Snowflake Data Engineer

Cognizant; Sydney; On-site; AUD 150,000 - 210,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Career development opportunities

Training and certifications

Competitive compensation and wellness

Job summary

Cognizant is seeking an experienced Snowflake Data Engineer to design, build, optimize, and support scalable cloud data solutions on the Snowflake platform. You will ingest, transform, model, and secure data assets while collaborating with architects, analysts, and stakeholders to deliver governed, cost-effective data products.

The role emphasizes data ingestion, performance tuning, DR/RC, and CI/CD pipelines, with a focus on Snowpipe-based pipelines and robust data quality controls.

Qualifications

• 6–10 years in data engineering, ETL/ELT, data warehousing, or analytics engineering, with Snowflake experience.
• Strong Snowflake knowledge: architecture, micro-partitions, stages, time travel, zero-copy cloning, data sharing.
• Advanced SQL with performance tuning and data quality validation.

Responsibilities

• Design, build, and maintain scalable Snowflake data pipelines (batch and near real-time).
• Implement Snowpipe/Snowpipe Streaming for automated ingestion, including stages, formats, notifications, error handling, monitoring.

Skills

Snowflake

SQL

Python

Git-based dev

CI/CD

Cloud platforms

Data warehousing

RBAC & security

Snowpipe

Stakeholder mgmt

Education

SnowPro Core Certification

Tools

Snowflake

Snowpark

Snowpipe

Airflow

dbt

Azure Data Factory

Informatica

Matillion

Git

Job description

Cognizant (NASDAQ: CTSH) is a leading provider of information technology, consulting, and business process services, dedicated to helping the world's leading companies build stronger businesses. Headquartered in Teaneck, New Jersey (U.S.), Cognizant combines a passion for client satisfaction, technology innovation, deep industry and business process expertise, and a global, collaborative workforce that embodies the future of work. Cognizant is a member of the NASDAQ-100, the S&P 500, the Forbes Global 2000, and the Fortune 500 and is ranked among the top performing and fastest growing companies in the world.

Our Culture:

Your passion, integrity and experience are integral to Cognizant's success. You will join a dynamic and expanding global leader in IT and Business consultancy where you will be valued for who you are. We take pride in our partnership with our clients, so your ability to add value and provide exceptional service to our clients is fundamental to your success. In return, you will be presented with opportunities to develop your career and collaborate with talented colleagues in a supportive, diverse environment.

At Cognizant we recognize that companies that are open and welcoming to a multi-culturally diverse workforce will thrive with fresh perspectives and collaborative knowledge. Cognizant focuses on promoting & increasing gender diversity and providing a workplace which encourages great participation and an equal playing field, where merit and accomplishment are the only criteria for success.

Job Summary:

We are seeking an experienced Snowflake Data Engineer to design, build, optimize, and support scalable cloud data solutions on the Snowflake platform. The ideal candidate will have strong hands‑on expertise in data ingestion, transformation, modelling, performance tuning, security, and production support, with proven experience implementing Snowpipe‑based pipelines. The role requires close collaboration with architects, analysts, developers, product owners, and business stakeholders to deliver secure, governed, reliable, and cost‑effective data products.

Key Responsibilities:

• Design, develop, and maintain scalable batch and near‑real‑time data pipelines on Snowflake.
• Implement automated data ingestion using Snowpipe and Snowpipe Streaming, including internal and external stages, file formats, cloud event notifications, error handling, monitoring, and replay mechanisms.
• Build robust ELT solutions using advanced SQL, Snowpark, stored procedures, user‑defined functions, streams, tasks, and dynamic tables.
• Design dimensional, normalized, and Data Vault models to support analytics, reporting, and downstream applications.
• Integrate data from databases, files, APIs, SaaS platforms, event streams, and cloud storage into Snowflake.
• Optimize SQL queries, virtual warehouses, clustering, caching, storage, and workload management to improve performance and control cost.
• Implement data quality checks, reconciliation controls, audit frameworks, metadata management, lineage, and operational monitoring.
• Configure secure data access using role‑based access control, masking policies, row access policies, secure views, encryption, and network policies.
• Support secure data sharing, zero‑copy cloning, Time Travel, fail‑safe, replication, and disaster‑recovery requirements.
• Develop and maintain CI/CD pipelines, automated tests, deployment scripts, and environment‑management practices for Snowflake changes.
• Troubleshoot ingestion failures, data defects, performance bottlenecks, and production incidents across environments.
• Create solution designs, data mappings, technical specifications, operational runbooks, and knowledge‑transfer documentation.
• Perform code and design reviews, enforce development standards, and mentor junior engineers.
• Collaborate with cross‑functional teams to translate business requirements into scalable and maintainable data solutions.

Required Skills and Experience:

• 6–10 years of overall experience in data engineering, ETL/ELT development, data warehousing, or analytics engineering, including substantial hands‑on Snowflake experience.
• Strong understanding of Snowflake architecture, virtual warehouses, databases, schemas, micro‑partitions, stages, file formats, data sharing, zero‑copy cloning, Time Travel, and fail‑safe.
• Advanced SQL skills, including complex transformations, stored procedures, query profiling, performance tuning, and data‑quality validation.
• Hands‑on experience with Snowpipe and Snowpipe Streaming for automated, scalable data ingestion, including cloud event integration, monitoring, failure handling, and performance optimization.
• Experience developing Snowflake pipelines using streams, tasks, dynamic tables, stored procedures, user‑defined functions, and connectors.
• Programming experience in Python and practical knowledge of Snowpark for data processing and reusable framework development.
• Experience integrating Snowflake with cloud storage and services on Azure, AWS, or Google Cloud.
• Strong knowledge of dimensional modelling, data warehousing concepts, slowly changing dimensions, and data lake or lakehouse integration patterns.
• Experience implementing RBAC, encryption, masking, row‑level security, tagging, lineage, and audit controls.
• Experience with Git‑based development, automated testing, CI/CD pipelines, infrastructure‑as‑code concepts, and Agile delivery practices.
• SnowPro Core certification is required; SnowPro Advanced: Data Engineer certification is strongly preferred.
• Strong analytical, debugging, documentation, communication, and stakeholder‑management skills.

Preferred Qualifications:

• Experience with cloud platforms such as Azure, AWS, or Google Cloud, including storage, identity, networking, and event services.
• Experience with orchestration and transformation tools such as Airflow, dbt, Azure Data Factory, Informatica, Matillion, or equivalent platforms.
• Knowledge of Kafka or other streaming and event‑driven integration technologies.
• Experience with REST APIs, containerization, DevOps practices, and enterprise integration patterns.
• Familiarity with data cataloguing, observability, master data management, and governance platforms.
• Experience in regulated domains such as banking, financial services, insurance, healthcare, or telecommunications.
• SnowPro Advanced: Data Engineer or relevant cloud data engineering certification.

Role Expectations:

• Own data solution delivery from requirements analysis and detailed design through deployment and production support.
• Balance delivery speed with enterprise standards for security, data quality, scalability, reliability, and maintainability.
• Communicate technical concepts clearly to engineering teams and non‑technical stakeholders.
• Work independently while contributing effectively within cross‑functional and geographically distributed teams.
• Stay current with Snowflake platform enhancements and recommend relevant capabilities and engineering practices for adoption.

Benefits:

Joining Cognizant will give you the opportunity to learn and collaborate with some of the most talented people in the industry, while having your finger on the pulse of emerging industry trends and working on the cutting edge of technology in your field of expertise.

We recognize that our people perform at their best when they feel valued as significant contributors and that is why at Cognizant, taking care of our employees is a priority:

You can pursue innovative career tracks and opportunities here

You can enhance your professional development through education and dedicated training

We’ll give you the skills you need to keep pace with the changing workplace while our compensation, benefits and wellness packages help you stay healthy and plan for the future.