Snowflake Data Engineer / Architect

About the Role We are building a Data Operations Center of Excellence (Data Ops CoE) from the ground up. Snowflake will serve as our enterprise data lake and mart layer, fed by operational systems including Salesforce, NetSuite, Marketo, and Rippling, running on a Microsoft Azure backbone. This contractor role is central to that build-out: you will design, implement, and deliver a governed, trusted data platform that enables self-service analytics and AI-powered applications across the business. What You’ll Do • Design and implement the Snowflake data lake architecture including raw, curated, and mart layers (separate schemas/databases per domain). • Build and maintain ELT pipelines ingesting data from Salesforce (via Salesforce Data Cloud), NetSuite, Marketo, and Rippling using Snowflake-native connectors and Azure Data Factory. • Define and enforce role-based access control (RBAC) in Snowflake, integrated with Microsoft Entra ID (SSO). • Collaborate with business stakeholders to define data mart requirements, data ownership, and certification standards. • Implement data quality checks and cleansing logic, particularly for Salesforce CRM data which is a known quality risk. • Support the setup of a data catalog (Apache Atlas or Alation — TBD) including lineage, ownership tagging, and certification status. • Produce documentation for all data models, pipeline logic, and governance decisions. • Optionally support development of Snowflake Streamlit apps or Power BI-connected certified datasets for executive reporting. Required Skills & Experience • 3+ years of hands-on Snowflake experience: schema design, performance tuning, RBAC, data sharing. • Strong ELT/ETL pipeline experience — Snowflake-native features (Streams, Tasks, Snowpipe) and/or Azure Data Factory. • Experience integrating Salesforce data into a data warehouse or lake (Salesforce Data Cloud or MuleSoft a plus). • Proficiency in SQL and Python for data transformation and automation. • Familiarity with data modeling concepts: star/snowflake schemas, slowly changing dimensions, data vaults. • Experience implementing RBAC and data governance in a cloud data platform. • Comfortable working in Microsoft Azure (Data Factory, Key Vault, App Service). • Able to work independently and communicate clearly with non-technical stakeholders. Nice to Have • Experience with dbt (data build tool) for transformation layer. • Familiarity with Snowflake Streamlit for building lightweight operational apps. • Experience with Power BI connected to Snowflake certified datasets. • Knowledge of Apache Atlas or Alation for data cataloging. • Prior work in a Data Ops CoE or data governance initiative. • NetSuite or Marketo data integration experience. A Note on Data Quality Our Salesforce data currently has known quality issues that contributed to an earlier Snowflake POC being deemed insufficient. The right candidate will have experience navigating dirty source data, helping identify ownership gaps, and building cleansing logic into the pipeline — not just assuming clean inputs. Comfort with ambiguity and a pragmatic approach to incremental improvement is essential.