Staff Research Scientist, AI Agents & LLMs

Reposted 19 Days Ago
Be an Early Applicant
2 Locations
Hybrid
236K-339K Annually
Expert/Leader
Artificial Intelligence • Big Data • Cloud • Machine Learning • Software • Database • Analytics
Let's build a world where data and AI turn possibilities into reality.
The Role
The Staff Research Scientist will define research directions in AI and LLMs, develop models and systems for autonomous decision-making, and lead efforts to translate research into impactful solutions while mentoring team members.
Summary Generated by Built In

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.

THE MISSION

We are seeking a Staff Research Scientist to serve as a technical pillar within our AI research organization. You will not just execute on roadmaps—you will define them.

At the intersection of autonomous agents and large language models (LLMs), you will build the models and systems that turn enterprise data into self-directed, decision-making agents—shifting from passive data access to autonomous execution.

Our team operates at the frontier of enterprise AI, delivering both state-of-the-art models and production systems, including:

  • Arctic LLM: Enterprise foundation models optimized for performance and efficiency

  • Arctic-Text2SQL: Post-trained reasoning models with frontier-level quality at a fraction of cost and latency

  • Snowflake Intelligence: Brought research to production through agentic innovations in multi-step reasoning, Deep Research for structured and unstructured insights, and system optimization

  • Arctic Inference: High-performance LLM serving stack (Shift Parallelism, SwiftKV), open-sourced and powering Snowflake Cortex

  • Arctic Long-Context Training: Enables 1M+ token context training on a single H200 GPU

  • Agent World Models (AWM): RL training across 1,000+ synthetic environments for tool-using agents

We focus on core challenges such as reliable reasoning, long-horizon planning, grounded generation, and scalable model and agent development.

IN THIS ROLE, YOU WILL:
  • Define research direction in Agentic AI and LLMs

  • Develop models: train, fine-tune, and align models for enterprise reasoning and tool use

  • Advance autonomous agents: drive state-of-the-art capabilities in multi-step reasoning and tool use

  • Advance the stack: retrieval, grounding, memory, and multi-agent coordination

  • Establish evaluation standards for reliability, safety, and efficiency

  • Drive research breakthroughs into production within Snowflake’s platform

  • Mentor and lead to amplify the team’s technical impact

  • Contribute to the field through publications and open source

WE’RE LOOKING FOR:
  • Ph.D. in Computer Science or a related field with a strong publication record

  • Expertise in LLM development (training, fine-tuning, alignment, or post-training)

  • Experience with agentic systems (multi-agent systems, tool use, or agent optimization)

  • Strong systems thinking under real-world constraints (latency, cost, reliability)

  • Proven technical leadership and end-to-end ownership

  • Ability to translate research into impactful systems

WHY SNOWFLAKE?

Frontier AI, Full Stack
Work across the full stack—from foundation models (Arctic LLM, Arctic Text2SQL) to agent systems (Snowflake Intelligence) and inference/training infrastructure (Arctic Inference, Arctic Training).

State-of-the-Art, Real Impact
Drive cutting-edge research that ships—powered by massive enterprise data and production workloads.

Hard, Meaningful Problems
Build autonomous systems for reliable reasoning over enterprise data—where correctness, cost, and latency all matter.

Open Research Culture
Publish, open-source, and help shape the field.

Snowflake is growing fast, and we are scaling our team to accelerate AI innovation.

Are you ready to build the brain for the Enterprise Data Cloud?

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: careers.snowflake.com

Skills Required

  • Ph.D. in Computer Science or a related field
  • Strong publication record
  • Expertise in LLM development (training, fine-tuning, alignment, or post-training)
  • Experience with agentic systems (multi-agent systems, tool use, or agent optimization)
  • Strong systems thinking under real-world constraints (latency, cost, reliability)
  • Proven technical leadership and end-to-end ownership
  • Ability to translate research into impactful systems

Snowflake Compensation & Benefits Highlights

The following summarizes recurring compensation and benefits themes identified from responses generated by popular LLMs to common candidate questions about Snowflake and has not been reviewed or approved by Snowflake.

  • Equity Value & Accessibility Equity grants (RSUs) and an ESPP are central to total compensation and are described as highly valuable. Feedback suggests many see equity as a major satisfaction driver with meaningful upside potential.
  • Fair & Transparent Compensation Pay is considered competitive and accompanied by clear communication on salary, equity, and advancement. Feedback suggests pay practices emphasize fairness and transparency.
  • Parental & Family Support Paid parental leave, fertility benefits, adoption assistance, and family planning resources are notably comprehensive. Feedback suggests these programs materially support major life events.

Snowflake Insights

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The Company
HQ: Bozeman, MT
9,023 Employees
Year Founded: 2012

What We Do

Snowflake powers the end-to-end data lifecycle – from ingesting and processing data to analyzing and modeling it, to building and sharing data and AI applications – helping engineers, analysts, and leaders innovate faster and achieve more with their data. We're on a mission to empower every enterprise to achieve its full potential through data and AI.

Why Work With Us

Snowflake is where data does more, and so do you. More innovating, more growing, and more collaborating. Here, you’ll find the sweet spot between building big and moving fast, in technology and your career.

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