Software Engineer - Openflow

Snowflake; Menlo Park (CA); On-site; USD 160,000 - 230,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Medical, dental, vision insurance

401(k) retirement plan

Paid holidays

Paid time off

Parental leave

Employee assistance program

Job summary

Snowflake is seeking a Software Engineer for the Openflow team to design and implement real-time, bi-directional data movement within a cloud-native platform. You will contribute to distributed systems and workflows across Snowflake and external environments, delivering scalable services with strong engineering discipline.

The role requires a solid CS foundation, production experience with distributed systems, and proficiency in Java or similar languages.

Qualifications

• BS in Computer Science or related field.
• Experience building and operating backend or platform services.
• Practical knowledge of distributed systems concepts and concurrency.
• Experience with cloud-native services and containers (AWS/Azure/GCP).
• Proficiency in Java or similar OO language; Scala/Go/C++ acceptable.

Responsibilities

• Design and implement features in Openflow’s control plane and data plane for real-time, bi-directional data movement.
• Contribute to distributed systems for batch and streaming workloads with high throughput and low latency.
• Deliver small projects end-to-end from design to rollout with guidance from senior engineers.
• Operate and support built components including monitoring, on-call, and incident response.
• Follow solid engineering practices: clean code, testing, observability, security, documentation.
• Collaborate across engineering, product, and design to clarify requirements and plan milestones.
• Analyze and improve performance, scalability, and reliability using profiling and metrics.
• Contribute to code reviews, design discussions, and knowledge sharing.

Skills

Distributed systems

Java (or similar OO language)

Cloud-native services

Strong CS fundamentals

Large codebases

Collaboration & communication

Education

BS in Computer Science or related field

Tools

Docker

Kubernetes

CI/CD pipelines

Monitoring stacks

Job description

At Snowflake, we are powering the era of the agentic enterprise. To usher in this new era, we seek AI-native thinkers across every function who are energized by the opportunity to reinvent how they work. You don’t just use tools; you possess an innate curiosity, treating AI as a high-trust collaborator that is core to how you solve problems and accelerate your impact. We look for low-ego individuals who thrive in dynamic and fast-moving environments and move with an experimental mindset — who rapidly test emerging capabilities to discover simpler, more powerful ways to deliver results. At Snowflake, your role isn't just to execute a function, but to help redefine the future of how work gets done.

The Snowflake Openflow team is building Snowflake’s next-generation open, extensible, and secure data integration platform for real-time, scalable, bi-directional data movement, powered by Apache NiFi. We enable customers to move structured and multi-modal unstructured data across any source and any sink—Snowflake and non-Snowflake alike—through a single, cloud-native platform that supports batch and streaming, and flexible runtimes spanning Snowflake-managed (SPCS) and Bring Your Own Cloud (BYOC) data planes.

Our team includes original creators and core contributors to Apache NiFi and industry leaders in data integration, now focused on bringing NiFi’s proven strengths—visual flows, rich connectors, and powerful routing—to Snowflake’s AI Data Cloud at enterprise scale. We work end to end across high-performance runtimes, and curated connectors, partnering closely with product, field, and open-source communities to help customers continuously ingest data, power AI and analytics workloads, and make smarter decisions in real time.

As a Software Engineer on the Snowflake Openflow team, you will:

• Design and implement features in Openflow’s control plane and data plane, contributing to reliable, scalable, and secure services that power real-time, bi-directional data movement for our customers.
• Contribute to distributed systems for batch and streaming workloads, enabling high-throughput, low-latency data pipelines across Snowflake and non-Snowflake environments, for both structured and multi-modal unstructured data.
• Design, scope, and deliver small projects end to end - from requirements clarification and technical design through implementation, testing, rollout, and follow-up improvements - with guidance from senior engineers. Contribute to medium-sized projects with appropriate support.
• Operate and support the components you build, including monitoring, on‑call participation, incident response, and contributing to post‑incident reviews and reliability improvements.
• Apply solid engineering practices in your area, including clean code, robust testing, observability, security, and documentation, to keep our platform easy to operate and evolve.
• Collaborate closely with peers across engineering, product, and design to clarify requirements, create technical plans, break work into milestones, and communicate progress and risks.
• Analyze and improve performance, scalability, and reliability of existing services and pipelines, using metrics, profiling, and experimentation to guide optimizations.
• Contribute to code reviews, design discussions, and team knowledge sharing, including mentoring interns or onboarding newer engineers.
• Contribute to shared platform tooling and patterns, helping make it easier for Openflow teams to build, deploy, and operate high‑quality connectors and runtimes.

Our ideal Software Engineer will have:

• 2+ years of industry experience building and operating backend or platform services, including hands‑on work with distributed systems.
• Strong computer science fundamentals, including algorithms, data structures, and systems design, with the ability to apply them pragmatically in production code.
• Practical experience with distributed systems concepts such as concurrency, replication, partitioning, streaming, and fault tolerance, and how they impact correctness, performance, and operability.
• Solid understanding of operating systems and networking basics, including multithreading, memory management, storage, and debugging performance and scale issues.
• Proficiency in Java or a similar object‑oriented language, such as Scala, Go, or C++, and experience working in large, shared codebases.
• Experience building cloud‑native services on at least one major cloud provider, such as AWS, Azure, or GCP, using containers, CI/CD, and modern monitoring and logging stacks.
• A track record of delivering high‑quality, maintainable solutions to non‑trivial engineering problems, balancing speed with long‑term reliability and simplicity.
• Strong collaboration and communication skills, with the ability to work effectively with teammates across locations, give and receive feedback, and explain technical trade‑offs clearly.
• BS in Computer Science or a related field, or equivalent practical experience building and shipping distributed systems.
• Bonus: Experience with data integration, observability, or streaming/flow technologies such as Apache NiFi, Kafka, Flink, or Airflow, or with analytics/data platforms.

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.

The following represents the expected range of compensation for this role:

• The estimated base salary range for this role is $160,000 - $230,000.
• Additionally, this role is eligible to participate in Snowflake’s bonus and equity plan.

• Additionally, this role is eligible for a competitive benefits package that includes: medical, dental, vision, life, and disability insurance; 401(k) retirement plan; flexible spending & health savings account; at least 12 paid holidays; paid time off; parental leave; employee assistance program; and other company benefits.