Server C++ Engineer (Security & Distributed Systems)

Altinity, Inc.; San Francisco (CA); Remote; USD 130,000 - 180,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Work from Anywhere

Equity

Conference travel

Career development

Flexible vacation

Health benefits

Job summary

Altinity, Inc. is seeking a Server Engineer to maintain and improve ClickHouse security, designing encryption, storage, and query-processing features.

You will identify and resolve security vulnerabilities affecting ClickHouse and dependencies, collaborating with the open-source community and Altinity engineers. Our ideal candidate has strong C++ experience, deep knowledge of database internals, networking on Linux, and a passion for secure, high-performance software in a distributed, remote

Qualifications

• Proven experience in design, implementation, and testing high-performance DBMS features in a complex C++ codebase.
• Excellent background in database internals including query languages, access methods, storage, and/or connectivity.
• Demonstrated ability to read and write good C++.
• Good understanding of networking and I/O on Linux.
• Ability to assess the applicability and severity of newly disclosed vulnerabilities in large software systems and their dependency chains.
• Experience reproducing security issues, performing root cause analysis, and developing robust fixes.
• Familiarity with vulnerability classes including memory corruption, denial of service, privilege escalation, authentication bypass, injection vulnerabilities, and information disclosure.
• Familiarity with CVSS scoring, threat modeling, and security risk assessment.
• Understanding of software supply chain security and dependency risk management.
• Strong written communication skills to document vulnerabilities, mitigations, and security recommendations.
• Familiar with performance optimization techniques and tools.
• History of pull requests being vetted and merged in open-source projects.
• Sound knowledge of database testing, debugging, and low-level performance optimization.
• Eagerness to learn more about database technology and data-related applications.
• Good English language reading and writing skills.
• Eager to work with a friendly, distributed team following open-source dev practices.
• MAJOR PLUS: Previous experience with ClickHouse development and vulnerability management processes.

Responsibilities

• Write good task-specific C++ code and solidify it with tests.
• Debug issues reported by users, fix them and add tests to prevent recurrence.
• Profile existing code and optimize speed through algorithms, intrinsics, or tricks, with tests.
• Submit your own PRs and review PRs from others.
• Help Support Team investigate customer problems.
• Help new community members contribute to ClickHouse.
• Attend meetups and present open-source development.
• Write blog articles and share ClickHouse information.

Skills

C++ programming

Database internals

Linux networking

Security vulnerability analysis

Performance optimization

Open-source collaboration

Code review

Troubleshooting debugging

Documentation

Job description

ClickHouse is the hottest analytic database on the planet and Altinity is the home of ClickHouse experts who build real-time data solutions that run anywhere. ClickHouse now has more contributors than ElasticSearch, previously the biggest open-source analytic project on GitHub.

Altinity is looking for a great server internals engineer to help maintain and improve the security posture of ClickHouse. As a Server Engineer, you'll be responsible for designing, implementing, and supporting features of ClickHouse ranging from encryption to storage to query processing. The primary focus of this role is identifying, analyzing, validating, and resolving security vulnerabilities that affect ClickHouse and its dependencies. You will work closely with the open-source community and Altinity engineering teams to ensure security issues are addressed quickly and correctly.

We have lots of exciting projects underway as we help the community adapt ClickHouse to the cloud and Kubernetes.

Our ideal candidate has:

• Proven experience in design, implementation, and testing high-performance DBMS features in a complex C++ codebase.
• Excellent background in database internals including query languages, access methods, storage, and/or connectivity
• Demonstrated ability to read and write good C++
• Good understanding of networking and I/O on Linux
• Ability to assess the applicability and severity of newly disclosed vulnerabilities in large software systems and their dependency chains
• Experience reproducing security issues, performing root cause analysis, and developing robust, testable fixes
• Familiarity with common vulnerability classes including memory corruption, denial of service, privilege escalation, authentication bypass, injection vulnerabilities, and information disclosure
• Familiarity with CVSS scoring, threat modeling, and security risk assessment
• Understanding of software supply chain security and dependency risk management
• Ability to independently investigate ambiguous technical problems and make sound engineering decisions
• Strong written communication skills, including the ability to document vulnerabilities, mitigations, and security recommendations clearly
• Familiar with performance optimization techniques and tools
• History of getting pull requests vetted and merged in rapidly evolving open-source projects
• Sound knowledge of database testing, debugging, and low-level performance optimization
• Enthusiasm to learn more about database technology and data-related applications
• Good English language reading and writing skills
• Eager to work with a friendly, distributed team following open-source dev practices
• MAJOR PLUS: Previous experience with ClickHouse development and vulnerability management processes

A day in your life as a ClickHouse server engineer may include any or all of the following:

• Write good task-specific C++ code and solidify it with tests
• Debug issues reported by users, fix them and add tests to make sure they won’t happen again
• Profile existing code and make it faster (either by applying clever algorithms, adding vectorized intrinsics, or by implementing cool tricks), add performance tests
• Submit your own pull requests and review pull requests from others
• Help the Support Team investigate customer problems running ClickHouse
• Help new community members contribute to ClickHouse
• Attend meetups and make presentations on open-source development
• Write blog articles and share information about ClickHouse

Our Benefits:

• Work from Anywhere, Anytime: We are not your typical nine-to-five shop! Enjoy the flexibility of working from literally wherever and whenever. Create a schedule that works for you and your family or lifestyle. Recharge your batteries with our open vacation policies.
• Cultural Diversity: We love that we get to work with passionate people from around the world. Currently, our team is made of professionals from 25 different countries!
• Career Development: We provide opportunities to learn new technologies as well as try out new roles. We also offer access to training on leading-edge technologies, plus flexible work schedules for external education.
• USA Employees Benefits: We offer comprehensive PPO health care plans for our US-based employees that are incredibly flexible to meet the needs of individuals or families. 401K with company match also available.
• Company Travel: We come together in person two to three times per year in locations across the globe. We also fund travel to conferences and encourage presentations as well as contributions to open-source communities.

This is a full-time position and includes equity in the company.

Altinity is venture-funded and financially stable.

We are 100% remote. You may work anywhere you have work permits.

Check out our many other benefits including flexible work hours, career development, and open vacation policies.

We are eager to meet you!