Staff Software Engineer — Engineering Systems, Continuous Integration

Snowflake; Bellevue (WA); On-site; USD 236,000 - 354,000; Full time

Job summary

Snowflake is seeking a Staff Software Engineer to lead the architectural direction of large-scale CI infrastructure within the Engineering Systems organization. You will design, build, and operate distributed systems for reliable, scalable software delivery and drive improvements in build reliability, test orchestration, and developer productivity across Snowflake’s multi-cloud codebase.

You will mentor engineers, align with product and engineering leadership on roadmaps, and influence

Qualifications

• 7+ years designing and building production software systems.
• Strong leadership across multi-team initiatives.
• Experience operating distributed systems at scale.
• Experience with CI/CD and enterprise-grade CI/CD systems.
• Strong CS fundamentals and systems design knowledge.
• Proficiency in Java, C++, Python, or Go.
• Architectural decisions for scalability, reliability, and security.
• Understanding of developer productivity and SDLC.
• Excellent problem-solving and judgment.
• Strong communication and collaboration across teams.

Responsibilities

• Own the technical direction and architecture of large-scale CI services.
• Design, build, and operate distributed systems for reliable software delivery.
• Lead CI capabilities to improve build reliability and release velocity.
• Partner with engineering leadership to define roadmaps.
• Drive architectural decisions across build systems and tooling.
• Identify bottlenecks and improve engineering efficiency at scale.
• Set high standards for design, code quality, observability, and reliability.
• Mentor engineers through reviews and guidance.
• Lead complex, multi-team projects with cross-functional dependencies.
• Participate in incident response and long-term reliability improvements.
• Evaluate emerging tech to keep Snowflake scalable.

Skills

Distributed systems

CI/CD platforms

Architectural leadership

Mentoring engineers

Programming: Java

Programming: Python

Programming: C++

Communication

Tools

Jenkins

GitHub Actions

Bazel

ArgoCD

Kubernetes

AWS

GCP

Azure

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.

About Snowflake

Snowflake is building the AI Data Cloud, enabling organizations around the world to mobilize data and develop applications at global scale. The Engineering Systems organization builds the infrastructure, tools, and platforms that help Snowflake engineers develop, test, and deliver high-quality software efficiently.

The Continuous Integration team is responsible for the systems that power builds, tests, validation, and developer workflows across Snowflake’s engineering organization. As a Staff Software Engineer on this team, you will help define the technical direction of critical CI infrastructure used by thousands of engineers across a rapidly growing, multi-cloud codebase.

As a Staff Software Engineer, You Will

• Own the technical direction and architecture of large-scale Continuous Integration services and infrastructure.

• Design, build, and operate distributed systems that support reliable, performant, and secure software delivery.

• Lead the development of CI capabilities that improve build reliability, test execution, developer productivity, and release velocity.

• Partner with engineering leadership, product managers, and teams across Snowflake to define quarterly and long-term technical roadmaps.

• Drive architectural decisions across build systems, test orchestration, resource scheduling, workflow execution, and developer tooling.

• Identify systemic bottlenecks in the software delivery lifecycle and develop solutions that improve engineering efficiency at scale.

• Establish high standards for design, code quality, testing, observability, reliability, and operational readiness.

• Mentor engineers through design reviews, code reviews, technical guidance, and collaborative problem-solving.

• Lead complex projects involving multiple teams and cross-functional dependencies.

• Participate in incident response, root-cause analysis, and long-term reliability improvements.

• Evaluate emerging technologies and industry practices to keep Snowflake’s developer platform scalable and effective.

Our Ideal Staff Software Engineer Will Have

• 7+ years of industry experience designing and building production software systems.

• A track record of technical leadership across complex, multi-team engineering initiatives.

• Deep experience designing and operating distributed systems at scale.

• Experience building or significantly evolving enterprise-grade Continuous Integration or Continuous Delivery systems.

• Strong computer science fundamentals, including data structures, algorithms, distributed systems, and systems design.

• Proficiency in one or more programming languages such as Java, C++, Python, or Go.

• Experience making architectural decisions involving scalability, reliability, performance, security, and maintainability.

• A strong understanding of developer productivity and the software development lifecycle.

• Excellent problem-solving skills and sound technical judgment.

• Strong written and verbal communication skills, with the ability to explain complex technical concepts clearly.

• A collaborative mindset and a demonstrated ability to mentor and influence engineers across teams.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience with CI/CD and build systems such as Jenkins, GitHub Actions, Bazel, ArgoCD, or comparable platforms.

• Experience with build optimization, caching, parallel execution, incremental builds, or distributed test scheduling.

• Experience designing multi-tenant systems with strong isolation, reliability, performance, and security requirements.

• Experience with Kubernetes, containers, or public cloud platforms such as AWS, Azure, or GCP.

• Experience operating large-scale developer platforms or engineering infrastructure.

• Experience with observability, monitoring, alerting, and production operations.

• Experience authoring technical roadmaps, architecture documents, project plans, postmortems, and root-cause analyses.

• Experience working with data systems, distributed storage, or cloud-based services.

• A history of improving engineering practices and multiplying the effectiveness of teams.

Why Engineering Systems at Snowflake?

• Build infrastructure that thousands of Snowflake engineers rely on every day.

• Solve challenging distributed systems and developer productivity problems at significant scale.

• Help improve the speed, reliability, and quality of software delivery across Snowflake.

• Work with experienced engineers across a multi-cloud data platform.

• Influence the technical direction of critical engineering infrastructure.

• Grow your impact through architecture, mentorship, and cross-team technical leadership.

Compensation

Snowflake is committed to pay equity and transparency. Actual compensation will be determined based on factors including relevant experience, skills, location, and internal equity.

For the US-Market 1 location band, the compensation range for this role is:

• Base salary: $236,000-$354,000 USD

• Target bonus: 15%

• Total target compensation: $271,400-$407,100 USD

• Equity: Eligible for an RSU grant in addition to base salary and bonus

Snowflake also offers a comprehensive benefits package, including medical, dental, vision, 401(k), ESPP, paid time off, parental leave, disability coverage, and company-paid life insurance.

Every Snowflake employee is expected to follow the company’s confidentiality and security standards for handling sensitive data. Snowflake employees must abide by the company’s data security plan as an essential part of their duties. It is every employee’s responsibility to keep customer information secure and confidential.

Snowflake is an equal opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability, veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by applicable law.

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