Senior Staff Engineer, Agentic Databases

Teradata Corporation (SE); Bismarck (ND); Hybrid; USD 179,000 - 268,000; Full time

Job summary

Teradata Corporation is seeking a Senior Staff Engineer to own the design and delivery of core Agent Services, from technical design to production launch. You will write the spec, build against it, and ensure production reliability and performance while leading cross-functional technical efforts.

You will mentor engineers on Postgres internals, distributed systems, and AI-native workload patterns, with a track record of turning concepts into measurable production impact.

Qualifications

• BS/MS in Computer Science or a related field, or equivalent depth demonstrated through production work.
• 10+ years building and operating large-scale distributed systems, databases, or cloud data infrastructure in production.
• Solid working knowledge of Postgres: query planning and execution, MVCC, WAL, vacuuming, replication, and the extension model.
• Strong systems programming experience in C/C++; proficiency in Go, Ruby, or Python for control plane and tooling work.
• Experience building high-availability, multi-tenant, or highly distributed data systems in cloud environments.
• Comfort navigating large, complex codebases and leading cross-team architecture efforts.
• An AI-native working style: using AI in engineering work and thinking about system use by agents.
• Track record of driving projects from concept to production with measurable impact.
• Excellent communication skills and the ability to influence across engineering and product without authority.

Responsibilities

• Own the design and delivery of one or more core Agent Services from technical design to production launch.
• Write the specification, build against it, and ensure production reliability and performance.
• Lead cross-functional technical efforts and foster consensus without waiting for others to resolve ambiguity.
• Identify gaps in design or roadmap before they become production incidents.
• Balance long-term health with the need to ship, documenting local trade-off decisions within architectural direction.
• Define SLOs, instrument critical paths, write runbooks, and meet customer commitments on durability and availability.
• Set the technical bar in code/design reviews and on-call scenarios.
• Mentor engineers on Postgres internals, distributed systems, and agentic workloads.

Job description

Our company:

At Teradata, we believe that people thrive when empowered with better information. Teradata Autonomous Knowledge Platform activates enterprise intelligence by unifying data, knowledge and business context to achieve tangible outcomes. With Teradata, organizations can provide agents with full context for impact when it matters. Our solution lets businesses connect and scale on premises, in the cloud, or through a hybrid approach. Teradata delivers real business value with AI.

What You Will Do:

As a Senior Staff Engineer, you will Own the design and delivery of one or more of our core Agent Services — Agent Memory, LLM Cache, Semantic Context Layer — from technical design to production launch. You will write the spec, build against it, and hold the system accountable to it in production.

• Full technical ownership of an Agent Service: design the data model, define the API surface, implement the core logic, and own it end-to-end through production.
• Lead the most critical, cross-functional technical efforts your component touches — breaking down ambiguous problems and building consensus without waiting for someone else to resolve the ambiguity.
• Function as both a problem solver and a problem finder: identify gaps in the design or the roadmap before they become production incidents.
• Balance long-term system health with the immediate need to ship — making and documenting the local trade-off decisions within the architectural direction the team has set.
• Ensure your components are production‑ready: define SLOs, instrument critical paths, write runbooks, and meet customer commitments on durability, availability, and performance.
• Set the technical bar in code review, design review, and on‑call. Be the engineer the team looks to when a problem is hard or a decision will be difficult to undo.
• Mentor engineers on Postgres internals, distributed systems design, and the agentic workload patterns that make this problem different from conventional OLTP.

Who you will work with:

Engineers, Product Managers, and other team members who are building data infrastructure for the agentic enterprise. We are looking for AI‑native engineers who are energized by the opportunity to build technology that doesn’t exist yet — people who treat AI as a high‑trust collaborator in their own work and move with an experimental mindset. Low ego, high craft, bias for shipping.

The Agentic Databases team is building a cloud‑native, enterprise‑grade operational database purpose‑built for AI agents. We are building something more ambitious: an agentic data layer that connects enterprise‑governed data, OLTP reliability, and agentic capabilities in a single platform no competitor can replicate.

What you will bring

• 10+ years building and operating large‑scale distributed systems, databases, or cloud data infrastructure in production.
• Solid, working knowledge of Postgres: query planning and execution, MVCC, WAL, vacuuming, replication, and the extension model. You have run Postgres under real load and know where it breaks.
• Strong systems programming experience in C or C++; proficiency in at least one higher‑level language — Go, Ruby, or Python — for control plane and tooling work. Ruby experience is a strong plus.
• Experience building high‑availability, multi‑tenant, or highly distributed data systems in cloud environments.
• Comfort navigating large, complex codebases and leading cross‑team architecture efforts.
• An AI‑native working style: you use AI actively in your own engineering work, prototype faster because of it, and think naturally about how the systems you build will be used by agents rather than humans.
• A track record of driving projects from concept to production with measurable impact.
• Excellent communication skills and the ability to influence across engineering and product without relying on authority.
• BS/MS in Computer Science or a related field, or equivalent depth demonstrated through production work.

Why we think you will love Teradata:

We prioritize a people‑first culture because we know our people are at the very heart of our success. We embrace a flexible work model because we trust our people to make decisions about how, when, and where they work. We focus on well‑being because we care about our people and their ability to thrive both personally and professionally. We are an anti‑racist company because our dedication to Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion is more than a statement. It is a deep commitment to doing the work to foster an equitable environment that celebrates people for all of who they are.

Teradata is proud to be an equal opportunity employer. We do not discriminate based upon race, color, ancestry, religion, creed, sex (including pregnancy, childbirth, breastfeeding, or related conditions), national origin, sexual orientation, age, citizenship, marital status, disability, medical condition, genetic information, gender identity or expression, military and veteran status, or any other legally protected status. We welcome and encourage individuals from all backgrounds to apply and join our team, bringing their unique perspectives and experiences to help us innovate and grow. If you require accommodations during the interview process, please let your recruiter know and we will work with you to meet your needs.

Pay Rate: 178800.0000 - 223500.0000 - 268200.0000 Annually

Starting pay for the successful applicant will depend on geographic location, internal equity, job‑related knowledge, skills, and candidate experience. Sales roles will be eligible for commission payments tied to quota achievement. All other permanent roles will be eligible for one of our annual incentive plans, which are based on company financial attainment and individual performance. Employees in this position are eligible to participate in the Company’s benefits programs, which generally include health care, life and disability insurance, retirement savings, and time‑off programs. Benefit details vary by country and plan, including eligibility and available options, and will be shared during the hiring process. Additional information is available here: https://www.teradata.com/About-Us/Careers/Benefits

Employees in this position are also eligible to participate in the Company’s comprehensive benefits programs, which include healthcare, life and disability insurance plans, a 401(k)-retirement savings plan, and time‑off programs. Specific details of these benefits, including eligibility criteria and plan options, will be provided during the hiring process and can be reviewed here: https://www.teradata.com/About-Us/Careers/Benefits