Snowflake

Staff Software Engineer, Cortex AI Search Infrastructure

US-CA-Menlo Park FullTime Hybrid ₹236,000 - ₹339,250/year
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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. The Cortex team is building the future of AI for enterprise data. This role focuses on the Search infrastructure that powers our flagship products like CoWork, Cortex Code & Cortex Agents fast, reliable, scalable and secure at the enterprise level. You will be building high-performance retrieval engines (leveraging vector search, hybrid search, and semantic indexing) that power Snowflake Cortex. This involves optimizing how billions of rows of data are indexed and retrieved in milliseconds. WHAT YOU WILL DO IN THIS ROLE: - Architect Agentic Runtimes: Build and scale the orchestration engines that execute complex agentic workflows, ensuring low-latency tool execution and robust state management. - Scale Context Engineering Infra: Design high-performance systems for RAG (Retrieval-Augmented Generation), including vector database integration, scalable and efficient search indexing, query processing, and result ranking, semantic caching, and automated metadata extraction. - Build the "Evals Engine": Develop the automated infrastructure required to run massive-scale golden set simulations, error analysis pipelines, and "hillclimbing" experiments. - Productionize AI Workflows: Collaborate with the modeling team to take raw LLM capabilities and turn them into hardened, multi-tenant microservices with strict guardrails and observability. - Optimize Performance & Cost: Direct the infra strategy for model routing, prompt caching, and token optimization to ensure Snowflake’s AI features are the most efficient in the industry. REQUIREMENTS: - Education: Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science or a related technical field. - Experience: 9 + years of experience building distributed systems, high-throughput APIs, or backend infrastructure for AI/ML products. - Technical Stack: Deep proficiency in Go or Java (for systems) and Python (for AI orchestration). - Systems Thinking: Strong understanding of database internals, distributed state management, and cloud-native architecture (Kubernetes, FoundationDB, etc.). - Domain Expertise: Familiarity with the "plumbing" of AI: vector indices, agent platforms, and building scalable data pipelines. (BONUS) EXPERIENCE WITH: - Query optimization and SQL engine internals. - Designing multi-tenant systems that handle sensitive enterprise data at scale. - Developing search infrastructure for large-scale applications. - Direct experience with any of the subsystems outlined above. 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 http://careers.snowflake.com

Frequently Asked Questions

What does the Staff Software Engineer, Cortex AI Search Infrastructure role at Snowflake involve?

The Staff Software Engineer, Cortex AI Search Infrastructure position at Snowflake in US-CA-Menlo Park is a fulltime role. 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. The Cortex team is building the future of AI for enterprise data.

What skills are required for Staff Software Engineer, Cortex AI Search Infrastructure at Snowflake?

Key skills for this role include: Python, Java, GO, Rust, Scala, Rails, Kubernetes, RDS, SQL, Snowflake.

What is the salary for Staff Software Engineer, Cortex AI Search Infrastructure at Snowflake?

The listed compensation for this role is ₹236,000 - ₹339,250/year. Actual salary may vary based on experience and location.

Is the Staff Software Engineer, Cortex AI Search Infrastructure position at Snowflake remote or on-site?

This position is Hybrid. Expect a combination of office and remote work, typically based in US-CA-Menlo Park.

How do I apply for Staff Software Engineer, Cortex AI Search Infrastructure at Snowflake?

You can apply for this position directly through the employer's careers page. Click the 'Apply Now' button on this page to be redirected to the original listing. Make sure your resume is ATS-optimized. Use SpotChange's free ATS test to check.

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About This Role

Staff Software Engineer, Cortex AI Search Infrastructure at Snowflake is a fulltime devops & cloud position in US-CA-Menlo Park. Key skills include Python, Java, GO, Rust, Scala, Rails, Kubernetes, RDS. Compensation: ₹236,000 - ₹339,250/year. Education: Master's Degree preferred. Experience: 7+ years.

This role is classified as hybrid and is suitable for staff-level professionals. Ghost Score 35/100 (Possibly Stale) indicates this listing is possibly stale — verify on the employer site.

To apply, visit the official application page through the Apply Now button above. SpotChange Jobs provides AI-powered career tools including resume optimization, ATS testing, interview preparation, and salary negotiation assistance.