Snowflake COE Lead

EXL; Pune District; On-site; INR 2,500,000 - 4,200,000; Full time

Job summary

EXL is seeking a senior Snowflake architect to lead a Center of Excellence, scale Snowflake capabilities, and drive enterprise data platform strategies. You will partner with clients on roadmaps, oversee architecture governance, and mentor teams across delivery programs.

The role focuses on data ingestion, modelling, and analytics within large-scale data projects, requiring hands-on expertise and strong leadership in a client-facing setting.

Qualifications

• 15+ years experience in data engineering/analytics roles (from the ad)
• Snowflake expertise with strong architecture and delivery experience (from the ad)
• Proven experience leading CoE/practice teams (from the ad)
• Hands-on experience with data engineering tools and governance practices (from the ad)
• Client-facing consulting experience is required (from the ad)
• Exposure to modern data stack tools is mentioned (from the ad)
• Experience with Azure/AWS/GCP ecosystems is listed as nice-to-have (from the ad)

Responsibilities

• Lead Snowflake CoE leadership & strategy, define reference architectures and accelerators.
• Own end-to-end Snowflake architecture for large programs and translate business goals into data platform strategies.
• Deliver governance, CI/CD, DataOps, and DevSecOps practices across projects.
• Engage clients, define data strategies, roadmaps, and transformation journeys.
• Mentor architects and engineers, foster communities around Snowflake and the modern data stack.

Skills

Snowflake architecture

CoE leadership

Data modelling

Performance tuning

Cost optimisation

Data governance & security

Client-facing consulting

Tools

ADF

Airflow

dbt

Matillion

Informatica

Job description

Key Responsibilities

1. 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. 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: o Data ingestion, transformation, and orchestration o Data modelling (Dimensional, Data Vault, Medallion/Lakehouse architectures) o Data consumption (BI, APIs, AI/ML integration) • Lead architecture governance and design reviews.
3. 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. 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. 5. Engineering Excellence & Mentorship • Mentor architects and engineers across projects. • Build strong internal communities around: o Snowflake o dbt / modern data stack o 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: o Snowflake (Snowpipe, Streams & Tasks, Dynamic Tables, Secure Sharing) o Data modelling (Dimensional / Data Vault / Lakehouse) o Performance tuning & cost optimisation strategies o 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)