Staff Engineer SQL Engine

Role Overview

As a Staff Engineer on the Languages & Relational Technologies (LRT) team, you will help design, build, and scale core database features that power YugabyteDB’s SQL layer. You will collaborate with cross-functional engineering teams to solve complex problems affecting distributed query planning, execution, and performance, ensuring YugabyteDB remains robust, reliable, and performance at scale.

Key Responsibilities

• Lead the design, development, testing, and release of new database features and enhancements in YugabyteDB.
• Write high-quality C/C++ code (and contribute in other languages as needed) with comprehensive automated tests; participate actively in code reviews.
• Identify and implement performance improvements — including plan optimization, batching/parallelism, and advanced push-downs to data nodes.
• Improve database scalability and throughput as cluster sizes and transaction volumes grow.
• Contribute to the open source YugabyteDB project and help strengthen our distributed SQL capabilities across releases.
• Troubleshoot and resolve correctness, stability, and performance issues in complex distributed query planning and execution paths.
• Mentor and influence other engineers in best practices for database internals, distributed systems, and performance-oriented software development.

Required Qualifications

• 8+ years of professional experience in software engineering, with a strong foundation in compiled languages such as C/C++.
• Bachelor’s, Master’s, or PhD in Computer Science (or related field), or equivalent practical experience.
• Deep understanding of systems engineering fundamentals, including operating systems, distributed systems, and databases.
• Experience with database internals, compilers, or query planning/optimization is a strong plus.
• Strong problem-solving skills and the ability to operate effectively in a collaborative, distributed team environment.

Preferred Skills

• Experience building large-scale distributed systems and transactional engines.
• Familiarity with PostgreSQL internals or other relational database engines.
• Contributions to open source database or systems projects.
• Prior leadership in technical architecture, performance tuning, and mentoring engineers.

Work Arrangement & Visa Sponsorship

• Hybrid model with the team together in the Sunnyvale office 2–3 days per week.
• Sponsoring H-1B transfers or extensions, as well as candidates in the U.S. on F-1 status (CPT/OPT) needing H-1B status. Unable to sponsor new H-1B visas for candidates outside the United States.