Senior / Principal Snowflake Architect FinOps, Governance & Security

Senior / Principal Snowflake Architect - FinOps, Governance & Security

Location: Irving, TX - Hybrid

Duration: Initial 8-10 Weeks

Rate: Open as per Market, need on our W2

Industry: Aviation

Target Start: Mid-October

Onsite Requirement: Approximately 1-2 weeks onsite initially, with additional onsite availability for final presentation as needed

Position Overview

We are seeking a Senior / Principal-level Snowflake Architect for an initial 8-10 week consulting engagement supporting the assessment of a large, complex enterprise Snowflake environment.

This is a highly consultative, architecture and advisory-focused role. The primary focus will be Snowflake FinOps, compute optimization, cost management, governance, security, and overall platform architecture.

The ideal candidate will have experience entering an established enterprise Snowflake environment, quickly understanding how the platform is being utilized, identifying the root causes of excessive consumption and cost, and developing a practical roadmap for optimization and remediation.

This is not primarily a Snowflake development role. We are looking for a senior SME who can assess the Snowflake ecosystem holistically, identify architectural and operational gaps, provide actionable recommendations, and guide technical and business stakeholders toward a more optimized, governed, secure, and cost-effective platform.

Key Responsibilities

• Conduct a comprehensive assessment of a large-scale enterprise Snowflake environment.
• Evaluate current-state Snowflake architecture, configuration, governance, security, ingestion, ETL/ELT, integration, and operational processes.
• Lead the Snowflake FinOps and compute optimization assessment.
• Analyze Snowflake consumption, workloads, queries, warehouses, and usage patterns to identify drivers of excessive cost.
• Identify opportunities to improve compute utilization, workload management, resource allocation, and overall platform efficiency.
• Evaluate cost visibility, budgeting, forecasting, chargeback/showback, and ongoing FinOps governance practices.
• Identify unnecessary or inefficient querying, warehouse utilization, data-management practices, and architectural patterns contributing to increased consumption.
• Assess Snowflake governance frameworks, including standards, policies, ownership, processes, controls, and operating models.
• Review Snowflake security architecture, including roles, permissions, access controls, administrative access, and security best practices.
• Evaluate the current environment against Snowflake architecture, security, governance, and optimization best practices.
• Assess data ingestion and integration processes and their impact on Snowflake performance, cost, and governance.
• Evaluate Snowflake's interaction with the broader enterprise data ecosystem, including Informatica and other integration technologies.
• Identify architectural, operational, governance, security, and configuration gaps.
• Distinguish symptoms from underlying/root causes and develop practical recommendations.
• Identify quick wins and low-hanging opportunities that can be addressed during the assessment.
• Develop a prioritized current-state to future-state roadmap and remediation plan.
• Participate in technical discovery sessions, stakeholder interviews, and architecture discussions.
• Clearly communicate findings, risks, recommendations, priorities, and remediation strategies to technical and business stakeholders.
• Prepare and present final assessment findings and recommendations to leadership and relevant stakeholders.
• Provide guidance to technical teams on recommended Snowflake architecture, governance, security, and operating practices.

Required Qualifications

• Extensive experience designing, assessing, and supporting large-scale enterprise Snowflake environments.
• Senior or Principal-level experience as a Snowflake Architect / SME.
• Proven experience with Snowflake FinOps, compute optimization, and cost management.
• Deep understanding of Snowflake's consumption and pricing model and architectural factors that influence platform costs.
• Demonstrated experience identifying and resolving inefficient Snowflake compute utilization and consumption patterns.
• Strong experience with Snowflake governance, including:
  • Standards and policies
  • Platform ownership
  • Operating models
  • Controls and processes
  • Cost governance
• Strong understanding of Snowflake security architecture, including:
  • Role-based access control
  • Roles and privileges
  • Access management
  • Administrative access
  • Security best practices
• Experience conducting current-state architecture/platform assessments.
• Experience developing future-state architectures, optimization strategies, and remediation roadmaps.
• Strong understanding of enterprise data warehousing and ETL/ELT architecture.
• Experience with data ingestion and enterprise integration patterns.
• Ability to operate at a strategic and architectural level while maintaining enough technical depth to identify and support targeted configuration changes.
• Experience working within large, mature, and complex enterprise data environments.
• Strong consulting, stakeholder management, documentation, communication, and presentation skills.

Desired Qualifications

• Experience with Informatica Intelligent Data Management Cloud (IDMC).
• Strong understanding of Informatica integration with enterprise Snowflake environments.
• Experience with MuleSoft or other enterprise integration technologies.
• Previous experience performing:
  • Snowflake architecture assessments
  • Platform health assessments
  • FinOps/optimization assessments
  • Governance assessments
  • Security assessments
• Experience transitioning an architecture or optimization assessment into a larger remediation, modernization, or transformation initiative.
• Experience presenting technical assessment findings and recommendations to executive or senior business stakeholders.