15+ years of experience in databases, distributed systems, or large-scale cloud infrastructure.
Deep expertise in OLTP and database systems, including transactions and concurrency control.
Strong understanding of cloud infrastructure for low-latency stateful systems.
Experience designing elastic, multi-tenant stateful systems with efficient lifecycle management.
Strong instincts for database architecture evolution for AI-native applications.
Proven track record of taking ambitious systems from architecture to production at scale.
Exceptional technical judgment and communication skills.
Responsibilities
Define and drive the long-term technical architecture for OLTP systems.
Lead architectural decisions across transactions, storage, and database scalability.
Shape compute and storage architecture for low-latency transactional systems.
Build database primitives for agent-driven workloads and efficient lifecycle management.
Define safe operational state modifications with strong consistency guarantees.
Determine leverage points of PostgreSQL architecture versus alternative approaches.
Design for programmatic database operations at machine speed.
Benefits
Define the architecture for Snowflake's expansion into transactional workloads.
Work on fundamental database and distributed-systems challenges.
Build systems for a new generation of applications and agents.
Influence integration of transactional systems with Snowflake's Data & AI platform.
Make architectural decisions that shape Snowflake's product direction for years.
Full Job Description
Principal Software Engineer 2 - OLTP
Snowflake is building the next generation of transactional systems for applications, AI and agents. Across Snowflake Postgres and Unistore, we are combining the performance, reliability and developer experience expected from modern operational databases with Snowflake's cloud-native architecture and governed data platform.
We're looking for a Principal Engineer 2 to help define and drive the architecture across database internals, storage, compute and cloud infrastructure. A core part of the role is designing transactional systems for agent-driven workloads, where isolated state, rapid database lifecycle, safe autonomous operations, and deep integration with enterprise data are first-class requirements. What You'll Do
Define and drive the long-term technical architecture for OLTP across Snowflake Postgres, Unistore and the infrastructure they depend on.
Lead major architectural decisions across transactions, storage, concurrency control, replication, recovery, query execution and database scalability.
Shape the compute and storage architecture for low-latency, highly available transactional systems, including resource isolation, elasticity, networking, caching and container infrastructure.
Build database primitives for agent-driven workloads, including fast creation of isolated transactional environments, checkpointing and rollback, and efficient lifecycle management.
Define how agents safely read and modify operational state, with strong guarantees around consistency, recovery, access control and governance.
Determine where PostgreSQL architecture and compatibility provide leverage and where alternative approaches can deliver meaningful advantages.
Design for workloads where databases and transactional environments are created and operated programmatically at machine speed rather than primarily through human administration.
Lead complex, cross-organizational engineering efforts and establish technical direction across multiple teams.
Work closely with product leaders, senior engineering leadership, and strategic customers on the most important technical and product decisions.
Raise the technical bar through architecture reviews, mentoring and hands-on leadership on the hardest systems problems.
What We're Looking For
15+ years of experience building databases, distributed systems, storage systems or large-scale cloud infrastructure, with sustained impact at significant technical scope.
Deep expertise in OLTP and database systems, including areas such as transactions, concurrency control, storage engines, indexing, query processing, replication, recovery and high availability.
Strong understanding of cloud infrastructure for low-latency stateful systems, including compute, storage, networking, resource isolation and failure handling.
Experience designing highly elastic, multi-tenant, or rapidly provisioned stateful systems where isolation and efficient lifecycle management are first-class concerns.
Strong instincts for how database architecture should evolve for AI-native applications and autonomous agents, including ephemeral state, sandboxing, safe transactional actions and programmatic database lifecycle.
Experience making difficult architectural tradeoffs across latency, throughput, consistency, availability, durability, scalability, isolation and cost.
A track record of taking technically ambitious systems from architecture through production at meaningful scale.
Experience influencing technical direction across multiple teams or a broad product area.
Strong systems engineering instincts and the ability to work across abstractions, from database internals to distributed infrastructure.
Deep PostgreSQL expertise is a strong advantage, but experience building other sophisticated transactional or distributed database systems is equally relevant.
Strong systems programming experience; C, C++, or Rust experience is a plus.
Exceptional technical judgment and communication skills, including the ability to influence engineers, executives and customers.
Why Join Snowflake Engineering
Define the architecture of a major expansion of Snowflake into transactional and operational workloads.
Work on fundamental database and distributed-systems problems spanning transactions, storage, compute and cloud infrastructure.
Build transactional systems designed for a new generation of applications and agents.
Influence Snowflake Postgres, Unistore and how transactional systems integrate with Snowflake's broader Data & AI platform.
Have technical impact at a scope where architectural decisions can shape Snowflake's product direction for years.
About Snowflake Computing
Snowflake is a cloud-based data-warehousing company that was founded in 2012. The company provides a data platform that allows customers to store and analyze data using cloud-based infrastructure. Snowflake's platform is designed to be highly scalable and flexible, allowing customers to easily add or remove computing resources as needed. The company's customers include a wide range of businesses, from startups to Fortune 500 companies. Snowflake has received significant funding from investors and has been recognized as one of the fastest-growing companies in the United States.
