Edtech.com's Summary

University of Pennsylvania is hiring a Snowflake Advancement Intelligence Engineer. The role designs, builds, and maintains the Snowflake and Salesforce data pipelines and models that turn institutional data into actionable intelligence for fundraising and alumni relations, working within Advancement Prospect Analytics. The engineer supports staff across Penn's 18 schools and central Development and Alumni Relations and reports to the Senior Director of Advancement Analytics.

Highlights

Build and troubleshoot system-to-system integrations and automated data pipelines between Snowflake, Salesforce, and external sources, including REST API connections, key-pair and OAuth authentication, and daily ETL processes with error logging.
Develop and optimize complex SQL queries, views, and middleware, and design the dimensional data models and transformation layers that give fundraisers reliable prospect data.
Manage code in Git with branching strategies, pull requests, and CI/CD for analytics so that SQL, R, and Python scripts are versioned, audited, and recoverable.
Deploy and maintain dashboards and statistical environments across Qlik Cloud, Snowflake, and Posit Connect, and support users across Penn's schools and centers.
Govern Snowflake Cortex AI use by monitoring credit consumption, setting usage policies, defining guardrails for LLM use such as data masking and PII handling, and enforcing Penn's data security policies.
Gather requirements for strategic initiatives, track project milestones and backlogs in Asana or JIRA, and advise Development and Alumni Relations staff on data solutions.
Bring a bachelor's degree and 3 to 5 years of experience in data engineering or systems analysis, plus at least 3 years of recent, hands-on production Snowflake work covering RBAC, Streams and Tasks, MERGE-based loading, and semi-structured data ingestion.
Show advanced SQL fluency, Python for REST API and Snowflake connectivity work, and experience building production integrations and diagnosing failures such as IP allowlisting and network policy issues.
Preferred: SnowPro Core Certification, Salesforce NPSP experience, and an understanding of the higher education advancement lifecycle, including Major Gifts and Annual Giving.
Pay range of $84,961 to $100,000 per year, with a hybrid-eligible arrangement in Philadelphia.
Expect a Snowflake SQL technical screening during interviews, and submit a resume and cover letter.

Snowflake Advancement Intelligence Engineer Full Description

Job Description Summary

The Snowflake Advancement Intelligence Engineer is a technical architect within Advancement Prospect Analytics (APA), turning complex institutional data into actionable intelligence for fundraising and alumni relations. The role bridges raw data infrastructure and frontline fundraising strategy by designing, building, and maintaining data products on a modern cloud stack.

The incumbent utilizes Snowflake for data warehousing and Salesforce NPSP for relationship management, engineering integrations that empower 18 schools and central DAR staff to identify and engage Penn's most impactful prospects. The role works across the full analytics workflow: Git for version control and peer review, Asana or JIRA for project tracking, and Qlik Cloud, Snowflake, and Posit Connect for deploying dashboards and predictive models that support the University's fundraising campaigns.

This position reports directly to the Senior Director of Advancement Analytics in Development and Alumni Relations.

Job Responsibilities:

Systems Architecture & Data Engineering

Design, build, and troubleshoot system-to-system integrations and automated data pipelines between Snowflake, Salesforce, and external sources, including REST API-based connections, secure authentication (short-lived tokens, key-pair/OAuth), and daily ETL processes with error logging.
Develop and optimize complex SQL queries, views, and middleware to ensure data integrity and high performance across the advancement ecosystem.
Design dimensional data models and transformation layers that turn raw data into strategic fundraising tools and actionable insights.

Development Workflow & Governance

Establish and maintain best practices for code management in Git, including branching strategies, pull requests, and documentation-as-code.
Ensure all analytical scripts (SQL, R, Python) are versioned, audited, and recoverable.
Implement CI/CD principles for analytics to enable reliable, tested, automated deployment of data models.

Project Management & Stakeholder Engagement

Track project milestones, manage backlogs, and communicate project health.
Coordinate requirements gathering for strategic initiatives, translating business needs into technical specifications and transparent timelines.
Advise DAR users on the planning, selection, and implementation of data solutions to address specific business requirements.

Advanced Analytics & AI

Deploy and maintain visualization tools and statistical environments across Qlik Cloud, Snowflake, and Posit Connect.
Leverage Snowflake Cortex AI for data engineering and AI-driven analytics tasks.
Monitor application health and provide technical support to users across Penn's schools and centers.

AI Governance, Security & Cost Management

Manage AI cost governance: Monitor and optimize Snowflake Cortex AI credit consumption, set usage policies, and report on AI workload costs to leadership.
Establish AI guardrails: Define and enforce standards for responsible use of LLMs and Cortex AI functions, including data masking, PII handling, and output validation before deployment.
AI security oversight: Ensure all AI-driven pipelines and integrations comply with Penn's data security policies, including secrets management, token rotation, and role-based access controls for AI services.

Note: This role requires substantive, hands-on Snowflake experience. Applicants should be prepared to speak in specific detail about Snowflake projects they have built (e.g., pipelines, data models, warehouse/RBAC configuration) and may be asked to complete a brief technical screening in Snowflake SQL as part of the interview process. Applicants should also be prepared to discuss integrations they have built involving Snowflake connectivity, authentication, and troubleshooting.

Please provide a resume and cover letter in order to be considered for this role. Please upload all documents in the Resume/CV section of the application prior to submitting.

Qualifications:

Bachelor's degree and 3-5 years of experience in data engineering, systems analysis, or a related technical field, or an equivalent combination of education and experience.
Minimum 3 years of recent, hands-on, production experience with Snowflake, including warehouse sizing/cost management, RBAC, Streams & Tasks/Dynamic Tables, MERGE-based incremental loading, and stage-based ingestion of semi-structured data (JSON/Parquet/CSV). General SQL experience on other platforms alone does not meet this requirement.
Advanced SQL fluency - complex CTEs, window functions, MERGE, and CTAS - and experience designing dimensional/star-schema data models through reusable, production-grade views.
Python for data engineering: Proficiency in Python for consuming REST APIs, handling authentication and secrets, parsing and transforming structured/semi-structured data (e.g., JSON), and connecting to Snowflake programmatically (e.g., via the Snowflake Connector for Python or SQLAlchemy).
Integration & connectivity engineering: Demonstrated experience building and maintaining production system-to-system integrations, including developing brokering middleware or services to connect systems that cannot integrate natively, and independently diagnosing failures across the stack - including network-layer issues such as IP allowlisting, network policies, and changing provider IP ranges.
Proven experience with Git version control workflows.

Preferred Qualifications:

SnowPro Certification: SnowPro Core Certification (or higher) strongly preferred. Candidates without a current certification should be prepared to demonstrate equivalent hands-on Snowflake expertise.
Salesforce NPSP: Experience with Salesforce NPSP (Non-Profit Success Pack) and architecting its schemas within a Snowflake environment.
Project Tooling: Experience managing complex task dependencies in Asana or JIRA.
Stored Procedures: Experience writing stored procedures (SQL, and/or JavaScript or Python) and UDFs for procedural data transformation logic.
Data Sharing & Marketplace: Experience consuming Snowflake Marketplace data products and configuring inbound/outbound Secure Data Shares.
AI & NLP: Experience using LLMs (OpenAI, Anthropic, or open-source equivalents) for AI-driven text processing and analytics; familiarity with Snowflake Cortex AI functions and/or agent-building a plus.
Statistical Programming: Proficiency in R or Python for data mining, statistical inference, and predictive modeling.
Domain Knowledge: Understanding of the Higher Education Advancement lifecycle - Prospect Pipeline management, Annual Giving, and Major Gifts - along with gift accounting concepts (e.g., hard vs. soft credit, recognition types).

Pay Range

$84,961.00 - $100,000.00 Annual Rate

Salary offers are made based on the candidate's qualifications, experience, skills, and education as they directly relate to the requirements of the position, and in alignment with salary ranges based on external market data for the job's level. Internal organization and peer data at Penn are also considered.

Equal Opportunity Statement

The University of Pennsylvania is an equal opportunity employer. Candidates are considered for employment without regard to race, color, sex, sexual orientation, religion, creed, national origin (including shared ancestry or ethnic characteristics), citizenship status, age, disability, veteran status or any class protected under applicable federal, state or local law.

Special Requirements

Background checks may be required after a conditional job offer is made. Consideration of the background check will be tailored to the requirements of the job.

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Snowflake Advancement Intelligence Engineer

Edtech.com's Summary

Snowflake Advancement Intelligence Engineer Full Description

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