Snowflake COE Lead

EXL Talent Acquisition Team; Pune District; On-site; INR 4,000,000 - 8,000,000; Full time

Job summary

EXL Talent Acquisition Team in Pune is seeking an accomplished Snowflake-focused leader to build and scale a CoE, shaping architecture, governance, and FinOps across enterprise programs.

You will own end-to-end Snowflake architecture, drive data platform strategies, mentor engineers, and collaborate with clients on transformation roadmaps, while promoting DataOps, DevSecOps, and modern data stack practices.

Qualifications

• 15+ years overall experience in data engineering / analytics / data platform roles.
• 7+ years in Snowflake with strong architecture and delivery experience.
• Proven leadership of CoE / practice / large delivery teams.
• Deep expertise in Snowflake features (Snowpipe, Streams & Tasks, Dynamic Tables, Secure Sharing).
• Strong experience with ELT/ETL pipelines and orchestration tools (ADF, Airflow, dbt, Matillion, Informatica).

Responsibilities

• Lead Snowflake CoE leadership & strategy across architecture, governance, and FinOps.
• Own end-to-end Snowflake architecture for enterprise programs.
• Mentor architects and engineers; drive delivery governance and KPIs.
• Partner with clients to define data strategies and transformation roadmaps.
• Promote best practices in coding, modelling, and governance.

Skills

Snowflake architecture

Data modelling

Performance tuning

Data governance

ETL/ELT pipelines

Cloud platforms

CoE leadership

Solution design

dbt/modern data stack

DataOps/DevSecOps

Tools

dbt

Airflow

Matillion

ADF

Informatica

Spark

Job description

Key Responsibilities

1. COE Leadership & Strategy

• Build and scale Snowflake CoE capabilities (architecture, engineering, governance, FinOps).
• Define reference architectures, reusable assets, frameworks, and accelerators.
• Drive capability development, hiring strategy, and upskilling initiatives.
• Establish standards for delivery quality, security, and performance.

2. Solution Architecture & Advisory

• Own end-to-end Snowflake architecture for enterprise-scale programs.
• Translate business goals into data platform strategies (lakehouse / data warehouse / modern data stack).
• Design solutions across:
  • Data ingestion, transformation, and orchestration
  • Data modelling (Dimensional, Data Vault, Medallion/Lakehouse architectures)
  • Data consumption (BI, APIs, AI/ML integration)
• Lead architecture governance and design reviews.

3. Delivery Leadership & Governance

• Lead large-scale implementations and transformations on Snowflake.
• Define and track delivery KPIs, cost optimisation (FinOps), and performance metrics.
• Ensure adoption of CI/CD, DataOps, and DevSecOps practices.
• Act as escalation point for complex technical challenges.

4. Client Engagement & Consulting

• Partner with clients to define data strategies, roadmaps, and transformation journeys.
• Lead solution workshops, proposals, and executive discussions.
• Provide thought leadership in Snowflake, Data Engineering, and Analytics.
• Drive account growth through cross‑selling and innovation‑led proposals.

5. Engineering Excellence & Mentorship

• Mentor architects and engineers across projects.
• Build strong internal communities around:
  • Snowflake
  • dbt / modern data stack
  • Cloud-native data engineering
• Promote best practices in coding, modelling, and governance.

Must Have Skills & Experience

• 15+ years overall experience in data engineering / analytics / data platform roles.
• 7+ years in Snowflake with strong architecture + delivery experience.
• Proven experience in leading CoE / practice / large delivery teams.
• Deep expertise in:
  • Snowflake (Snowpipe, Streams & Tasks, Dynamic Tables, Secure Sharing)
  • Data modelling (Dimensional / Data Vault / Lakehouse)
  • Performance tuning & cost optimisation strategies
  • Data governance & security (RBAC, masking, row/column security)
• Strong experience in ELT/ETL pipelines and orchestration tools (ADF, Airflow, dbt, Matillion, Informatica)
• Hands‑on experience in client‑facing consulting roles and solution design.

Good to Have

• Experience on Azure / AWS / GCP ecosystems
• Exposure to GenAI / AI integration with data platforms
• Experience in domain analytics (Insurance, BFSI, Healthcare)
• Familiarity with modern data stack tools (dbt, Python frameworks, Spark)