Databricks
Systems PhD - Software Engineer
Bellevue, Washington; Seattle, WashingtonFrom $180kmidAdded 1 month ago
About this role
Databricks seeks a PhD-level software engineer to design and build next-generation database and distributed systems that power their unified data and AI platform. You'll work on query optimization, execution engines, storage systems, and infrastructure across their multi-cloud ecosystem serving over 10,000 customers.
What you'll do
- Design and implement query compilation, optimization, and distributed execution systems
- Develop vectorized engine execution and resource management components
- Build efficient storage structures including encoding and indexing strategies
- Work on data security and transaction coordination systems
- Optimize physical data storage and performance across multi-cloud infrastructure
- Contribute to research and publication of novel systems designs
What they're looking for
- PhD in databases, systems, or related field
- Database systems architecture and design
- Distributed systems and scheduling
- Performance optimization techniques
- Storage systems and data structures
- Language design or compiler optimization
- Large-scale data processing experience
- System implementation and engineering
Benefits
- Competitive salary ($140,000–$180,000)
- Annual performance bonus eligibility
- Equity compensation
- Work on cutting-edge data and AI technology
- Collaboration with industry experts
- Offices in Bellevue and Seattle, Washington
Opens the official application on the employer’s site. No login required.
Databricks
Databricks builds a unified data and AI platform that combines database systems, distributed computing, and generative AI capabilities across multi-cloud infrastructure. The company is hiring software engineers, applied AI engineers, and web engineers to develop core database engines, ML/AI features, inference systems, and user-facing products.
- Website
- databricks.com
Likely interview questions
- Walk us through your PhD research and how it relates to database or systems design. What was your most significant technical contribution?
- Databricks processes exabytes of data daily. Describe your experience with distributed systems at scale—what challenges have you encountered and how did you solve them?