Staff Engineer SQL Engine

Overview In this Staff Engineer role, you help design, build, and scale YugabyteDB’s language layer and relational capabilities to support a robust distributed SQL experience. You will work with cross-functional teams to tackle distributed query planning, execution, and performance at scale, ensuring reliability and high throughput. You contribute to open source efforts and mentor peers, shaping the database’s internals and performance engineering. This role offers impact through shaping core features in a leading cloud-native database, with a strong emphasis on collaboration and technical excellence. Compensation / Benefitshealth plansretirement plansunlimited PTOequity (when applicable)market-competitive cash compensationvariable incentive where applicable ResponsibilitiesLead design, development, testing, and release of new database features and enhancements in YugabyteDBWrite high-quality C/C++ code with automated tests; participate in code reviewsIdentify and implement performance improvements including plan optimization, batching/parallelism, and advanced push-downs to data nodesImprove database scalability and throughput as cluster sizes and transaction volumes growContribute to the open source YugabyteDB project and strengthen distributed SQL capabilities across releasesTroubleshoot and resolve correctness, stability, and performance issues in complex distributed query planning and execution pathsMentor and influence other engineers in best practices for database internals and distributed systems Key requirements8+ years of software engineering experience with strong C/C++ backgroundBachelor’s, Master’s, or PhD in Computer Science or related field, or equivalent practical experienceDeep understanding of systems engineering fundamentals (OS, distributed systems, databases)Experience with database internals, compilers, or query planning/optimization is a strong plusStrong problem-solving skills and ability to collaborate in a distributed team environmentteam collaborationmentoring and leadershipproblem-solvingC/C++distributed systemsdatabases