Senior Principal Forward Deployed Engineer, Frontier Engineering

Snowflake

. Serve as senior technical authority and architectural leader for Snowflake’s most strategic customer accounts .

Posted 10/16/2026full-timeMenlo Park • California • United StatesSenior💰 $304,000 - $437,000 per yearWebsite

Core Competencies

Role fit

Core Competencies

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Demonstrates extensive expertise in production AI architectures and the ability to influence technical strategy across multiple enterprise accounts. Proven track record in mentoring engineering teams and establishing reusable frameworks that drive successful AI implementations.

Highest-signal resume keywords

15+ Years Of Software Engineering ExperienceProduction AI Architectures ExpertiseTechnical Strategy DevelopmentCross-Organizational Technical LeadershipTechnical Communication Skills

ATS Keywords

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Applicant Tracking System Keywords

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Hard Skills

Production Code WritingAI/ML Systems DevelopmentEvaluation FrameworksSecurity Standards DefinitionSystems ThinkingTechnical ReviewArchitectural SteeringMulti-Step Agentic SystemsRAG PipelinesOpen-Source Contributions

Soft Skills

Influencing Without AuthorityMentoring EngineersBuilding Peer-Level RelationshipsTechnical CommunicationAligning Organizations

Tools & Technologies

Cortex AISnowparkEnterprise Data Infrastructure Platforms

Industry Keywords

AI EngagementsEnterprise ScaleTechnical AdvisorReusable PlatformsCross-Functional Teams

About the role

Key responsibilities & impact

Serve as senior technical authority and architectural leader for Snowflake’s most strategic customer accounts
Build peer-level relationships with CTOs, VPs of Engineering, chief architects, and heads of data and AI
Lead architectural steering, technical reviews, executive strategy alignment, and multi-year AI roadmaps
Set technical strategy, architecture, and execution models across multiple complex AI engagements
Own end-to-end outcomes and arbitrate difficult cross-system tradeoffs
Establish reusable patterns that scale across customers, teams, and business units
Translate recurring customer needs and deployment learnings into product requirements
Partner with Product and Engineering leaders to influence Snowflake product direction
Write production code and working prototypes for critical or ambiguous customer-program components
Review designs and code and set the engineering bar
Define standards for AI evaluation, observability, reliability, security, guardrails, and responsible deployment
Turn ambiguous customer goals into clear, testable measures and ensure consistent application across engagements
Mentor Principal, Staff, and Senior engineers and develop technical leads
Raise engineering standards and lead through influence across Engineering, Product, Sales, and other cross-functional teams
Spend at least 25% of time onsite working with customers

Requirements

What you’ll need

15+ years of software engineering experience
Sustained track record of building and shipping production AI/ML or agentic systems at enterprise scale
Experience serving as a trusted technical advisor to CTOs and executive engineering leaders at large enterprises
Experience setting technical direction across multiple strategic accounts or enterprise programs
Success converting client and field delivery patterns into reusable platforms, tools, frameworks, reference architectures, or open-source libraries adopted across teams or customers
Deep expertise in production AI architectures, including RAG pipelines, multi-step agentic systems, evaluation frameworks, guardrails, observability, security, and enterprise-scale operating models
Ability to write and review production code and move from executive strategy to critical technical implementation details
Exceptional systems thinking and technical communication skills across technical and executive audiences
Ability to influence without formal authority and align multiple organizations around a common technical strategy
Experience leading cross-organizational technical initiatives, preferred
Contributions to open-source AI frameworks, technical publications, or industry speaking engagements, preferred
Familiarity with Cortex AI, Snowpark, or modern enterprise data infrastructure platforms, preferred

Benefits

Comp & perks

Salary range of $304K–$437K
Travel to customer sites, with at least 25% of time onsite
Snowflake employee benefits and compensation information provided via the Snowflake Careers Site