2026 AWARD PROGRAM
SNOWFLAKECOMMUNITY AWARDS
Celebrating the people who make our community extraordinary
The Snowflake Community Awards honor the individuals and groups who uplift, educate, and inspire others across the Snowflake ecosystem. From community leaders to educators to open source innovators and AI pioneers, these awards spotlight people who are making an outsized impact across the data community.
Cast your vote before September 15, 2026
about
Celebrating the builders, mentors, and educators who make the ecosystem stronger.
Each year, the Community Awards will recognize standout contributors who embody the spirit of collaboration, generosity, and innovation that strengthen the Snowflake community.
Contributions we celebrate
Hosting meetups, publishing technical tutorials, mentoring others, and helping the community learn, build, and innovate with Snowflake.
Who can be nominated
Builders, educators, community leaders, and open source contributors who strengthen the ecosystem through their time, expertise, and creativity.
How winners are recognized
Winners will be announced the week of Expedition Global and featured across Snowflake Community channels.
Six categories of community excellence
Awards span two tracks: the Individual & Group Track, which focuses on an individual’s or team's journey, and the Impact & Excellence Track, which focuses on the output, the code, or the innovation.
Community Champion of the Year
Recognizes an individual who consistently uplifts the Snowflake community through mentorship, advocacy, and sustained contributions across multiple programs and channels.
Technical Educator of the Year
Recognizes an individual creating exceptional technical learning experiences — blogs, videos, tutorials, workshops, or courses that help others understand and apply Snowflake technologies.
Community Builder of the Year
Celebrates those who weave the fabric of our community — from meetups to large-scale initiatives, creating inclusive spaces for collective growth and shared learning.
Rising Community Leader of the Year
Recognizes an emerging contributor who has made a meaningful impact within their first year of active participation in the Snowflake community.
Open Source Impact
Honors the individual or group whose open-source contributions serve as a force multiplier — the tools, frameworks, and libraries that empower the community to build faster and solve complex data challenges.
AI Excellence
Honors the individual or group demonstrating exceptional mastery of Snowflake's AI-driven development tools, leveraging tools like Cortex Code to transform how they build, assess, and optimize data pipelines.
Community Awards Finalists
Karthik Raman
Head of Snowflake Practice, LTM Ltd
Kosuke Kida
Sr. Data Evangelist, Exture Inc.
Ruchi Soni
Snowflake Global Practice Lead, Accenture
Douglas Day
Director, datalab
Muhammad Fasih Ullah
Head of Data & Analytics, NordicFeel Group AB
Pascal Pfaeffle
Lead Data Engineer & Snowflake Data Superhero, INFOMOTION
Joyce Avila
Chief Innovation Officer, DataWorthy.ai
Keith Belanger
Technical Architecture-Principal Engineer, FICO
Madhivanan Anbalagan
Principal Architect, Kipi.ai
Anand Jha
Lead Data Engineer, Tiger Analytics
Ayumu Yamaguchi
Principal Data Engineer, DATUM STUDIO Co., Ltd.
Vishal Kaushal
Solution Architect, Harman
Chris Hastie
Principal Data Engineer, Aimpoint Digital
Fanilo Andrianasolo
AI/CX Strategy & Solutions, Magellan
Abhishek Mittal
Strategic Data Architect, Nagarro
Augusto Rosa
Head, Data, Cloud & Security Architecture, Archetype Consulting
Eylon Steiner
Practice Lead Data Engineering, Infostrux Solutions
Mandeep Singh
Data Platform Architect, Texas Capital
Priyanka Srivastava
Principal Data Architect, Mantel Group
South India Snowflake User Groups
Yuya Matsubara
Principal Data Engineer, NTT DOCOMO, Inc.
Benjamin Saladin
Founder & Chapter Lead Zurich Snowflake, bi concepts
Cesar Segura
SME / Snowflake Principal, SDG Group
Reza du Plooy
Director, datalab
Andy Brown
Cloud Data and AI Solutions Architect, Apex Systems
Dallas/Ft Worth Snowflake User Group
Community
Sonal Mishra
Database Administrator, Scriptcare
Katsuaki Yamamoto
Solutions Architect, K.K.Ashisuto
Radhika Rathi
Group Manager, Infocepts
Tomohiro Kawabata
Data Engineer, Classmethod, Inc.
Andrea Sozzo
CDO, PhotoSi
Martin Lichtwark
Head of Data & AI, Hepster GmbH
Valdes Feudjio
Data Engineer, DEVOTEAM
Aman Gill
Data Engineer, Resolve Tech Solutions
Mark Peskir
Director of Data, Hendrick Automotive Group
Valentina Podgainaia
Business Development Manager, Orion Innovation
Krishnan Srinivasan
Director & Global Head - AI Practice, Cittabase Solutions
Rajiv Gupta
VP of Technology, Kipi.ai
Sachin Mittal
Technical Architect, Centric Consulting
Anastasiia Stefanska
Lead of Data Team, TUI
Ghaith Albaaj
Associate Manager, KPMG
Liubov Ievtushenko
Senior Consultant, INFOMOTION GmbH
Angela Harney
Senior Snowflake Solutions Consultant, Cloudhive.ai
Joseph Memmo
Sr. Director of Analytics & AI, Circana
Masahide Takasuka
Data Scientist & Data Engineer, NTT West, Inc.
Satish Kumar
Senior Technical Specialist, LTIMindtree
Takahiro Nakayama (civitaspo)
Data Engineering Manager, LayerX Inc.
Ferhat Aouaghzene
Data Engineer, Devoteam
Siddhant Sadangi
Technical and Community Support , Open AI
Thushuan Liyanage
Senior DBA and Information Systems Manager, NEL ICB, OneLondon
Shankar Narayanan SGS, Vivekanandan Srinivasan
Suman Naskar
Data Architect, Cognizant
How the Awards Work
Nominations
June 1 – July 8, 2026
Community members can nominate individuals who have made meaningful contributions to the Snowflake ecosystem.
Finalist Selection
July 9 – August 14, 2026
An internal panel evaluates nominations based on impact, quality of contributions, consistency, reach, engagement and alignment with community values.
Community Voting
August 15 – September 15, 2026
Finalists are announced and open for community voting.
Winner Announcement
November 2026
Winners are revealed at Expedition 2026 and celebrated across Snowflake community channels.
Eligibility
Snowflake Community Awards eligibility:
Open to customers, partners, consultancies, startups, independent contributors.
Requires meaningful contributions (e.g., educational content, mentorship, open source contributions, events or other community leadership) within the past 12 months.
Snowflake employees are not eligible.
Self-nominations are encouraged.
What Winners Receive
Snowflake Community Award winners receive:
An official Snowflake Community Awards trophy
Recognition during the week of Expedition Global
Promotion across Snowflake channels
Community spotlight highlighting contributions
2026 awards program
Frequently AskedQuestions
Find answers to the most common questions about the Snowflake Community Awards.
Anyone can submit a nomination — colleagues, peers, community members, or Snowflake employees. You do not need to be a Snowflake customer or part of a specific program to nominate someone.
- Open to customers, partners, consultancies, startups, independent contributors.
- Requires meaningful contributions (e.g., educational content, mentorship, open source contributions, events or other community leadership) within the past 12 months.
- Snowflake employees are not eligible.
- Self-nominations are encouraged.
Yes. You can submit as many nominations as you'd like, across any or all categories.
Yes. An individual or group may be nominated in more than one category. However, they can only win one award.
Yes. Self-nominations are permitted and encouraged. We recognize that sometimes you're the best person to describe your own impact.
Winners will be announced the week of Expedition Global in November 2026 and featured across Snowflake community channels.
To recognize community impact around the world, one winner per category will be selected from each region: Americas, APJ, and EMEA — resulting in three winners per category.
No. Snowflake employees are not eligible to receive awards but are welcome to nominate community members.
Yes. Community Builder of the Year, Open Source Impact, and AI Excellence accept team and group nominations. Groups will receive one trophy per team.
Strong nominations include specific examples, measurable impact (i.e., numbers, metrics, outcomes), and supporting links to blogs, repos, talks, or other evidence. Nominations without supporting evidence may receive lower scores during judging.
Nominations are evaluated by a review committee for impact, quality and consistency of contributions, reach and engagement and alignment to community values. Finalists advance to a community voting round, which accounts for 30% of the final score. Winners are determined by a combination of committee scoring and community votes.
