Software Engineer (lead)

Datastrato; San Francisco (CA); Remote; USD 180,000 - 250,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Generous equity

Benefits

Remote-friendly with travel

Job summary

Datastrato, the original creator of Apache Gravitino, is building the open metadata platform for the AI era. We lead in data infrastructure and AI-scale deployments, with customers including major tech enterprises.

We invite you to join our distributed-systems team in shaping open source and commercial offerings. The role focuses on architecture, high-performance systems, and collaboration with customers and cross-team stakeholders to push the boundaries of metadata management and AI-ready

Qualifications

• 7+ years in building large-scale distributed systems.
• Strong CS foundation and systems design.
• Proficiency in at least one systems language (Java, Go, C++, Rust).
• Proven track record of meaningful open-source contributions.

Responsibilities

• Lead architectural design and implementation of major components in Apache Gravitino and Datastrato’s offerings.
• Build and optimize high-performance, scalable systems across metadata management, storage, and distributed compute engines; contribute to open source projects.
• Drive technical direction, mentor engineers, and influence cross-team architecture decisions.
• Engage with customers and the broader data/AI community, including industry events.

Skills

Distributed systems

Systems programming

Java

Go

C++

Rust

Open-source contributions

Tools

Iceberg

Spark

Gravitino

Trino

vLLM

Daft

Job description

• Location: San Francisco Bay Area (Remote OK with up to 30% travel, primarily to the Bay Area)
• Compensation: $180,000-$250,000 base + generous equity + benefits
• Experience: 7+ years

About Datastrato

Datastrato, the original creator of Apache Gravitino, is building the open metadata platform for the AI era, increasingly critical as enterprises endeavor to deploy AI and AI agents at scale. Led by prominent open source leaders with deep expertise in data infra/large-scale distributed systems and Silicon Valley veterans, in just over 2 years, we have built a compelling product, cultivated a vibrant open source community (Apple, Pinterest, Roku, Tencent, Uber, etc), and signed enterprises including 2 of the top 20 US Internet companies as paying customers.

We’re defining the next generation of data infrastructure for AI and are well-positioned to emerge as a category leader. Join us.

Core Responsibilities

• Lead architectural design and implementation of major components in Apache Gravitino and Datastrato’s commercial offerings
• Build and optimize high-performance, scalable systems across metadata management, storage, and distributed compute engines, and clouds; Contribute to and help shape relevant open source projects
• Drive technical direction, mentor engineers, and influence cross-team architecture decisions
• Engage with customers (typically top tech companies), engineering leaders, and the broader data and AI community, including speaking at industry events

Ideal Candidate Profile

• 7+ years in building large-scale distributed systems, including experience as a tech lead
• Strong foundation in CS, systems design and programming, data and AI infrastructure technologies, especially OSS such as Iceberg, Spark, Gravitino, Trino, vLLM, Daft
• Proficiency in at least one systems language (Java, Go, C++, Rust) and solid Linux/OS fundamentals
• Track record of meaningful open-source contributions

Strong Plus

• Experience at early-stage data or AI infrastructure, or developer-first startups and top tech companies
• Experience with database/data engine internals (query execution, transactions, storage), lakehouse technologies (Iceberg, Hudi) and metadata/governance systems
• Familiarity with modern AI infrastructure, LLMs, or AI agent systems
• Technical writing, developer evangelism, or community engagement experience