Distributed Storage and Transaction Staff Engineer

Yugabyte; Sunnyvale (CA); On-site; USD 180,000 - 240,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Health Insurance

Stock options

Retirement Plans

Home office reimbursement

Development reimbursement

Wellness days

Unlimited PTO

Childcare benefits

Performance bonuses

Job summary

Yugabyte is seeking a Staff Engineer for the Distributed Storage & Transactions team to design, build, and scale core storage, replication, and transaction foundations of YugabyteDB. You will work on challenging distributed systems problems and collaborate across query, platform, and cloud teams.

The role emphasizes high‑quality C/C++ development, automated testing, performance tuning, and mentoring other engineers.

Qualifications

• 8+ years of professional software engineering experience in systems programming
• Deep understanding of distributed systems, transactions, and consistency models
• Experience with storage engines, databases or infrastructure-level systems
• Familiarity with LSM-tree based storage engines, WALs, snapshots, or compaction strategies
• Hands-on distributed storage or consensus protocols experience
• Experience with open-source systems or database projects

Responsibilities

• Lead design, development, testing, and delivery of core storage and replication features in YugabyteDB
• Write high-quality C/C++ code with comprehensive automated tests
• Troubleshoot and resolve correctness, stability, and performance issues in distributed storage subsystems
• Mentor and influence other engineers in distributed systems design and performance engineering
• Contribute to open-source YugabyteDB project and evolve its storage architecture

Skills

C/C++

Distributed systems

Performance optimization

Troubleshooting

Mentoring

Open-source

Education

Bachelor/Master/PhD in CS

Tools

PostgreSQL internals

Job description

• As a Staff Engineer on the Distributed Storage & Transactions (DST) team, you will play a critical role in designing, building, and scaling the core distributed storage, replication, and transaction foundations of YugabyteDB
• You will work on some of the most challenging problems in distributed systems — including consistency, durability, fault tolerance, performance, and scalability — while collaborating closely with query layer, platform, and cloud teams
• Lead the design, development, testing, and delivery of core storage and replication features in YugabyteDB
• Write high-quality C/C++ code with comprehensive automated tests; actively participate in design discussions and code reviews
• Troubleshoot and resolve correctness, stability, and performance issues in complex distributed storage and transactional subsystems
• Improve database scalability and throughput as cluster sizes, data volumes, and transaction rates continue to grow
• Build and streamline database management operations, including:
• Horizontal cluster scale-out
• Incremental and point-in-time backups
• Online schema and index operations
• Rolling upgrades and blue-green deployments
• Identify and implement performance improvements across the storage engine, transaction processing, and replication layers
• Contribute to the open-source YugabyteDB project, helping evolve its storage architecture and operational reliability
• Mentor and technically influence other engineers in distributed systems design, performance engineering, and systems-level debugging

Benefits

• Health Insurance
• Company Stock Options
• Retirement Plans
• Home Office Set-Up Reimbursement
• Professional Development Reimbursement
• Quarterly Wellness Days Off
• Unlimited PTO
• Childcare benefits
• Performance bonuses

This role is ideal for engineers who thrive in low-level systems work and want to shape the future of a globally distributed database

• Strong problem-solving skills and the ability to operate effectively in a collaborative, distributed team environment
• Fault tolerance and recovery
• Replication and consensus
• 8+ years of professional software engineering experience, with a strong foundation in systems programming using C/C++
• Deep understanding of distributed systems fundamentals, including: Transactions and consistency models
• Experience working on storage engines, databases, or other infrastructure-level systems
• Bachelor’s, Master’s, or PhD in Computer Science (or related field), or equivalent practical experience
• Familiarity with LSM-tree based storage engines, WALs, snapshots, or compaction strategies
• Hands‑on experience with distributed storage systems, transactional engines, or consensus protocols
• Experience with PostgreSQL internals or other relational database engines is a strong plus
• Prior contributions to open‑source systems or database projects