# Senior Software Engineer - Observe by Snowflake, Logs

**Company:** [Snowflake](https://hotfix.jobs/companies/snowflake)
**Location:** Menlo Park, CA
**Role:** Backend Engineering
**Salary:** $200k – $288k/yr
**Experience:** 7+ years
**Skills:** Go, Java, Distributed Systems, Streaming Pipelines, Columnar Storage, Log Processing, API Design, Observability, Splunk, Datadog, Elastic, Loki, OpenTelemetry, Data Lakehouses, Query Dsls
**Posted:** 2026-05-07

> Leads backend architecture for Observe's Logs product, owning ingestion, storage, querying of massive telemetry data, and API design for human and AI agent use. Requires 7+ years in high-scale systems with Go/Java proficiency and cross-functional collaboration.

## Job Description

## Responsibilities
- Lead the backend architecture and delivery of the Logs product area by owning the full lifecycle from API design through production reliability, with a strong sense of what makes a great end-user experience.
- Drive technical direction for log ingestion, storage, querying, and enrichment pipelines capable of handling hundreds of terabytes of telemetry daily.
- Build for both humans and AI agents — design APIs and workflows that work equally well for UI users and programmatic access by AI coding agents like Claude Code and Cursor.
- Partner deeply with PMs, Frontend, and Design to shape the product roadmap, translate user needs into sound technical designs, and identify backend capabilities that unlock high-value product experiences.
- Champion product thinking on the engineering team — bring clarity to trade-offs, flag gaps in requirements, and proactively surface opportunities to simplify or improve the product.
- Set the technical bar through code reviews, architecture reviews, and mentorship, establishing patterns that scale across the broader backend organization.
- Champion the use of AI-assisted development tools (e.g., GitHub Copilot, Cursor) to maintain high code quality and accelerate delivery.

## Qualifications
- 7+ years of industry experience building and maintaining high-scale backend systems in production.
- Strong proficiency in Go, Java, or a comparable systems-oriented language; comfort working across the stack when needed.
- Deep experience designing and operating distributed systems — familiarity with streaming pipelines, columnar storage, or log/event processing is a strong plus.
- Demonstrated product acumen: you can read a PRD critically, push back on requirements that don't serve users, and propose simpler solutions without sacrificing outcomes.
- Track record of leading end-to-end feature delivery in close partnership with cross-functional teams (PM, Design, Frontend).
- Strong written and verbal communication — you can explain technical decisions to non-engineers and influence roadmap priorities with data and reasoning.

## Bonus Points
- Experience building observability or log management systems (e.g., Splunk, Datadog, Elastic, Loki, OpenTelemetry).
- Experience operating data lakehouses under high performance and high scale.
- Experience with query DSLs, CEL, or similar expression evaluation frameworks.
- Prior experience in a tech lead or staff engineer capacity on a product-focused team.

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