Staff Softare Engineer, Cortex AI Infrastructure

Snowflake2 days ago

Location

US-CA-Menlo Park

Type

Full Time

Salary

USD 236,000 – 339,250

Level

Staff

Role

Staff Software Engineer

Posted

Apr 27, 2026

Full TimeStaff

The role

Summary

Snowflake is seeking a Staff Software Engineer for their Cortex AI Infrastructure team, focusing on building high-performance backend systems that power enterprise AI capabilities. The ideal candidate will architect scalable AI runtime environments, design context engineering infrastructure, and optimize AI workflows for performance and efficiency.

What you'll do

Architect Agentic Runtimes: Build and scale orchestration engines for complex agentic workflows, ensuring low-latency tool execution and robust state management

Scale Context Engineering Infrastructure: Design high-performance systems for Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG), including vector database integration, scalable search indexing, query processing, and semantic caching

Develop Evaluation Engine: Create automated infrastructure for massive-scale golden set simulations, error analysis pipelines, and experimental 'hillclimbing' experiments

Productionize AI Workflows: Collaborate with modeling teams to transform raw LLM capabilities into hardened, multi-tenant microservices with strict guardrails and observability

Performance Optimization: Direct infrastructure strategy for model routing, prompt caching, and token optimization to ensure industry-leading AI feature efficiency

What we look for

Technical

Programming LanguagesDeep proficiency in Go or Java for systems, and Python for AI orchestration

Systems ArchitectureStrong understanding of database internals, distributed state management, and cloud-native architecture (Kubernetes, FoundationDB)

AI InfrastructureExpertise in vector indices, agent platforms, and scalable data pipeline construction

Education

Academic BackgroundBachelor's degree in Computer Science or related technical field

Experience

Distributed Systems5+ years experience building distributed systems, high-throughput APIs, or backend infrastructure for AI/ML products

Skills

Required skills

Distributed SystemsExpertise in building scalable, high-performance backend infrastructure

AI Workflow EngineeringAbility to design and implement complex AI orchestration systems

Nice to have

Query OptimizationExperience with SQL engine internals and query performance tuning

Multi-Tenant SystemsBackground in designing systems handling sensitive enterprise data at scale

Compensation & benefits

Salary

USD 236,000 – 339,250 (annual)

Stock options

Available

Benefits

Innovative Work Environment

Opportunity to work on cutting-edge AI infrastructure and redefine enterprise technology

Fast-Growing Company

Join a rapidly scaling tech company at the forefront of cloud computing and AI

Interview process

1
Initial Screening — Preliminary review of resume and background
2
Technical Interview — In-depth discussion of distributed systems and AI infrastructure expertise
3
System Design Challenge — Evaluate candidate's ability to architect scalable AI workflows
4
Team Fit Interview — Assessment of alignment with Snowflake's innovative and experimental culture