Senior Software Engineer, Distributed Data Systems

Jobtailor; New York (NY); On-site; USD 200,000 - 350,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Equity participation

Interview travel covered

Visa sponsorship available

Job summary

Clera, an AI-native data infrastructure company based in New York, is seeking a Senior Software Engineer. This role involves architecting a scalable OLAP lakehouse platform for enterprise data management.

The ideal candidate will have 4+ years of experience and strong skills in Haskell and TypeScript. You will work on exciting projects that promote data quality and performance.

The role requires onsite presence in New York, with a salary range of $200,000 – $350,000, equity participation, and visa sponsorship available.

Qualifications

• 4+ years of experience as a data systems, backend, infrastructure, or platform engineer.
• Strong data focus: think deeply about data quality, correctness, and performance.
• Experience with OLAP lakehouse / data lakehouse architecture and query optimization.

Responsibilities

• Work on a greenfield OLAP lakehouse project, building the data platform.
• Design and implement distributed data system components focused on join optimization.
• Ship reliable, scalable data infrastructure that powers enterprise-grade analytics.

Skills

Haskell

TypeScript

distributed systems

big data systems

algorithms and data structures

data quality

data correctness

data performance

Job description

About the Role

Join a fast-moving, NYC-based AI-native data infrastructure company that is building the next generation of agentic analytics. This is a greenfield opportunity to architect and build a scalable OLAP lakehouse platform that turns messy enterprise data into trustworthy, actionable answers — at scale, for some of the most data-intensive organizations in the world.

As a Senior Software Engineer on the Distributed Data Systems team, you'll own core platform components end-to-end, with a particular focus on query performance and join optimization. If you get genuinely excited about JOIN order optimization or have ever implemented a query optimizer for fun, this role was written for you.

The company is well-funded (Series A/B stage) and backed by notable strategic investors. Hiring decisions can be made within 72 hours of an onsite interview, and interview travel is covered.

Visa sponsorship is available.

What You'll Do

• Work on a greenfield OLAP lakehouse project, building the data platform for the agentic era — where AI agents drive the vast majority of queries.

• Design and implement distributed data system components with a strong focus on join optimization and query performance.

• Collaborate fluidly across infrastructure, services, and frontend to deliver end-to-end data platform features.

• Ship reliable, scalable data infrastructure that powers enterprise-grade analytics at scale.

• Contribute from zero to one — this is early-stage, high-ownership work.

What We're Looking For

Required:

• 4+ years of experience as a data systems, backend, infrastructure, or platform engineer.

• Proficiency in Haskell and/or TypeScript (the core tech stack).

• Strong data focus — you think deeply about data quality, correctness, and performance.

• Experience building products from zero to one; prior startup experience (ideally VC-backed) strongly preferred.

• Experience with distributed systems.

• Experience with big data systems (Apache Spark, Hadoop).

• Experience with databases (relational, columnar, or otherwise).

• Strong foundation in algorithms and data structures and their real-world applications.

• Experience with OLAP lakehouse / data lakehouse architecture and query optimization.

Nice to Have:

• Comfortable diving into any layer of the stack — infrastructure, services, or frontend.

• Passion for building robust, scalable, and easy-to-use systems.

• Background at companies working on data platforms, query engines, or AI/ML infrastructure.

Compensation & Benefits

• Salary: $200,000 – $350,000 USD annually (based on experience)

• Equity participation in a well-funded, high-growth startup

• Interview travel covered for onsite candidates

• Visa sponsorship available

Location

This role is on-site in New York, NY. Candidates should be based in NYC or willing to relocate. This is not a remote role.