Director of Engineering, AI Functions
Snowflake is hiring a Director of Engineering, AI Functions for a remote role open to applicants in United States. It pays $264k-$380k a year and Level rates it ; you can apply on Snowflake.
Level's read on this job
- Builds AI ●●●● is how Level rates this role: the job is building AI systems.
- The posting lists this role as remote.
- Tools and skills the posting cites include SQL, Python and software engineering.
- Level classifies it as a lead role.
- Level lists 371 other open roles at Snowflake.
AI in this role
Lead the engineering team building AI functions and LLM-powered analytics capabilities directly into SQL workflows.
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.
We're looking for a Director of Engineering to join our leadership team in AI Functions product portfolio, a hybrid director/principal engineer role at the forefront of AI-powered analytics. Join our Leadership team in AI Functions Product Portfolio.
Our mission is to democratize AI by surfacing powerful AI functions directly in SQL for analyzing structured and unstructured data, with minimal configuration. We handle the full AI lifecycle behind the scenes, so data analysts, engineers, and scientists can build data transformation pipelines with AI using the most sophisticated building blocks seamlessly within their existing SQL workflows.
The AI Functions product portfolio represents one of the most strategic and impactful product surfaces within Snowflake, bringing together two of the company’s core strengths: its industry-leading ability to process massive volumes of data and its growing capability to make that data AI-ready. By embedding advanced AI and LLM-powered functions directly into SQL, this portfolio transforms Snowflake from a data platform into an intelligent data system—where structured and unstructured data can be seamlessly prepared, enriched, and analyzed using AI at scale. This convergence enables customers to operationalize AI within their existing workflows, unlocking faster insights, more powerful applications, and a fundamentally new way to interact with data.
IN THIS ROLE AT SNOWFLAKE, YOU WILL:
Create and own architecture and design, influence our product roadmap, and identify new initiatives that push Snowflake's technology forward for our customers
Set the strategic vision for the team and drive accountability for plans and deliverables
Solve real business needs at scale by applying strong software engineering and analytical problem-solving skills
Drive team projects from ideation through implementation in partnership with cross-functional teams
Foster a culture of creativity and innovation while ensuring sound, practical decision-making
Lead organizational structure evolution and improve engineering efficiency
Hire, develop, and mentor senior technical leaders
Manage, Grow, and Mentor the teams that have a significant impact on the success of the overall Snowflake product.
WE WOULD LOVE TO HEAR FROM YOU IF YOU HAVE:
Advanced degree in Computer Science
10+ years of software engineering experience with recent hands-on experience
2+ years of engineering director experience, including managing managers
Deep experience with AI infrastructure and LLMs
Experience building large-scale query processing or distributed systems
Strong track record of recruiting and growing technical teams
Excellent collaboration and communication skills across global organizations
WHY JOIN OUR TEAM AT SNOWFLAKE?
Join us at the forefront of AI innovation where you'll lead transformative initiatives that shape the future of data and artificial intelligence. You'll have the opportunity to work with cutting-edge LLM technology while building and mentoring high-performing engineering teams. Our culture promotes innovation, technical excellence, and collaborative problem-solving, offering you the platform to make a significant impact on enterprise AI solutions.
Snowflake is growing fast, and we are 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?
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
How we rate this
Director of Engineering, AI Functions at Snowflake rates 85 out of 100 for how much of the daily work is AI. That makes it Builds AI (AI Level 4 of 4). The level is about AI in the job, not seniority.
Builds AI. The job is building AI systems.
- ●●●● Builds AI80 to 100
- ●●●○ Works on AI60 to 79
- ●●○○ Uses AI40 to 59
- ●○○○ Little AI0 to 39
Levels come from how often the tools, models and workflows of the role are named in the posting itself. Read the description and count the AI tools, models and workflows it names.
Prepare for this job
Built from this posting and from similar jobs on Level.
Skills and AI tools this role asks for
Questions you could be asked
- Tell me about a project where software engineering was part of your work. What did you do?
- Tell me about a project where distributed systems was part of your work. What did you do?
- Tell me about a project where ai infrastructure was part of your work. What did you do?
- Tell me about a project where machine learning lifecycle was part of your work. What did you do?
- Walk me through how you've used SQL in your day-to-day work.
Adapt your resume
- List these exact terms on your resume: Software Engineering, Distributed Systems, AI Infrastructure, Machine Learning Lifecycle, and SQL. An applicant tracking system matches the wording, not the idea.
- Attach one line of real, concrete experience to at least one of them. A tool named with nothing behind it rarely survives a human read.
- Lead with what you built, trained or shipped. This role is judged on the AI system itself, not the tools around it.
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