Staff Engineer SQL Engine
YugabyteDB
Make my CV for this job, freeView job and applyYour CV, rewritten for this role using only your real experience. Sign in with Google and upload your CV. Nothing to install.
Skills named in this job
Read from the description itself, not inferred.
This role on the market
135 open engine roles across 55 companies are on ApplySarthi right now, most of them in Bengaluru (3), Hyderabad (2).
- Associate Director Generative Engine OptimisationBursonglobalcareers
- Senior Product Manager, Atom EngineJobgether
- Senior Backend Engineer - Scoring & Computation Engine (m/f/d)Statista
- Senior Calibration Engineer - EngineGeneralmotors
- Sr Software Engineer, Tax EngineADCI HYD 13 SEZ · hyderabad
What engine roles keep asking for: System design (31%), Excel (24%), Observability (24%), Java (22%), PostgreSQL (21%), Elasticsearch (19%), MongoDB (18%), C++ (17%) — counted across their open postings here.
C++ jobs · PostgreSQL jobs · SQL jobs
YugabyteDB has 15 open roles listed here.
- Senior Finance Manager
- Enterprise Account Executive
- Enterprise Account Executive
- Staff SDET
- Product Sales Specialist
Counted across 14 company job boards, updated as roles open and close.
Preparing for this interview
Interviews for engine roles keep coming back to System design, Excel, Observability, Java. Practise those questions before you sit with YugabyteDB.
Questions you are likely to be asked
- Why do you want to join YugabyteDB?
- What is your experience with System design? Tell me one thing you learned the hard way.
- Tell me about a hard bug you tracked down. How did you find the cause?
- How do you decide what to test, and what does good code review look like to you?
- Describe a time a deadline forced a trade-off in quality. What did you choose and why?
Prep Sarthi gives you a free mock interview: an AI interviewer asks you questions like these out loud, from your own CV and this job, and shows your score and your weakest answer.
Practise the Staff Engineer SQL Engine at YugabyteDB interview free →Yugabyte is the company behind YugabyteDB, the AI-ready, multi-modal, distributed PostgreSQL database for cloud-native apps. Trusted by industry leaders including Shopify, Paramount+, GM, Kroger, Fiserv, and NPCI, YugabyteDB has been deployed in over 100 countries and powers more than 5 million clusters worldwide.
Together, our hard-working team of experts and our industry-leading technology are uniquely positioned to meet the demands of modern workloads: geo-distributed, ultra-resilient, and built to scale without limits.
Our Yugabeings (distributed, like our database) span 12+ countries and multiple time zones, sharing expertise from diverse backgrounds and industries.
Staff Engineer – Languages & Relational Technologies (LRT)
Role Overview
As a Staff Engineer on the Languages & Relational Technologies (LRT) team, you will help design, build, and scale core database features that power YugabyteDB’s SQL layer. You will collaborate with cross-functional engineering teams to solve complex problems affecting distributed query planning, execution, and performance, ensuring YugabyteDB remains robust, reliable, and performance at scale.
Key Responsibilities
- Lead the design, development, testing, and release of new database features and enhancements in YugabyteDB.
- Write high-quality C/C++ code (and contribute in other languages as needed) with comprehensive automated tests; participate actively in code reviews.
- Identify and implement performance improvements — including plan optimization, batching/parallelism, and advanced push-downs to data nodes.
- Improve database scalability and throughput as cluster sizes and transaction volumes grow.
- Contribute to the open source YugabyteDB project and help strengthen our distributed SQL capabilities across releases.
- Troubleshoot and resolve correctness, stability, and performance issues in complex distributed query planning and execution paths.
- Mentor and influence other engineers in best practices for database internals, distributed systems, and performance-oriented software development.
Required Qualifications
- 8+ years of professional experience in software engineering, with a strong foundation in compiled languages such as C/C++.
- Bachelor’s, Master’s, or PhD in Computer Science (or related field), or equivalent practical experience.
- Deep understanding of systems engineering fundamentals, including operating systems, distributed systems, and databases.
- Experience with database internals, compilers, or query planning/optimization is a strong plus.
- Strong problem-solving skills and the ability to operate effectively in a collaborative, distributed team environment
Preferred Skills
- Experience building large-scale distributed systems and transactional engines.
- Familiarity with PostgreSQL internals or other relational database engines.
- Contributions to open source database or systems projects.
- Prior leadership in technical architecture, performance tuning, and mentoring engineers.
We work in a hybrid model, with the team together in our Sunnyvale office 2–3 days per week.
We feel strongly about equal pay for equal work, and transparency in compensation is one way to help achieve that. The cash compensation for this role is market competitive, with a range of USD 150,000 - USD 250,000, inclusive of variable/incentive for some roles. As well as equity (when applicable), and benefits including health plans, retirement plans, and unlimited paid time off (PTO). The pay range for this position is a general guideline only and not a guarantee of compensation or salary. The actual pay will vary based on factors including experience, qualifications, and skill level.
Equal Employment Opportunity Statement:
As an equal opportunity employer, Yugabyte is committed to a diverse workforce. Employment decisions regarding recruitment and selection will be made without discrimination based on race, color, religion, national origin, gender, age, sexual orientation, physical or mental disability, genetic information or characteristic, gender identity and expression, veteran status, or other non-job related characteristics or other prohibited grounds specified in applicable federal, state and local laws.
#LI-Hybrid
Due to the Proclamation, “Restriction on Entry of Certain Nonimmigrant Workers”, which went into effect on September 21, 2025, at this time we are no longer able to sponsor new H-1B visa petitions filed after September 21, 2025 for new hires. We are still able to consider candidates who require H-1B extensions, changes of employer, or other types of work authorization.
Equal Employment Opportunity Statement:
As an equal opportunity employer, Yugabyte is committed to a diverse workforce. Employment decisions regarding recruitment and selection will be made without discrimination based on race, color, religion, national origin, gender, age, sexual orientation, physical or mental disability, genetic information or characteristic, gender identity and expression, veteran status, or other non-job related characteristics or other prohibited grounds specified in applicable federal, state and local laws.
To review Yugabyte's Privacy Policy please visit Yugabyte Privacy Notice.
Match this job to your CV
ApplySarthi scores your CV against this role, shows the skills you are missing, and writes a tailored version for the application.
Check my match →Similar open roles
- Enterprise Account ExecutiveYugabyteDB
- Partner Account ExecutiveYugabyteDB
- Senior Principal Solutions EngineerYugabyteDB
- Sr Software EngineerYugabyteDB
- Staff EngineerYugabyteDB
- Staff Engineer-SecurityYugabyteDB
- Staff SDETYugabyteDB
- Technical Support Engineer YugabyteDB
Need answers during your interview? Try Live Sarthi.
Live Sarthi, an Interview Sarthi app, shows answer suggestions during the call.
- Hidden from supported screen sharingThe overlay stays out of supported Windows screen captures.
- Answers start in about 1.5 secondsResponse time varies with your connection and model.
- From your own CVYour projects and your experience, not a generic script.
- 30 minutes freeThen ₹99 for a 2-day pass with unlimited calls — you pay for the days you are interviewing, not a subscription.
A Windows app, from the same team as ApplySarthi.
Listed on greenhouse · posted 2026-02-04. ApplySarthi collects openings and links to application pages; the role is advertised by YugabyteDB, not by us.