Senior Snowflake Platform Engineer

Pfizer • Tampa, CT

4d • Hybrid

About The Position

Responsible for technical ownership, strategic leadership, and enterprise enablement of the organization’s Snowflake data platform. This role serves as the primary subject-matter expert (SME) for Snowflake, guiding platform evolution, supporting regulated workloads, enabling application teams, and maximizing the value of Snowflake’s advanced analytics and AI capabilities across the enterprise. This role operates at the intersection of platform engineering, architecture, vendor partnership, and community leadership, with broad impact across Digital, Data, and AI initiatives.

Requirements

• BA/BS preferably in computer science or related discipline with at least 6 years of experience or MBA/MS with at least 5 years of experience or PhD/JD with 1 year of experience
• Strong knowledge of the Snowflake Data Cloud including features such as Dynamic Tables, Snowpipe Streaming, Snowpark/Container Services, Hybrid Tables, Data Sharing, Replication, Iceberg, Openflow, etc.
• Strong SQL skills tailored to Snowflake, including window functions, semi-structured data handling (e.g., JSON, XML), UDFs, and time travel, and knowledge of query optimization techniques, e.g., clustering keys, materialized views, and caching strategies to improve performance.
• Deep hands-on expertise with Snowflake platform capabilities and enterprise-scale implementations, particularly Snowflake Cortex AI capabilities.
• Python skills and mastery of working with and reading code.
• Knowledge of Snowflake access methods (OAuth., PAT, local accounts, ODBC, JDBC) and security features (roles, policies, masking) for access/security troubleshooting.

Nice To Haves

• Deep hands-on expertise with Snowflake platform capabilities and enterprise-scale implementations, particularly Snowflake Cortex AI capabilities.
• Proven ability to solve complex technical and architectural problems in large, regulated environments.
• Strong stakeholder engagement skills, with experience influencing teams across Digital and business units.
• Demonstrated leadership without direct line management, operating through technical authority and trust.
• Knowledge of integrating Snowflake with external tools and platforms, such as ETL/ELT tools (e.g., dbt, Matillion), BI tools (e.g., Tableau, Power BI), and data orchestration tools (e.g., Apache Airflow).
• Data Modeling: Expertise in designing efficient data models optimized for Snowflake's capabilities.
• Experience with authentication and authorization systems like LDAP, AD, and AWS IAM
• Application architecture and solutioning experience
• Candidate demonstrates a breadth of diverse leadership experiences and capabilities including: the ability to influence and collaborate with peers, develop and coach others, oversee and guide the work of other colleagues to achieve meaningful outcomes and create business impact.

Responsibilities

• Act as the enterprise Practice Lead and Principal Engineer for the Snowflake platform, providing technical direction and decision-making authority.
• Assume leadership of the Snowflake environment following prior platform leadership transitions, ensuring continuity and stability.
• Own platform-level decisions that impact enterprise-scale and regulated workloads, including GxP and SOX-aligned environments.
• Provide deep expertise on Snowflake capabilities, including AI, Cortex, adaptive warehouses, multi-region deployments, and cost optimization patterns.
• Advise downstream application and solution teams on Snowflake architecture patterns, migrations, and best practices.
• Partner with architecture and platform teams to ensure Snowflake is tightly integrated into the broader enterprise ecosystem.
• Drive innovation through proofs of concept and advanced platform features, including AI-driven agents, natural language interaction, and automation.
• Lead or contribute to platform extensions that simplify usage, improve supportability, and enhance developer experience.
• Guide platform readiness for new Snowflake releases by assessing scope, risk, and impact.
• Serve as a key technical partner to Digital, business, architecture, and delivery teams across the organization.
• Work directly with the Snowflake vendor and Resident Solution Architects on escalations, roadmap alignment, and feature adoption.
• Lead enterprise communications around Snowflake features, changes, and deprecations to a large global user base.
• Ensure Snowflake platform implementations meet enterprise compliance, security, and data protection standards, including regulated GxP workloads.
• Partner with platform support teams to optimize monitoring, ticketing integration, and operational efficiency.
• Act as a go-to expert and mentor for Snowflake engineers and platform team members.
• Lead technical interviews and skill assessments for Snowflake-related roles.
• Foster an active Snowflake community of practice through knowledge sharing, sessions, and best-practice dissemination.

Benefits

• 401(k) plan with Pfizer Matching Contributions and an additional Pfizer Retirement Savings Contribution
• paid vacation, holiday and personal days
• paid caregiver/parental and medical leave
• health benefits to include medical, prescription drug, dental and vision coverage
• Relocation assistance may be available based on business needs and/or eligibility.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Senior