Senior Software Engineer, Compute Infrastructure
About this role
Engineers who thrive on tackling difficult distributed systems challenges will find a natural home within the compute infrastructure team at Databricks. Multi-cloud architecture forms a core pillar of product strategy here, requiring technical professionals to treat infrastructure as a product rather than a standard management task. Team members design unified layers that abstract underlying cloud mechanics, striving for sub-second container startup times and robust multi-tenant security isolation across major platforms like AWS, Azure, and GCP.
Daily responsibilities involve developing the next generation of serverless platforms, optimizing network performance from API gateways down to hosts, and supporting diverse workloads including GPU instances for AI training. Building these solutions demands deep knowledge of cloud internals and distributed systems design, making the role ideal for practitioners who prefer constructing tools from scratch when standard options fail at scale.
What you will do
- Design and build the next generation of the serverless platform with a focus on high availability, low latency, and scale-to-zero efficiency.
- Construct a single compute stack capable of supporting heterogeneous workloads, such as GPU instance qualification for AI training and stateful execution for Lakebase.
- Develop platform-level abstractions that enable the system to run seamlessly across all major cloud providers.
- Optimize infrastructure performance spanning from the API gateway down to host-level networking and container orchestration.
What you need
- Bring at least 5 years of production-level programming experience in Python, Java, Scala, C++, or a similar language.
- Demonstrate a minimum of 4 years of hands-on experience developing large-scale distributed systems from scratch.
- Possess practical experience working with Kubernetes, Docker, or MicroVM technologies such as Firecracker.
- Maintain a strong grasp of cloud provider internals across AWS, Azure, or GCP.
Skills and tech stack
Questions candidates ask
What is the salary range for this position?
The expected salary range for this role in Mountain View, California is $164,200 to $205,200 USD. Actual compensation packages are based on several factors that are unique to each candidate, including job-related skills, depth of experience, relevant certifications and training, and specific work location.
What kind of systems will I be building?
You will tackle hard problems of distributed systems, including sub-second container and MicroVM startup times, multi-tenant security isolation, and building a unified orchestration layer that scales across AWS, Azure, and GCP. Workloads include GPU instance qualification for AI training and stateful execution for Lakebase.
What technologies and languages are used on the team?
The stack involves production-level experience in Python, Java, Scala, C++, or a similar language, alongside Kubernetes, Docker, or MicroVM technologies like Firecracker. Engineers also work with cloud provider internals across AWS, Azure, and GCP.