✦ Luna Orbit — Software Engineering

Principal Software Engineer II - Metadata

at Snowflake

📍 US-WA-Bellevue Unknown Posted March 07, 2026
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Position Details

Type Not Specified
Experience senior
Exp. Years 15+ years
Education BS in Computer Science; Advanced degree preferred
Category Software Engineering

About this role

Snowflake seeks a Principal Software Engineer to lead the development of its metadata systems, focusing on large-scale, fault-tolerant distributed architectures that support enterprise data needs.

Key Responsibilities

  • Design distributed metadata systems
  • Develop fault-tolerant scalable architectures
  • Mentor junior engineers
  • Optimize system performance
  • Influence product roadmap

Technical Overview

The role involves designing and supporting distributed systems with a focus on metadata management, scalability, fault tolerance, and high availability, primarily using Java and related technologies.

Ideal Candidate

The ideal candidate is a highly experienced software engineer with 15+ years in designing and supporting large-scale distributed systems, especially in metadata management and database internals. They possess deep expertise in fault-tolerant, scalable architectures and are proficient in Java or similar languages.

Must-Have Skills

15+ years of industry experiencedistributed systemsdatabase internalsmetadata managementJava or similar object-oriented language

Nice-to-Have Skills

experience with IcebergAIData Engineering

Required Skills

Distributed SystemsFault ToleranceMetadata ManagementJavaDatabase InternalsScalabilityHigh AvailabilityPerformance Optimization

Hard Skills

JavaJava (programming language)distributed systemsfault-tolerant systemsscalable systemsmetadata managementdatabase systemsmulti-threadingmemory managementnetworkingstorageperformancereliabilityscalability

Soft Skills

analytical problem solvingmentoringteam collaborationinfluencetrade-off analysis

Industry & Role

Industry SaaS
Job Function Lead the architecture and development of Snowflake's metadata platform

Keywords for Your Resume

Principal Software Engineerdistributed systemsfault-tolerantscalable systemsmetadata managementdatabase systemsmulti-threadingmemory managementnetworkingstorageperformancereliabilityscalabilityJavadistributed systems internalsSnowflakemetadata systemslarge scale servicessystem architecturehigh availabilityDistributed SystemsMetadata ManagementFault ToleranceScalable SystemsDatabase InternalsHigh AvailabilityPerformance OptimizationReliability Engineering

Deal Breakers

Less than 15 years of industry experience, Lack of experience with distributed systems or database internals, No proficiency in Java or similar languages, No experience with large-scale metadata systems

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