Staff Data Platform Engineer - Snowflake
Royal Bank of Canada · TORONTO, Ontario, Canada ·
- Seniority
- Staff
- Employment
- Internship
- Category
- Data engineering
- Experience
- 3+ years
Royal Bank of Canada · TORONTO, Ontario, Canada ·
Job Description
What is the opportunity?
Join RBC's Cloud Data Lake Platform (Snowflake) Engineering team as a Staff Data Platform Engineer, where you'll play a critical role in designing, building, and operating one of Canada's largest enterprise data platforms. Our team empowers thousands of Data Scientists, Analysts, and business users across RBC with self-serve analytics capabilities built on Snowflake, delivered through a multi-cloud architecture spanning AWS and Azure.
You'll work on our in-house Snowflake Control Plane — a Python-based platform that automates provisioning, enforces RBAC, manages disaster recovery, and governs how the enterprise interacts with Snowflake. A key focus of this role is enabling Snowflake's AI capabilities (Cortex AI) in a secure, governed, and compliant manner.
Our team is a vibrant collective of knowledgeable experts committed to staying at the forefront of technology. We thrive on collaboration, with a flat team structure where hierarchy takes a backseat to innovation. Every voice is heard, and every idea matters. Senior members serve as mentors, fostering an environment where engineers can grow and excel.
What will you do?
Platform Engineering & AI Enablement
Design, develop, and maintain the Snowflake Control Plane
Enable Snowflake new features with appropriate governance controls, access policies, and compliance guardrails
Collaborate with Model Risk and Compliance teams on AI governance frameworks and responsible AI adoption
Security & Compliance
Implement and maintain security controls — OAuth/SSO integrations, JWT validation, secret management (HashiCorp Vault, Azure Key Vault), and credential lifecycle automation
Enforce platform security posture including rate limiting, input sanitization, and security headers
Drive compliance with enterprise security standards and OSFI guidelines, particularly for AI/ML workloads
Developer Experience & Operations
Build self-service workflows and automation for user onboarding, resource provisioning, and platform management
Operate and improve CI/CD pipelines with progressive deployment, security scanning (SAST, SCA, DAST), and code quality gates
Create technical documentation and contribute to platform observability and monitoring
Technical Leadership
Lead architectural decisions and present trade-offs to technical leadership
Mentor junior engineers and co-op students on platform engineering and security best practices
Participate actively in agile ceremonies, PI planning, and sprint demos
What do you need to succeed?
Must-Have
Technical Skills
Python (Expert): Deep proficiency in Python 3.11+, FastAPI, Pydantic v2, async/await patterns, and building production-grade APIs
Snowflake: Strong working knowledge of Snowflake architecture — roles, databases, schemas, warehouses, stages, storage integrations, failover groups, replication, and AI Suite. Experience with Snowflake security (OAuth, key pair auth, network policies)
Cloud Platforms: Hands-on experience with AWS and Azure — IAM, networking, storage, secret management (Vault, AKV), and multi-cloud service delivery
Security Engineering: Deep understanding of OAuth 2.0 / OIDC, JWT validation, RBAC design, secret management, and enterprise security patterns. Experience implementing security controls in production systems
AI/ML Governance: Understanding of responsible AI principles, model risk management, AI auditing requirements, and regulatory frameworks (OSFI, NIST AI RMF) as they apply to enterprise AI deployments
CI/CD & DevOps: Experience with GitHub Actions (or similar), container-based deployments (Docker, OpenShift/Kubernetes), progressive delivery strategies, and security scanning (SAST, SCA, DAST)
Core Competencies
Systems Thinking: Ability to reason about distributed systems, connection pooling, failover strategies, and the end-to-end implications of enabling AI features on an enterprise data platform
Security Mindset: Instinctive focus on least-privilege access, defense-in-depth, audit trails, and compliance
Technical Leadership: Proven ability to drive architectural decisions, influence without authority, and articulate technical strategy to both engineering peers and business stakeholders
Communication: Excellent written and verbal skills — you'll be presenting to various internal key decision-making teams, writing governance documentation, and mentoring engineers
Ownership & Accountability: Self-driven with a track record of delivering complex, cross-cutting initiatives from design through production
Education & Experience
Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or equivalent practical experience
7+ years of experience in platform engineering, data engineering, cloud engineering, or SRE roles
3+ years working with Snowflake or comparable enterprise data platforms at scale
Experience operating in regulated environments (financial services, healthcare, or government)
Nice-to-Have
Snowflake Cortex AI: Hands-on experience with Cortex Analyst, Cortex Search, Cortex Agents
SnowPro Certifications: SnowPro Core, Advanced: Architect, or Advanced: Data Engineer
Temporal / Workflow Orchestration: Experience with Temporal, Airflow, Step Functions, or similar durable workflow engines
Observability: Hands-on with Dynatrace, Datadog, Prometheus/Grafana, or ELK Stack for APM and platform monitoring
Infrastructure as Code: Terraform, CloudFormation, or similar, for cloud resource management
API Design: Experience designing and evolving large API surfaces (RESTful, OpenAPI/Swagger)
Financial Services: Understanding of Canadian regulatory landscape (OSFI B-13, PIPEDA) and enterprise risk frameworks
LLM/GenAI Security: Knowledge of prompt injection risks, data leakage prevention, and AI-specific threat models
What's in it for you?
Become part of a team that thinks progressively and works collaboratively. We care about seeing each other reach full potential;
A comprehensive Total Rewards Program including bonuses and flexible benefits, competitive compensation, commissions, and stock options where applicable;
Leaders who support your development through coaching and managing opportunities;
Ability to make a difference and lasting impact from a local-to-global scale.
About RBC Borealis
RBC Borealis is the driving force behind Royal Bank of Canada’s AI and data innovation. As part of Canada’s largest financial institution, we bring together a team of architects, engineers, scientists, and product experts on a mission to revolutionize finance through world-class research, solutions, and a resilient data platform. With locations across Toronto, Waterloo, Montreal, Calgary, and Vancouver, we’re at the forefront of AI research and platform development. With a focus on cutting-edge research in areas like time series forecasting, causal machine learning, and responsible AI, we are seamlessly integrating AI research and data engineering, to solve critical challenges in the financial industry. We are building intelligent, and scalable, data-driven solutions that will help communities thrive and drive innovation for our customers across the bank.
Inclusion and Equal Opportunity Employment
RBC is an equal opportunity employer committed to diversity and inclusion. We are pleased to consider all qualified applicants for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, age, disability, protected veterans status, Aboriginal/Native American status or any other legally-protected factors. Disability-related accommodations during the application process are available upon request.
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Job Skills
Active Learning, Agile Methodology, Application Integrations, Detail-Oriented, Enterprise Application Delivery, Group Problem Solving, Programming Languages, Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC)Additional Job Details
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Our Employment Opportunities
At RBC, we are guided by living shared values of Client First, Integrity, Collaboration, Respect and Excellence and winning together as One RBC. We believe an inclusive workplace that has diverse perspectives is core to our continued growth as one of the largest and most successful banks in the world. Maintaining a workplace where our employees feel supported to perform at their best, effectively collaborate, drive innovation, and grow professionally helps to bring our Purpose to life and create value for our clients and communities. RBC strives to deliver this through policies and programs intended to foster a workplace based on respect, belonging and opportunity for all.
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