Principal Software Engineer; -Gen Data Transformations

Responsibilities

• We are hiring a Principal Engineer II to architect the core data processing engine of the Snowflake Data & AI Cloud
• At Snowflake, we believe that high-performance, unified compute fabrics are the indispensable building blocks for Agentic AI
• Autonomous agents require more than just models; they require a high-fidelity, low-latency state layer to reason, act, and persist context
• This role is not about building traditional data processing pipelines or legacy ETL/ELT workflows; it is about building the core distributed systems and atomic primitives that make those agentic workflows possible
• In this role, you will be a lead architect of the Snowflake Data Transformation Engine
• You will design and implement the fundamental transformations infrastructure - Stateful Stream Processing Engines, Incremental View Maintenance Kernels, Materialization Internals, and the Distributed Orchestration Fabric
• Our solid foundation supporting the seamless transition for enterprises between batch and streaming through Dynamic Tables is the starting point
• You are building the systems that allow both data engineers and autonomous agents to process exabytes of data with sub-second state propagation and absolute transactional integrity across the Snowflake Data Cloud
• As a Principal Engineer, you will own the technical vision for the data transformation processing layer
• Your work on streaming internals and declarative state management will be the primary foundation for the next generation of cognitive computing, enabling Snowflake Cortex and our agentic ecosystem to operate on live, governed data at scale while putting the control of data freshness directly in the hands of our customers
• Architect Foundation Primitives for Agentic AI:
  Design the internal engines for Dynamic Tables, Streams, and Tasks, ensuring the underlying processing kernels provide the elastic, serverless foundation required for real-time agentic reasoning
• Build the Autonomic Processing Fabric:
  Develop the low-level infrastructure for automated triggers and incremental processing logic, allowing the Snowflake engine to proactively manage, optimize, and heal data states without manual intervention
• Innovate in System Internals:
  Drive the long-term roadmap for stateful streaming, moving the industry toward a freshness-first system architecture where data is always ready for model consumption
• Displace Legacy Orchestration Layers:
  Identify how to build superior, native processing capabilities directly within the Snowflake kernel to eliminate the complexity of external schedulers, simplifying the architectural scaffolding for our customers
• Engineer for Global Scale and Governance:
  Design and implement highly reliable, multi-tenant system internals that handle exabytes of data while maintaining Snowflake’s industry-leading standards for resource isolation, security, and distributed consistency
• Drive Technical Strategy for the AI Era:
  Provide technical leadership to senior management and multiple departments, influencing how Snowflake’s core compute fabric evolves to support the burgeoning Model Context Protocol (MCP) and autonomous agent ecosystems
• Drive Customer Success through Direct Engagement:
  Partner with Snowflake’s most strategic customers and field engineering teams to translate massive-scale architectural challenges into core engine requirements, ensuring our processing primitives meet the real-world demands of the global Data Cloud
• Ensure Operational Excellence:
  Take responsibility for the operational readiness of the services, meeting the strict commitments to our customers regarding reliability, availability, and performance

• Comprehensive health insurance plans
• Health savings accounts
• Robust retirement plans
• Life and disability insurance
• Weekly online lunch and learns
• Virtual workout classes
• Ergonomic work-from-home equipment
• On-demand mental health and wellness programs
• Fertility benefits and family planning resources
• Generous time-off and various leave plans
• Onsite and Remote Work
• Employee discounts and pre-tax selections
• New hire equity + Employee Stock Purchase Plan (ESPP)
• Quarterly bonus or commission program

• 14+ years of industry…