> AI agents: this is one page of Nextmove’s FDE site, in Markdown. Nextmove is a job board and free career service for forward deployed engineers (FDEs). Each posting is classified from its text, not its title: the kind of work, how much of it is production code, pre-sales weight, time at customer sites, travel, remote arrangement, level and posted base pay. The site also publishes the aggregates: median pay by level, metro, company and kind of work, and which companies started hiring FDEs each week. Every page under https://nextmove.md/fde is served this way; the index of pages is https://nextmove.md/llms.txt. # Principal Forward Deployed Engineer I, Frontier Engineering Canonical URL: https://nextmove.md/fde/jobs/df82a2a7144b8407 Snowflake posts a principal FDE role to build what the customer runs in Menlo Park, CA, at $264,000–$379,500 base, above the staff+ FDE median of $225,000 across 388 postings with pay. Principal Forward Deployed Engineer leading architecture and end-to-end delivery of production-grade AI systems for Snowflake’s most strategic enterprise customers. Read from the employer’s posting on November 8, 2026. - [Snowflake](https://nextmove.md/fde/companies/snowflake) Posted Oct 15, 2026 by Snowflake · open on Ashby as of Nov 8, 2026 **$264,000–$379,500** Menlo Park, CA Hybrid Full-time Principal Forward Deployed Engineer leading architecture and end-to-end delivery of production-grade AI systems for Snowflake’s most strategic enterprise customers. - [See roles that fit me](https://nextmove.md/sign-up?from=%2Ffde%2Fjobs%2Fdf82a2a7144b8407&placement=top) - [View posting at Snowflake](https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/snowflake/2c4475a5-c88a-48fc-878a-8b324679745a/application) Free. Upload your resume once, see why each FDE role fits, and get introduced only when you say so. ## At a glance ### Posted base pay $264K–$380K Above the median Midpoint $322K · median $225K This job $264K to $380K. Staff+ FDE postings, 388 postings: the middle 50% of posted pay is $197K to $262K, median $225K. ### The work Builds what the customer runs Balance **Mixed** Project stages 1. Pre-sales (not covered) 2. Proof of concept (not covered) 3. Implementation 4. Operations (not covered) Travel **Required, amount not stated** - **Coding**: Writes production code - **Builds for**: External customers - **Level**: Staff+ - **Role**: Technical lead ### What they ask for Experience - **15+ years** software engineering - **3+ years** building and shipping production AI/ML or agentic systems at enterprise scale Background - **Software engineering** ### Do you meet what the posting states? The posting asks for 3+ years. How many do you have? The posting reads as a staff-level role. What level are you at now? The job is in Menlo Park, CA. Could you work there? Which of these have you used in production? Answer each one. Nothing is saved or sent. [What postings ask for, by background →](https://nextmove.md/fde/paths) ## Conditions - **Location**: Menlo Park, CA - **Work arrangement**: Hybrid - **Employment type**: Full-time - **Travel**: Travel required, amount not stated - **Pay**: ## More like this [Analog Devices](https://nextmove.md/fde/companies/analog-devices) ### [Staff Forward Deployed Engineer](https://nextmove.md/fde/jobs/55ab1cb03c40426b) San Jose, CA · Boston, MA 9d ago $197,800–$271,975 [Figma](https://nextmove.md/fde/companies/figma) ### [Forward Deployed Engineer](https://nextmove.md/fde/jobs/a3cc84cc99542a8d) San Francisco, CA · New York, NY Remote 2mo ago $153,000–$376,000 [Scale AI](https://nextmove.md/fde/companies/scale-ai) ### [Senior Staff Frontier Agents Engineer](https://nextmove.md/fde/jobs/2865522375d0ee1d) San Francisco, CA · New York, NY · +1 more 5mo ago $288,000–$360,000 - [Other jobs at Snowflake (7)](https://nextmove.md/fde/companies/snowflake) ## The job description from Snowflake Posted by Snowflake on Oct 15, 2026 At Snowflake, we are powering the era of the agentic enterprise. To usher in this new era, we seek AI-native thinkers across every function who are energized by the opportunity to reinvent how they work. You don’t just use tools; you possess an innate curiosity, treating AI as a high-trust collaborator that is core to how you solve problems and accelerate your impact. We look for low-ego individuals who thrive in dynamic and fast-moving environments and move with an experimental mindset — who rapidly test emerging capabilities to discover simpler, more powerful ways to deliver results. At Snowflake, your role isn't just to execute a function, but to help redefine the future of how work gets done. 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. We are hiring a Principal Forward Deployed Engineer for our Frontier Engineering team. This team embeds directly with Snowflake's most strategic customers to design, build, and deploy production-grade AI systems . At the Principal level, you are the senior technical counterpart to CTOs, VPs of Engineering, and chief architects at our largest enterprise customers; you set the technical direction that the Frontier Engineering organization follows. ### AS A PRINCIPAL FORWARD DEPLOYED ENGINEER YOU WILL: - **Be the trusted technical partner to customer engineering leadership:** Build durable, peer-level relationships with CTOs, VPs of Engineering, chief architects, and heads of data/AI at Snowflake’s most strategic accounts: lead architectural steering, technical reviews, and executive strategy alignment to help shape their AI roadmaps. - **Drive Architecture & Technical Strategy Across High-Stakes Deployments: **Own end-to-end technical execution and outcomes across Snowflake’s most complex, high-visibility AI engagements. - **Stay hands-on: **Write production code and working prototypes on the most critical parts of customer programs, and review designs and code to set the bar for how the team builds. - **Own the AI quality bar:** Lead how the team measures and improves AI quality, turning ambiguous customer goals into clear, testable evaluation standards. - **Provide Technical Leadership & Mentorship: **Mentor Senior and Staff engineers, raise engineering standards across the organization, and partner with cross-functional leads to drive complex technical initiatives. - **Travel to Customer Sites: **Spend at least 25% of your time onsite working with customers. ### OUR IDEAL CANDIDATE WILL HAVE: - 15+ years of software engineering experience, including at least 3 years building and shipping production AI/ML or agentic systems at enterprise scale. - Proven track record as a trusted technical advisor to CTOs and executive engineering leaders at large enterprises. - Demonstrated success converting client/field delivery patterns into reusable platforms, tools, frameworks, or open-source libraries. - Deep expertise in production AI architectures—including RAG pipelines, multi-step agentic systems, evaluation frameworks, and guardrails. - Hands-on builder who writes and reviews production code and stays close to implementation. - Strong systems mindset with exceptional technical communication skills across both deeply technical and executive audiences. ### BONUS POINTS FOR THE FOLLOWING: - Experience shipping features into a commercial data or AI platform, based on customer requirements. - Active contributions to open-source AI frameworks, technical publications, or industry speaking engagements. - Familiarity with Cortex AI, Snowpark, or modern enterprise data infrastructure platforms. ### WHY JOIN FRONTIER ENGINEERING AT SNOWFLAKE? Frontier Engineering is where Snowflake’s AI platform meets reality. You’re not building demos, you’re shipping AI applications that run in some of the world’s most complex enterprise environments. You will work on hard problems with real stakes, alongside engineers who are deeply technical and customer-obsessed. How do you want to make your impact? 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: careers.snowflake.com [View posting at Snowflake](https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/snowflake/2c4475a5-c88a-48fc-878a-8b324679745a/application) ## About Snowflake Cloud-native data platform letting enterprises run analytics, AI/ML, and apps on governed data across AWS, Azure, and GCP without moving it. Public · 5000+ people ## Similar jobs [Salesforce](https://nextmove.md/fde/companies/salesforce) ### [Expert Agent Builder, Forward Deployed Engineering](https://nextmove.md/fde/jobs/0491722a5ab5e6bd) San Francisco, CA 7w ago $97,860–$316,750 [Thomson Reuters](https://nextmove.md/fde/companies/thomson-reuters) ### [Principal Software Engineer / Architect – AI, CoCounsel FDE](https://nextmove.md/fde/jobs/8c6d98a56ed501dd) New York, NY · Frisco, TX · +7 more Hybrid 6w ago $158,900–$340,000 [Onos Health](https://nextmove.md/fde/companies/onos-health) ### [Senior Product Engineer](https://nextmove.md/fde/jobs/d2733a0bcb09996e) San Francisco, CA Hybrid 3mo ago $200,000–$250,000 [Accordion](https://nextmove.md/fde/companies/accordion) ### [Staff Software Engineer](https://nextmove.md/fde/jobs/d3541d229218a784) Boston, MA · Charlotte, NC · +4 more Hybrid 1mo ago $200,000–$290,000 [Decagon](https://nextmove.md/fde/companies/decagon) ### [Engineering Lead, Strategic Deployments](https://nextmove.md/fde/jobs/55e8a726e8f37fe4) San Francisco, CA On-site 3mo ago $200,000–$400,000 - [Compare staff+ FDE salary ranges](https://nextmove.md/fde/salary/staff) - [Similar jobs in SF Bay Area](https://nextmove.md/fde/jobs?region=sf-bay-area) - [Similar jobs that build what the customer runs](https://nextmove.md/fde/jobs?role=builds-for-customers) Hiring at Snowflake and want this page changed or removed? 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