team assignments."}

## Compensation

- **max:** 280000
- **min:** 180000
- **currency:** USD
- **stockOptions:** true

## Interview process

### steps

## 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.

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 chat-based 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.

## **The Team**

We are hiring an Engineering Manager to lead our Data Processing team in Zurich. You will start with a pizza sized team with the goal to grow further.

The team owns the core engine that makes Observe work. That includes the systems that compiles our query language OPAL into SQL, the query execution pipeline that executes user queries, the scheduler which autoscales warehouses and packs workloads for high utilization and low query latencies, and our incremental view maintenance. Building features in these systems while keeping the system healthy, cost-efficient, and resilient at petabyte scale is a constant challenge. The team sits at the heart of Observe's differentiation: a full observability platform built entirely on Snowflake.

## **In this role you will**

* Lead, mentor, and grow a team of backend engineers working on compiler internals, distributed scheduling, query execution, and data materialization. Coach them on their careers and help each of them reach their full potential.
* Hire top talent, and represent Observe and Snowflake to candidates.
* Work closely with other Observe product and backend teams to plan and execute new product features and scale existing systems to meet new challenges.
* Work with core Snowflake engineering teams in Germany and the US to integrate Observe more deeply with Snowflake technologies. Communicate Observe's needs clearly and drive improvements in the underlying platform together.
* Strategically reduce technical debt in the area. Know where it lives, build a plan to pay it down, and balance that plan against new feature work.
* Keep many ongoing projects moving in parallel, setting clear priorities and making sure nothing important falls through the cracks.
* Own the operational health of the area: performance, compute cost efficiency, on-call load, and support cost. Lead the team through production incidents and customer escalations, and drive postmortems and follow-up work.
* Stay close to the code: write, review, and fix code when needed, and dig into real production workloads alongside the team.

## **Qualifications**

* Proven record managing a team of 5+ engineers that delivered complex backend or infrastructure systems in a fast-paced environment.
* A background in database systems, such as query processing, query optimization, storage, or compilers.
* Solid experience building and operating distributed systems.
* Hands-on engineering skills: able to write, review, and fix production code.
* Able to run many concurrent projects at once and to prioritize clearly between them.
* Able to balance short-term operational needs with long-term architecture, and to make cost and performance tradeoffs based on data.
* Experience running a team that owns production services with on-call responsibilities.
* Excellent communicator, comfortable working across time zones and organizational boundaries.
* A bachelor's, master's, or doctorate degree in computer science, engineering, or a related field.

## **Bonus Points**

* Experience with Snowflake or other large-scale data platforms or databases and knowledge of their internals.
* Familiarity with the observability space.
* Experience building an enterprise-grade SaaS product.

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)