Principal Software Engineer - Metadata

Snowflake; United Kingdom; On-site; GBP 85,000 - 120,000; Full time

Job summary

A leading cloud data platform company is seeking a Principal Software Engineer to build and enhance their metadata services. The role requires over 14 years of experience with large-scale systems, expertise in software engineering, and strong programming skills. Responsibilities include designing a fault-tolerant database system and ensuring service performance. An ideal candidate will have a BS in Computer Science, with a Masters or PhD preferred.

Qualifications

• 14+ years industry experience designing large-scale systems.
• Strong computer science fundamentals including data structures, algorithms, and distributed systems.
• Knowledge of database internals is a big plus.

Responsibilities

• Solve real business needs by applying software engineering skills.
• Create architecture, influence product roadmap, and take ownership of projects.
• Design a highly-parallel and fault-tolerant database system.
• Implement core foundational features and analyze performance bottlenecks.
• Ensure operational readiness of services for customers.

Skills

Software engineering and analytical problem solving

Architecture and design influence

Database system design and support

Performance and scalability analysis

Systems programming (multi-threading, concurrency)

Fluency in Java or similar languages

Creative solutions to complex problems

Ability to collaborate across teams

Education

BS in Computer Science

Masters or PhD Preferred

Job description

Snowflake is about empowering enterprises to achieve their full potential — and people too. With a culture that’s all in on impact, innovation, and collaboration, Snowflake is the sweet spot for building big, moving fast, and taking technology — and careers — to the next level.

About the job

Build the future of the AI Data Cloud. Join the Snowflake team.

Snowflake Metadata team builds a scalable metadata system that allows Snowflake to query across petabyte-scale data efficiently. The team develops distributed and multi-layered caches, transaction frameworks, declarative entity management, time travel and other core Snowflake services. It is also responsible for providing the foundation of global features like cross-region replication, data sharing, and data marketplace.

AS A PRINCIPAL SOFTWARE ENGINEER - METADATA, YOU WILL:

• Solve real business needs at large scale by applying your software engineering and analytical problem solving skills.
• Create architecture and design, influence our product roadmap, and take ownership and responsibility over new projects.
• Design, develop, and support a highly-parallel and fault‑tolerant database system including a decentralized caching system of terabytes of metadata with an ever‑growing request rate.
• Design and implement core foundational features including transactions, DDL/DML logs, metadata API as well as advanced features built on top of the metadata, such as declarative entity management and integrations to support developer toolchains.
• Analyze and understand performance and scalability bottlenecks in the system and solve them.
• Ensure operational readiness of the services and meet the commitments to our customers regarding availability and performance.

OUR IDEAL PRINCIPAL SOFTWARE ENGINEER WILL HAVE:

• 14+ years industry experience designing, building and supporting large‑scale systems in production.
• Strong computer science fundamentals including data structures, algorithms, and distributed systems.
• Sharp original thinking to make the right choices and guide teams.
• Systems programming skills including multi‑threading, concurrency, caching, etc. Fluency in Java or other similar procedural object‑oriented language is preferred.
• Track record of identifying and implementing creative solutions to complex problems.
• Knowledge of database internals is a big plus.
• Ability to work effectively across engineering teams in multiple locations.
• BS in Computer Science; Masters or PhD Preferred.

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