Staff Data Platform Engineer - Snowflake

Royal Bank of Canada•Toronto, ON

1d•Onsite

About The Position

Join RBC's Cloud Data Lake Platform (Snowflake) Engineering team as a Staff Data Platform Engineer, where you'll play a critical role in designing, building, and operating one of Canada's largest enterprise data platforms. Our team empowers thousands of Data Scientists, Analysts, and business users across RBC with self-serve analytics capabilities built on Snowflake, delivered through a multi-cloud architecture spanning AWS and Azure. You'll work on our in-house Snowflake Control Plane — a Python-based platform that automates provisioning, enforces RBAC, manages disaster recovery, and governs how the enterprise interacts with Snowflake. A key focus of this role is enabling Snowflake's AI capabilities (Cortex AI) in a secure, governed, and compliant manner. Our team is a vibrant collective of knowledgeable experts committed to staying at the forefront of technology. We thrive on collaboration, with a flat team structure where hierarchy takes a backseat to innovation. Every voice is heard, and every idea matters. Senior members serve as mentors, fostering an environment where engineers can grow and excel.

Requirements

Python (Expert): Deep proficiency in Python 3.11+, FastAPI, Pydantic v2, async/await patterns, and building production-grade APIs
Snowflake: Strong working knowledge of Snowflake architecture — roles, databases, schemas, warehouses, stages, storage integrations, failover groups, replication, and AI Suite. Experience with Snowflake security (OAuth, key pair auth, network policies)
Cloud Platforms: Hands-on experience with AWS and Azure — IAM, networking, storage, secret management (Vault, AKV), and multi-cloud service delivery
Security Engineering: Deep understanding of OAuth 2.0 / OIDC, JWT validation, RBAC design, secret management, and enterprise security patterns. Experience implementing security controls in production systems
AI/ML Governance: Understanding of responsible AI principles, model risk management, AI auditing requirements, and regulatory frameworks (OSFI, NIST AI RMF) as they apply to enterprise AI deployments
CI/CD & DevOps: Experience with GitHub Actions (or similar), container-based deployments (Docker, OpenShift/Kubernetes), progressive delivery strategies, and security scanning (SAST, SCA, DAST)
Systems Thinking: Ability to reason about distributed systems, connection pooling, failover strategies, and the end-to-end implications of enabling AI features on an enterprise data platform
Security Mindset: Instinctive focus on least-privilege access, defense-in-depth, audit trails, and compliance
Technical Leadership: Proven ability to drive architectural decisions, influence without authority, and articulate technical strategy to both engineering peers and business stakeholders
Communication: Excellent written and verbal skills — you'll be presenting to various internal key decision-making teams, writing governance documentation, and mentoring engineers
Ownership & Accountability: Self-driven with a track record of delivering complex, cross-cutting initiatives from design through production
Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or equivalent practical experience
7+ years of experience in platform engineering, data engineering, cloud engineering, or SRE roles
3+ years working with Snowflake or comparable enterprise data platforms at scale
Experience operating in regulated environments (financial services, healthcare, or government)

Nice To Haves

Snowflake Cortex AI: Hands-on experience with Cortex Analyst, Cortex Search, Cortex Agents
SnowPro Certifications: SnowPro Core, Advanced: Architect, or Advanced: Data Engineer
Temporal / Workflow Orchestration: Experience with Temporal, Airflow, Step Functions, or similar durable workflow engines
Observability: Hands-on with Dynatrace, Datadog, Prometheus/Grafana, or ELK Stack for APM and platform monitoring
Infrastructure as Code: Terraform, CloudFormation, or similar, for cloud resource management
API Design: Experience designing and evolving large API surfaces (RESTful, OpenAPI/Swagger)
Financial Services: Understanding of Canadian regulatory landscape (OSFI B-13, PIPEDA) and enterprise risk frameworks
LLM/GenAI Security: Knowledge of prompt injection risks, data leakage prevention, and AI-specific threat models

Responsibilities

Design, develop, and maintain the Snowflake Control Plane
Enable Snowflake new features with appropriate governance controls, access policies, and compliance guardrails
Collaborate with Model Risk and Compliance teams on AI governance frameworks and responsible AI adoption
Implement and maintain security controls — OAuth/SSO integrations, JWT validation, secret management (HashiCorp Vault, Azure Key Vault), and credential lifecycle automation
Enforce platform security posture including rate limiting, input sanitization, and security headers
Drive compliance with enterprise security standards and OSFI guidelines, particularly for AI/ML workloads
Build self-service workflows and automation for user onboarding, resource provisioning, and platform management
Operate and improve CI/CD pipelines with progressive deployment, security scanning (SAST, SCA, DAST), and code quality gates
Create technical documentation and contribute to platform observability and monitoring
Lead architectural decisions and present trade-offs to technical leadership
Mentor junior engineers and co-op students on platform engineering and security best practices
Participate actively in agile ceremonies, PI planning, and sprint demos