STEM OPT Staff Software Engineer Jobs
Staff Software Engineer roles sit squarely within STEM OPT eligibility, typically requiring a computer science, software engineering, or related STEM degree. Your 24-month STEM OPT extension gives you up to 36 months total to build the sponsorship track record these senior roles demand, and every employer must be enrolled in E-Verify.
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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.
Senior Software Engineer — Cortex Training
The Snowflake ML Platform team's mission is to let customers run their most demanding ML/AI workloads inside Snowflake. Cortex Training is our LLM post-training platform: it turns scarce, expensive GPU capacity into a simple, composable service, so customers can adapt open-weight foundation models to their own business problems while we handle the hard distributed-systems parts, including scheduling, orchestration, multi-node training and inference, fault tolerance, and throughput.
The platform already runs post-training at scale. Under the hood, it decouples GPU computation from the training loop and exposes it as primitive APIs that compose into everything from SFT to full RL workflows. You'll work alongside a team that ships fast & sweats reliability and the researchers behind DeepSpeed. We're looking for an engineer who thrives in the ML infrastructure layer and brings a solid understanding of LLMs and post-training to help us scale and grow it.
YOU WILL:
- Design and build across the full stack — from the public training APIs and SDK through the control plane to the GPU data plane.
- Scale the distributed systems that make GPU compute serverless — multi-tenant scheduling, placement, and capacity-aware routing across regional GPU pools, with fault tolerance built in.
- Drive end-to-end performance at scale — keep the training, inference, and RL loops fast and the data plane responsive under heavy concurrent load, with GPUs kept saturated.
- Productionize research building blocks — partner with Snowflake Research to turn state-of-the-art training and inference techniques into reliable, composable components customers can run at enterprise scale.
QUALIFICATIONS:
- 3 + years (Intermediate) | 6+ years (Senior) building and shipping production ML systems
- Strong distributed systems and infrastructure foundation — designing scalable, fault-tolerant services and operating them on Kubernetes in production.
- Familiarity with GPU and LLM infrastructure — e.g., PyTorch, DeepSpeed/FSDP, Ray, CUDA/NCCL, vLLM; able to debug across the data, infrastructure, and GPU layers.
- Demonstrated ability to harden complex systems for reliability, throughput, and cost efficiency.
- BS in Computer Science or a related field (MS/PhD a plus).
- (Bonus) Hands-on LLM post-training / modeling experience — the strongest candidates pair deep infra skills with real post-training intuition.
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
The following represents the expected range of compensation for this role:
- The estimated base salary range for this role is $200,000 - $287,500.
- Additionally, this role is eligible to participate in Snowflake’s bonus and equity plan.
The successful candidate’s starting salary will be determined based on permissible, non-discriminatory factors such as skills, experience, and geographic location. This role is also eligible for a competitive benefits package that includes: medical, dental, vision, life, and disability insurance; 401(k) retirement plan; flexible spending & health savings account; at least 12 paid holidays; paid time off; parental leave; employee assistance program; and other company benefits.
To comply with pay transparency requirements and other statutes, you can notify us if you believe that a job posting is not compliant by completing this form.
See all 309+ STEM OPT Staff Software Engineer Jobs
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Get Access To All JobsTips for Finding STEM OPT Authorization as a Staff Software Engineer
Verify your CIP code before applying
Check that your degree's Classification of Instructional Programs code maps to an approved STEM field through USCIS. Computer science, software engineering, and information systems degrees typically qualify, but interdisciplinary or business-adjacent STEM degrees sometimes require your DSO to confirm eligibility before you submit your STEM OPT extension.
Confirm E-Verify enrollment before accepting offers
Ask your recruiter for the company's E-Verify company ID or have HR pull their enrollment status directly from the E-Verify portal. A verbal assurance isn't enough. Staff-level roles often involve longer offer-to-start timelines, so catching a non-enrolled employer early prevents delays that could jeopardize your authorization window.
Benchmark your offer against prevailing wage data
Use the OFLC Wage Search to look up the Level III or Level IV prevailing wage for software developer roles in your metro area before negotiating. Staff Engineer titles frequently correspond to Level III or IV wage tiers, and understanding the DOL benchmark strengthens your position and signals H-1B visa readiness to future-focused employers.
Target employers with structured I-983 processes
Ask during interviews whether the company has filed training plans for OPT students before. Employers unfamiliar with the I-983 often delay or incorrectly complete it, which can create compliance gaps. Larger engineering organizations with dedicated HR immigration teams are more likely to have a repeatable process already in place.
Search Migrate Mate to filter Staff Engineer roles by E-Verify status
Filter your Staff Software Engineer job search on Migrate Mate to surface only employers already enrolled in E-Verify. This removes the manual verification step from hundreds of applications and lets you focus interview energy on companies structurally ready to support your STEM OPT authorization from day one.
File your STEM OPT extension at least 90 days early
USCIS allows you to apply for the 24-month STEM OPT extension up to 90 days before your initial OPT expires. Submitting early gives you a cap-gap buffer if you're transitioning into an H-1B sponsorship cycle and protects continuous work authorization during USCIS processing at senior-level offer timelines.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does a Staff Software Engineer role qualify for STEM OPT?
Yes, Staff Software Engineer is a STEM-designated occupation under DOL's Standard Occupational Classification system. Your eligibility depends on your degree's CIP code, not just the job title. Computer science, software engineering, electrical engineering, and related STEM degrees qualify. Your DSO confirms your specific degree's eligibility and updates your I-20 before USCIS approves the 24-month extension.
What does the I-983 training plan require for a Staff Software Engineer?
The I-983 must document specific learning objectives tied to your STEM degree, a supervision structure, and how the role advances your technical training. For Staff Engineers, this typically means outlining system design responsibilities, mentorship of junior engineers, and technical domains covered. Your employer signs and retains the I-983, and your DSO must also sign before you begin the extension period.
How does cap-gap work if I'm a Staff Software Engineer on STEM OPT?
If your employer files an H-1B petition on your behalf before your STEM OPT expires and USCIS receives it by April 1, cap-gap automatically extends your work authorization through September 30. You can continue working at the Staff Engineer level during this period without any gap in authorization, as long as you remain with the same E-Verify-enrolled employer that filed the petition.
How do I find Staff Software Engineer employers enrolled in E-Verify?
Migrate Mate filters Staff Software Engineer job listings by E-Verify enrollment status, so you can focus on employers who are already structured to support STEM OPT authorization. E-Verify enrollment is a legal prerequisite for any employer hiring on STEM OPT, and verifying it before applying saves significant time late in the offer process.
Can I work at a startup as a Staff Software Engineer on STEM OPT?
Yes, but the startup must be enrolled in E-Verify before you begin working. Startups that have never sponsored a STEM OPT employee may not yet be enrolled. Confirm enrollment status directly with the hiring manager or HR contact, and build extra lead time into your offer negotiation so the company can complete E-Verify registration before your start date if needed.