Software Engineer - Observe
SnowflakeAt 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.
Observe by Snowflake is an AI-powered observability platform built on the Snowflake AI Data Cloud and engineered for scale. We ingest and store logs, metrics, traces, and events on an open, scalable data lakehouse using open formats like Apache Iceberg, at dramatically lower cost. A dynamic Context Graph and chat-based AI SRE provide rich context and automated workflows so teams can move from detection to root cause and resolution 10x faster.
Leading engineering teams at companies like Capital One, Topgolf, and Dialpad rely on Observe to troubleshoot hundreds of terabytes of telemetry daily while maintaining reliability at enterprise scale. As part of Snowflake, Observe combines startup-style ownership and velocity with the global reach, operational excellence, and ecosystem of one of the world's leading data platforms.
We are hiring a Software Engineer for our Data Intake team, which builds the agent, ingestion infrastructure, and in-product onboarding experience that connects customer systems to Observe. Our goal is to make data ingestion self-serve, transparent, and diagnosable so customers can understand exactly where their telemetry is flowing or failing.
AS A SOFTWARE ENGINEER AT SNOWFLAKE, YOU WILL:
Contribute to the Observe Agent, a custom OpenTelemetry collector distribution, building receivers, processors, and exporters that collect and forward customer telemetry at scale
Build and maintain configuration-heavy systems including OTel collector configs, Helm charts, Kubernetes manifests, and AWS infrastructure templates
Design and implement control-plane APIs and data models that represent ingestion state, pipeline errors, and operational events for both internal tooling and user-facing experiences
Collaborate with product and platform teams to deliver in-product onboarding flows that help customers connect their systems and validate data is flowing correctly
Debug complex ingestion issues spanning agents, pipelines, and backend systems, often across codebases and environments you did not originally build
Translate low-level distributed system behavior into clear, actionable signals that engineering and customer-facing teams can act on
Participate in code reviews, design discussions, and contribute to a team culture that values clarity, diagnosability, and systems that are easy to reason about
OUR IDEAL SOFTWARE ENGINEER WILL HAVE:
2+ years of experience in software engineering with a focus on backend systems, distributed systems, or infrastructure (or equivalent experience)
Proficiency in Go or another statically typed language, with genuine interest in developing deep Go expertise
Experience with distributed systems, data pipelines, or agent-based software architectures
Familiarity with Kubernetes, container orchestration, and cloud environments (AWS, GCP, or similar), or strong motivation to develop this expertise
Comfort reading, navigating, and reasoning about large open-source codebases and systems you did not originally write
A systematic approach to debugging distributed systems and pipelines across production environments
Ability to move fluidly between configuration, infrastructure, and application code to understand and fix real-world system behavior
A Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering, or a related field, or equivalent professional experience
BONUS POINTS FOR THE FOLLOWING:
Experience with OpenTelemetry, observability agents, or telemetry pipeline architectures
Background building or operating control planes for distributed systems or agent infrastructure
Prior work on developer onboarding flows, configuration management, or user-facing diagnostics for infrastructure products
Exposure to platform, infrastructure, or SRE-adjacent team environments
WHY JOIN OUR DATA INTAKE TEAM AT SNOWFLAKE?
The Data Intake team sits at the front door of Observe: every piece of telemetry a customer sends flows through the systems we build. This role puts you at the intersection of deep systems engineering and user experience. The work is technically demanding (custom OTel distributions, Kubernetes-native infrastructure, control-plane design), and the impact is immediately visible in how customers connect, diagnose, and trust their data pipelines. You will own real systems end to end, work with a team that cares about both correctness and clarity, and help shape how the next generation of observability infrastructure gets built.
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
The following represents the expected range of compensation for this role:
- The estimated base salary range for this role is $160,000 - $200,000.
- Additionally, this role is eligible to participate in Snowflake’s bonus and equity plan.
The successful candidate’s starting salary will be determined based on permissible, non-discriminatory factors such as skills, experience, and geographic location. This role is also eligible for a competitive benefits package that includes: medical, dental, vision, life, and disability insurance; 401(k) retirement plan; flexible spending & health savings account; at least 12 paid holidays; paid time off; parental leave; employee assistance program; and other company benefits.
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