Staff/Principal AI Software Engineer - Snowflake CoWork

Fdetimes; Menlo Park (CA); On-site; USD 180,000 - 260,000; Full time

Job summary

Snowflake is redefining how enterprises interact with data through AI-powered CoWork. As Principal AI Engineer, you will set the technical direction for multi-agent systems, self-correcting NL-to-SQL engines, and robust tool-use frameworks at scale.

You will partner with Product and Engineering to align AI capabilities with business goals, ensuring high reliability and performance across Fortune 500 deployments.

Qualifications

• 7+ years in software engineering with 2+ years leading LLM deployments at scale.
• BS/MS/PhD in CS, AI, or related field as stated in the ad.
• Deep hands-on understanding of LLM orchestration and prompt optimization.

Responsibilities

• Define long-term technical vision for multi-agent systems and tool-use frameworks.
• Build automated, scalable evaluation and reliability for LLM performance.
• Bridge Research and Production teams to scale latest LLM breakthroughs.
• Design extensible context engineering patterns and API integrations.
• Mentor senior engineers and lead cross-functional project teams.

Skills

LLM orchestration

Prompt optimization

Semantic modeling

Guardrails for non-deterministic AI

Multi-agent systems design

NL-to-SQL

Infrastructure for AI systems

Technical leadership

Education

Bachelor’s degree in CS/AI or related field

Master’s or PhD in related field

Tools

SQL

Retrieval Systems

Semantic Layers

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 Cortex CoWork team is defining the future of AI for enterprise data. Our mission is to transform how the world’s largest enterprises interact with their data through flagship products like Snowflake (CoWork) Intelligence.

As a Principal AI Engineer, you will be a technical North Star for our AI initiatives. You won't just execute on a roadmap; you will help define it. You will tackle the most complex, "frontier" problems in agentic reasoning, NL-to-SQL, and enterprise-scale RAG, ensuring our AI products are not only innovative but fundamentally reliable and scalable for the Fortune 500.

What you will do in this role

• Technical Strategy & Architecture: Define the long-term technical vision for Snowflake Intelligence. Lead the architectural design of multi-agent systems, complex tool-use frameworks, and self-correcting NL-to-SQL engines.
• Drive Industry-Leading Reliability: Move beyond simple evals to build world-class, automated "hill-climbing" infrastructure. You will establish the methodology for how Snowflake measures and guarantees LLM performance across diverse customer schemas.
• Cross-Functional Influence: Partner with Product and Engineering leadership to align AI capabilities with business goals. You will bridge the gap between Research (modeling) and Production (infra), ensuring the latest LLM breakthroughs are viable at Snowflake scale.
• Ecosystem Thinking: Design extensible "context engineering" patterns—including advanced function calling and semantic layer integration that can be leveraged by other Snowflake teams and external developers.
• Technical Leadership & Mentorship: Act as a force multiplier. You will mentor Staff and Senior engineers, lead cross-functional "strike teams" on high-stakes projects, and foster a culture of technical excellence and rapid experimentation.

Requirements

• Experience: 7+ years of software engineering experience, with 2+ years specifically leading the deployment of LLM-based applications at massive scale.
• Education: Bachelor’s, Master’s, or PhD in Computer Science, AI, or a related field.
• Expertise: Deep, "under-the-hood" understanding of LLM orchestration. You should be an expert in prompt optimization, semantic modeling, and building robust guardrails for non-deterministic systems.
• Systems Thinking: Proven track record of designing complex systems that integrate AI with traditional data stacks (SQL, Retrieval Systems, Semantic Layers).
• Communication: Exceptional ability to communicate complex technical trade-offs to both executive leadership and ICs. You are as comfortable in a design doc as you are in a boardroom.
• Proven Impact: You have previously held a "Principal" or equivalent high-level IC role, or have led the technical launch of a major AI product used by millions.Staff/Principal AI Software Engineer - Snowflake CoWork

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