Senior Director of Engineering, Traffic and Networking
Snowflake · Bellevue, WA
- On site
- Full-time
- $488,700 / year
- Bellevue, WA
Job highlights
- Lead global cloud infrastructure networking and traffic systems.
- Define and execute networking strategy across multiple clouds.
- Scale infrastructure through automated software solutions.
- Build and mentor a high-performing engineering team.
- Drive innovation in network architecture and connectivity.
About the role
About Snowflake and the 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.
At Snowflake, we’re at the forefront of the data and AI revolution, committed to building the world’s greatest Data and AI Cloud. Our "get it done" culture empowers everyone to innovate, collaborate, and create work with a lasting impact. We are looking for a visionary Senior Director of Traffic and Networking to lead the group responsible for the very circulatory system of our global cloud infrastructure.
The Mission
Every query, every login, every byte of data in Snowflake's Data Cloud travels through the systems this team builds. The Traffic & Networking group is responsible for the ingress, egress, domain management, and internal networking layers that connect thousands of customers to Snowflake across public and private connectivity paths. We build and deploy software to enable seamless service-to-service and user-to-service communication across all traffic types spanning every environment and cloud provider Snowflake touches. Your goal is to ensure robust domain management, efficient traffic flow, and reliable connectivity while relentlessly improving product velocity, and operational efficiency.
What You Will Do
As a senior engineering leader at Snowflake, you will be expected to:
- Set the Strategic Vision: Define the roadmap for Snowflake’s networking foundation and be accountable for the execution of complex plans and deliverables.
- Scale Infrastructure: Guide your team in building software solutions that automate and scale networking across multiple cloud providers including AWS, Azure, and GCP.
- Drive Innovation: Lead projects from initial idea through design and implementation, collaborating with teams in the US, Ireland, Poland, and beyond.
- Technical Leadership: Provide deep technical expertise with a focus on high-performance, security, and the abstraction of complex cloud networking layers.
- Build the Team: Actively recruit, hire, and grow a diverse team of industry veterans and rising stars.
- Mentorship: Be responsible for the career development of your reports through continuous coaching and mentorship.
- Operational Excellence: Shift resources dynamically to respond to production issues and customer needs, ensuring high levels of reliability.
Your Professional Profile
We are looking for an exceptional leader who views infrastructure through a product development lens.
- Experience: 15+ years of software engineering experience, with at least 5+ years in engineering management leading leaders.
- Distributed Systems Expertise: Proven track record in designing systems and managing large-scale production infrastructure with a focus on networking, compute, or storage.
- Cloud Fluency: Strong hands-on experience with cloud service providers.
- SaaS Background: Deep experience working at scale within a multi-tenant or multi-single-tenant SaaS model, handling billions of complex queries and massive traffic ingress/egress.
- Communication: Excellent collaboration skills to bridge the gap between complex networking requirements and cross-functional business goals.
- Education: BS/MS/PhD in Computer Science or a related field, or equivalent practical experience.
Why Join This Team?
- Impact: You're actively evolving a network architecture, building new observability capabilities, modernizing legacy infrastructure, and designing the next-generation connectivity model across multiple clouds. Every Snowflake team depends on what this group ships. Infrastructure is our product.
- Growth: This role will push your technical and leadership boundaries in an environment that values practical decision-making and creativity.
- Security First: You will play a critical role in upholding Snowflake’s high standards for data security and confidentiality.
- Builder's Culture: We ship our own proxy infrastructure, our own service discovery, our own network automation. This is a build role for someone who wants to own the full traffic stack.
Company Values and Expectations
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?
Compensation and Benefits
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 $340,000 - $488,700. 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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Key skills/competency
- Networking Architecture
- Cloud Infrastructure
- Distributed Systems
- SaaS Operations
- Traffic Management
- Team Leadership
- Strategic Planning
- Software Engineering Management
- Scalability
- High-Performance Computing
Skills & topics
- Senior Director of Engineering
- Traffic Engineering
- Network Engineering
- Cloud Infrastructure
- Distributed Systems
- SaaS
- Leadership
- Management
- AWS
- GCP
- Azure
- Networking
- Scalability
- High Performance
- Data Cloud
- AI
How to get hired
- Tailor your resume: Highlight experience in large-scale distributed systems, cloud networking (AWS, Azure, GCP), and SaaS environments. Quantify achievements in traffic management and infrastructure scaling.
- Showcase leadership: Emphasize your experience managing engineering leaders and growing diverse teams, showcasing your mentorship and strategic vision.
- Demonstrate cloud fluency: Detail your hands-on experience with major cloud providers and your ability to abstract complex networking layers.
- Prepare for technical discussions: Be ready to discuss your track record in designing and managing high-performance, secure production infrastructure and complex networking challenges.
- Understand Snowflake's culture: Research their focus on AI, innovation, and a 'get it done' attitude. Align your application and interview responses with these values.
Technical preparation
Behavioral questions
Frequently asked questions
- What is the expected salary range for the Senior Director of Engineering, Traffic and Networking role at Snowflake?
- The estimated base salary range for this Senior Director of Engineering, Traffic and Networking position at Snowflake is $340,000 to $488,700 annually. This role is also eligible for Snowflake's bonus and equity plans, along with a comprehensive benefits package.
- Does Snowflake offer remote work options for this Senior Director of Engineering, Traffic and Networking position?
- The job description does not explicitly state if the Senior Director of Engineering, Traffic and Networking role is remote, hybrid, or on-site. Given the leadership and global team collaboration required, it is likely a hybrid or on-site position, potentially with flexibility. For precise details, it's best to inquire during the application process.
- What are the key technical skills required for the Senior Director of Engineering, Traffic and Networking role at Snowflake?
- Key technical skills for this role include deep expertise in distributed systems, large-scale production infrastructure management, cloud networking across AWS, Azure, and GCP, and handling massive traffic ingress/egress in a SaaS environment. Experience with proxy infrastructure, service discovery, and network automation is also highly valued.
- How does Snowflake approach AI integration for engineering roles like the Senior Director of Traffic and Networking?
- Snowflake is actively seeking AI-native thinkers who treat AI as a high-trust collaborator. For the Senior Director of Engineering, Traffic and Networking role, this means leveraging AI to solve complex networking problems, accelerate impact, and reinvent how work gets done within the networking infrastructure domain.
- What is the typical career progression for a Senior Director of Engineering at Snowflake?
- While specific career paths vary, a Senior Director role at Snowflake is a significant leadership position. Progression could involve moving into broader VP-level responsibilities, overseeing larger engineering organizations, or contributing to high-level strategic initiatives within the company's Data and AI Cloud.
- What kind of team will I be leading as Senior Director of Engineering, Traffic and Networking at Snowflake?
- As the Senior Director of Engineering, Traffic and Networking, you will lead a group responsible for the core traffic and networking systems of Snowflake's Data Cloud. This includes managing ingress, egress, domain management, and internal networking layers, and you will be responsible for recruiting, hiring, and growing this diverse team.
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