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Staff Software Engineer - Distributed Data Systems

MLW LogoMost Loved Workplace® Certified Job
92% of candidates apply because they are a Most Loved Workplace®
Mountain View, California
Engineering - Pipeline

About the Role

At Databricks, a Most Loved Workplace® certified employer in the Technology space, Democratizing data and AI for every organization worldwide.

<p>P-186</p>

<p>At Databricks, we are obsessed with enabling data teams to solve the world's toughest problems, from security threat detection to cancer drug development. We do this by building and running the world's best data and AI infrastructure platform, so our customers can focus on the high value challenges that are central to their own missions.</p>

<p>Founded in 2013 by the original creators of Apache Spark™, Databricks has grown from a tiny corner office in Berkeley, California to a global organization with over 1000 employees. Thousands of organizations, from small to Fortune 100, trust Databricks with their mission-critical workloads, making us one of the fastest growing SaaS companies in the world.</p>

<p>Our engineering teams build highly technical products that fulfill real, important needs in the world. We constantly push the boundaries of data and AI technology, while simultaneously operating with the resilience, security and scale that is critical to making customers successful on our platform.</p>

<p>We develop and operate one of the largest scale software platforms. The fleet consists of millions of virtual machines, generating terabytes of logs and processing exabytes of data per day. At our scale, we regularly observe cloud hardware, network, and operating system faults, and our software must gracefully shield our customers from any of the above.</p>

<p>Modern data analysis employs sophisticated methods such as machine learning that go well beyond the roll-up and drill-down capabilities of traditional SQL query engines. As a software engineer on the Runtime team at Databricks, you will be building the next generation distributed data storage and processing systems that can outperform specialized SQL query engines in relational query performance, yet provide the expressiveness and programming abstractions to support diverse workloads ranging from ETL to data science.</p>

<p>Below are some example projects:</p>

<p><strong>Apache Spark™</strong>: Develop the de facto open source standard framework for big data.</p>

<p><strong>Data Plane Storage</strong>: Deliver reliable and high performance services and client libraries for storing and accessing humongous amount of data on cloud storage backends, e.g., AWS S3, Azure Blob Store.</p>

<p><strong>Delta Lake</strong>: A storage management system that combines the scale and cost-efficiency of data lakes, the performance and reliability of a data warehouse, and the low latency of streaming. Its higher level abstractions and guarantees, including ACID transactions and time travel, drastically simplify the complexity of real-world data engineering architecture.</p>

<p><strong>Delta Pipelines</strong>: It's difficult to manage even a single data engineering pipeline. The goal of the Delta Pipelines project is to make it simple and possible to orchestrate and operate tens of thousands of data pipelines. It provides a higher level abstraction for expressing data pipelines and enables customers to deploy, test & upgrade pipelines and eliminate operational burdens for managing and building high quality data pipelines.</p>

<p><strong>Performance Engineering</strong>: Build the next generation query optimizer and execution engine that's fast, tuning free, scalable, and robust.</p>

<p><strong>What we look for:</strong></p>

<ul>

<li>BS in Computer Science, related technical field or equivalent practical experience.</li>

<li>Optional: MS or PhD in databases, distributed systems.</li>

<li>Comfortable working towards a multi-year vision with incremental deliverables.</li>

<li>Driven by delivering customer value and impact.</li>

<li>8+ years of production level experience in either Java, Scala or C++.</li>

<li>Strong foundation in algorithms and data structures and their real-world use cases.</li>

<li>Experience with distributed systems, databases, and big data systems (Apache Spark™, Hadoop).</li>

</ul><div class="content-pay-transparency"><div class="pay-input"><div class="description"><p> </p>

<p><strong>Pay Range Transparency</strong></p>

<p><span style="font-weight: 400; font-size: 14px;">Databricks is committed to fair and equitable compensation practices. The pay range(s) for this role is listed below and represents the expected salary range for non-commissionable roles or on-target earnings for commissionable roles.  Actual compensation packages are based on several factors that are unique to each candidate, including but not limited to job-related skills, depth of experience, relevant certifications and training, and specific work location. Based on the factors above, Databricks anticipates utilizing the full width of the range. The total compensation package for this position may also include eligibility for annual performance bonus, equity, and the benefits listed above. For more information regarding which range your location is in visit our page <a href="https://www.Databricks.com/sites/default/files/2024-08/us-pay-zone-mapping.pdf">here</a>.<br></span></p>

<p> </p></div><div class="title">Local Pay Range</div><div class="pay-range"><span>$192,000</span><span class="divider">—</span><span>$260,000 USD</span></div></div></div><div class="content-conclusion"><p><strong>About Databricks</strong></p>

<p><span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif;">Databricks is the data and AI company. More than 10,000 organizations worldwide — including Comcast, Condé Nast, Grammarly, and over 50% of the Fortune 500 — rely on the Databricks Data Intelligence Platform to unify and democratize data, analytics and AI. Databricks is headquartered in San Francisco, with offices around the globe and was founded by the original creators of Lakehouse, Apache Spark™, Delta Lake and MLflow. To learn more, follow Databricks on <span style="color: rgb(255, 54, 33);"><a style="color: rgb(255, 54, 33);" href="https://twitter.com/Databricks" target="_blank" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://twitter.com/Databricks&source=gmail&ust=1700237575733000&usg=AOvVaw03FL8fJvOD97ytN02f5G2C">Twitter</a>, <a style="color: rgb(255, 54, 33);" href="https://www.linkedin.com/company/Databricks" target="_blank" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.linkedin.com/company/Databricks&source=gmail&ust=1700237575733000&usg=AOvVaw15dLk3q8VxTfHEgCUg7NSt">LinkedIn</a> <span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">and</span> <a style="color: rgb(255, 54, 33);" href="https://www.facebook.com/databricksinc" target="_blank" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.facebook.com/databricksinc&source=gmail&ust=1700237575733000&usg=AOvVaw39EcncitnlqV72EG2-RqXJ">Facebook</a></span>.<br><br><strong>Benefits<br><br></strong></span>At Databricks, we strive to provide comprehensive benefits and perks that meet the needs of all of our employees. For specific details on the benefits offered in your region click <a href="https://docs.google.com/document/d/154un3e8Xav4BceOSlcYFZRGEuQI54xMxVydRwQn54eQ/edit?usp=sharing">here</a>.<br><br></p>

<p><strong>Our Commitment to Diversity and Inclusion</strong></p>

<p>At Databricks, we are committed to fostering a diverse and inclusive culture where everyone can excel. We take great care to ensure that our hiring practices are inclusive and meet equal employment opportunity standards. Individuals looking for employment at Databricks are considered without regard to age, color, disability, ethnicity, family or marital status, gender identity or expression, language, national origin, physical and mental ability, political affiliation, race, religion, sexual orientation, socio-economic status, veteran status, and other protected characteristics.</p>

<p><strong>Compliance</strong></p>

<p><strong><span style="font-weight: 400;">If access to export-controlled technology or source code is required for performance of job duties, it is within Employer's discretion whether to apply for a U.S. government license for such positions, and Employer may decline to proceed with an applicant on this basis alone.</span></strong></p></div>

Want to learn more about what it's like to work at Databricks? View our full profile.

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Why This Is a Most Loved Workplace® Certified Job

S

Systemic Collaboration

As Databricks continues our rapid growth, we strive to maintain a culture as open and transparent as it was in Databricks’s early days. Making sure employees have regular access to our CEO and co-founders to hear directly about our vision and priorities helps our employees forge a connection between Databricks priorities and their daily work.

P

Positive Vision for the Future

Databricks’ culture principles are derived from an internal study of the behaviors that have led to high impact work at Databricks. These values have a direct impact on company culture and play a large part in connecting teams across the organization. We believe in being customer-obsessed, truth-seeking, operating from first principles, having a bias for action, and putting Databricks first. Our co-founders are fully involved in day-to-day operations, including business and technical reviews, working alongside our team members to ensure that we are always aligned with our values.

A

Alignment of Values

Databricks’ CEO and Co-founder, Ali Ghodsi leads by example with a focus on truth-seeking and first principles thinking, two of Databricks’ core values that stay true to Databricks’s origins in academia. He champions the importance of data and reason to question biases and inform decisions. Ali remains hands-on with research and development and hosts company-wide weekly all hands, with a CEO “ask me anytime” session at the beginning of every agenda. His transparency and accessibility are core to the open and collaborative culture of Databricks.

R

Respect

At Databricks, we cultivate an environment where all employees can bring their unique selves and are empowered to do the best work of their careers. To ensure all voices are heard and ideas are valued, we conduct annual culture and pulse surveys and host all-hands Q&As to collect feedback from all employees. We then report back to Databricks on the specific changes implemented from the feedback collected to ensure employees feel heard and that their feedback is valued. In addition, we invest in our seven Employee Resource Groups (ERGs) that offer support and employee engagement events for individuals from underrepresented backgrounds and allies.

K

Killer Outcomes

Databricks prioritizes offering an exceptional employee experience by investing in tools, workspaces, and community-building. Our collaboration-first, hybrid model offers flexibility with in-person touchpoints like our annual employee kickoff, weekly CEO all-hands with happy hours, and monthly team building budgets. We are especially focused on maintaining a culture of transparency, honesty, and trust, with leaders actively engaging across channels like Slack and all hands while also championing inclusion efforts through ERG sponsorship. These initiatives help our team feel connected, valued, and empowered to do their best work.

What It's Like to Work Here

zap Bias for Action
lightbulb First Principles Innovation
users Collaborative Excellence
target Truth-Seeking Rigor
compass Generational Mission Focus
Certified for: Global Top 100 Most Loved Workplaces®, Certified Most Loved Workplaces® 2025, Top 100 Most Loved Workplaces® 2025

Frequently Asked Questions About Working at Databricks

Common questions candidates ask about this role and Databricks's workplace

With the Data Intelligence Platform, Databricks democratizes insights to everyone in an organization. Built on an open lakehouse architecture, the Data Intelligence Platform provides a unified foundation for all data and governance, combined with AI models tuned to an organization’s unique characteristics. Now, anyone in an organization can benefit from automation and natural language to discover and use data like experts, and technical teams can easily build and deploy secure data and AI apps and products. With origins in academia and the open source community, Databricks was founded in 2013 by the original creators of the lakehouse architecture and open source projects Apache Spark™, Delta Lake, MLflow and Unity Catalog.

Please review the specific job listing or contact Databricks's recruiting team for details on remote or hybrid work options for this role.

Salary information may vary by role and location. Please check the specific job listing or discuss compensation during the interview process.

Databricks is an established organization in its industry. The company is a certified Most Loved Workplace®, highlighting a strong, positive culture and committed workforce.

Key benefit categories include: Health & Wellness, Work-Life Balance, Office & Lifestyle, Professional Development, Financial. You can view more details on their CertCheck profile.

The day-to-day environment is guided by core values such as Bias for Action and First Principles Innovation and Collaborative Excellence.

The company has committed to inclusive practices including: Customer Obsession with Integrity and Empowering Every Team Member.

They score particularly well in the area of Systemic Collaboration. They have earned Most Loved Workplace® certifications including: Global Top 100 Most Loved Workplaces® and Certified Most Loved Workplaces® 2025.

Databricks currently has 789 open positions. They are hiring across departments like Field Engineering - Other, Delivery Solutions Architects, Enterprise Sales. You can view all current openings at certcheck.mostlovedworkplace.com/companies/databricks/jobs.

The interview process typically involves an initial recruiter screen followed by team interviews. Please contact Databricks's recruiting team for specific details on this role's process.

Apply for Staff Software Engineer - Distributed Data Systems

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