The role
From Snowflake's own posting.
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.
At the center of the data cloud is the Snowflake Database Engineering team. We are responsible for building the core query engine used to process the massive amounts of diverse data managed by our customers. A core part of the Database Engineering group is the Query Language team which is responsible for designing, developing, and maintaining core SQL features, including advanced analytics, scripting, and the developer experience.
We are seeking a Senior Engineering Manager to own and drive the effort to build core database capabilities to serve agentic workloads. You'll set the technical direction, build and grow the team behind it, and shape how the core engine and the SQL language evolve to serve this new class of workload. It's a rare chance to lead a foundational bet at the exact moment the industry is racing to solve it, with the scale, customer base, and platform to make your work matter to millions of queries a day. If you want your fingerprints on how the world's data platforms adapt to the age of AI agents, this is one of the best seats in the industry.
AS A SENIOR ENGINEERING MANAGER AT SNOWFLAKE, YOU WILL BE EXPECTED TO:
Drive the evolution of core database and SQL capabilities to serve emerging AI and agentic workloads alongside traditional analytics
Lead and grow a team of talented engineers in the design, development, and support of a highly-parallel and fault-tolerant SQL database system
Support engineers in their career development by providing clear feedback and developing engineering leaders
Translate product requirements into engineering work for your team
Collaborate with other local and global teams and leaders across the Engineering and Product Management organizations
Use your strong foundation as a technical leader to reliably deliver on complex projects while keeping the quality bar high
Foster a culture of creativity and innovation while also promoting practical decision-making
OUR IDEAL CANDIDATE WILL HAVE:
10+ years of experience building and operating large-scale systems (distributed systems, databases, or cloud services)
5+ years of experience leading teams to build database system internals (experience leading managers is a strong plus)
Rock solid engineering fundamentals; query processing experience is highly preferred but not required
Exposure to AI, ML, or agent-driven workloads and how they consume data platforms
A track record of recruiting and leading technical teams in a demanding talent market
Proven experience authoring roadmap documents, project plans, and RCAs
Strong problem solving skills and excellent interpersonal communication skills
BONUS POINTS FOR EXPERIENCE WITH THE FOLLOWING:
Background in database internals or large-scale data processing systems, e.g., Hadoop, Spark, etc.
Prior experience running SQL database engineering teams
Proven experience authoring product roadmaps, preparing and reviewing project design and test plan documents, and managing projects with JIRA
WHY BE A SENIOR ENGINEERING MANAGER FOR DATABASE ENGINEERING AT SNOWFLAKE?
This is an excellent opportunity to:
Lead and grow an exceptional team of industry veterans and rising stars building the industry-leading data management system that customers love
Shape how the core database serves the next generation of AI and agentic workloads, a problem the whole industry is racing to solve
Take charge of your own career. This role will push you to grow, both technically and as a team leader
Learn at scale as you and your team deliver essential components of a highly distributed, robust, and secure enterprise SaaS platform that services thousands of customers and more than a billion complex queries every day
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 duty to keep customer information secure and confidential.
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