Principal Machine Learning Scientist

Snowflake is about empowering enterprises to achieve their full potential — and people too. With a culture that's all in on impact, innovation, and collaboration, Snowflake is the sweet spot for building big, moving fast, and taking technology — and careers — to the next level.

There is only one Data Cloud. Snowflake's founders started from scratch and designed a data platform built for the cloud that is effective, affordable, and accessible to all data users. But it didn't stop there. They engineered Snowflake to power the Data Cloud, where thousands of organizations unlock the value of their data with near-unlimited scale, concurrency, and performance. This is our vision: a world with endless insights to tackle the challenges and opportunities of today and reveal the possibilities of tomorrow.

We're at the forefront of the data revolution, committed to building the world's greatest data and applications platform. Our 'get it done' culture allows everyone at Snowflake to have an equal opportunity to innovate on new ideas, create work with a lasting impact, and excel in a culture of collaboration.

We're looking for a Lead ML Scientist for Snowflake's Enterprise AI & ML team. In this role, you will apply AI & ML to a variety of domain specific problems across Snowflake's business data.This is a generalist role and will provide an opportunity to work on a wide breadth of problems, applying a good mix of models & methods to structured & unstructured data, driving large-scale projects from idea to completion.

AS A LEAD ML SCIENTIST AT SNOWFLAKE YOU WILL:

• Lead projects; Conceptualize, design and lead the execution of large AI & ML projects, aligning with the business goals, delivering measurable value & impact.
• Engage with stakeholders; lead the conversations with technical & non-technical stakeholders; identify areas where one can apply AI & ML; facilitating discussions around key drivers for decision making & operational efficiencies.
• Provide technical & thought leadership; designing and implementing advanced machine learning techniques, focusing on robust & scalable solutions. Participate in all stages of development, ideation to production.
• Provide mentorship; to junior ML & Data Scientists, around problem formulation, technical design, algorithm choices & code quality.
• Develop hands-on; analyze large amounts of data, manage data quality, design & develop complex ML models (and the ensuing ML solutions) including ML pipelines, deploy & manage production-grade applications end-to-end, and tell the story in a compelling manner.
• Partner with customers; showcase internal solutions to customers, help them envision solutions stringing Snowflake platform capabilities together, partner with internal teams that enable customer solutions.
• Set technical direction and strategy; by defining the roadmap and aligning it with business goals. Also guiding the team in prioritizing projects for impact.
• Oversee team execution and deliverables; to ensure high-quality execution by managing team workflows, reviewing deliverables and optimizing the ensuing processes.

OUR IDEAL CANDIDATE WILL HAVE:

• High levels of curiosity, eager enthusiasm & demonstrable experience working on open-ended problems. Exceptional problem solving skills with the ability to think strategically. Demonstrable experience and interest in problem formulation based on relatively abstract information.
• High levels of adaptability, to respond to fast-evolving project scope, adjusting strategies & plans while delivering value; comfortable being scrappy.
• Experience applying AI, ML & statistical modeling on large datasets; pre-processing, data quality, feature engineering; the whole nine-yards.
• Deep understanding of the basic classes of ML algorithms, statistics & linear algebra; with a keen interest in the underlying theory & assumptions.
• Experience building AI & LLM based applications in a business environment; up to date with advancements in the Gen-AI space, in an applied sense with techniques such as RAG, in-context learning, search, agentic workflows etc.
• Solid understanding of NLP, embedding methods, foundational models and model fine-tuning; with experience in developing conversational & agentic AI.
• Experience writing production-quality, scalable code using Python. Strong with the software development lifecycle and its best practices
• Experience managing AI/ML project lifecycles; with a point-of-view for designing and developing end-to-end turn key ML solutions, enablement & adoption baked into the solution. Also experience iterating on ideas and deliverables.
• Strong stakeholder management skills; with the ability to articulate results and complex concepts to all audiences. Also the ability to work with leadership.
• Demonstrate keen senses of ownership, collaboration and mentorship
• Proven experience leading and mentoring AI/ML teams; demonstrate leadership, with the ability to inspire the team & lead a project to completion.

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:

The following represents the expected range of compensation for this role:

• The estimated base salary range for this role is $199,000 - $310,500.
• 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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