Staff Software Engineer, Distributed Transactional Database

at Airbnb
📍 United States
USD 191,000-225,000 per year
SENIOR
✅ Remote

SCRAPED

Used Tools & Technologies

Not specified

Required Skills & Competences ?

Chef @ 3 Go @ 4 Kubernetes @ 4 MySQL @ 4 Terraform @ 3 GCP @ 4 Java @ 4 NoSQL @ 4 Distributed Systems @ 7 AWS @ 4 Azure @ 4 Communication @ 7 Helm @ 3 Rust @ 4 Debugging @ 4

Details

Airbnb’s Transactional Storage Services team develops and operates a NewSQL distributed transactional database system running on Kubernetes, which serves as a unified storage backend for various online data including MySQL, KVStore, and GraphDB.

Responsibilities

  • Understand and enhance the open-source distributed database focusing on query compilation, performance, change data capture, and operational reliability.
  • Investigate and debug issues across storage, query, and routing layers of a large-scale distributed database.
  • Design and maintain ecosystem components including monitoring, permissions, service discovery, and automated deployment frameworks.
  • Deliver zero-downtime replication pipelines with near-real-time consistency and robust failover mechanisms.
  • Mentor junior engineers, participate in on-calls, and improve operational rigor.

Requirements

  • 9+ years industry experience.
  • Hands-on experience building and operating distributed NoSQL or NewSQL databases.
  • Deep understanding of distributed systems and infrastructure fundamentals.
  • Proficient in navigating and owning complex codebases.
  • Skilled in writing clean, testable, maintainable code.
  • Expertise in monitoring, debugging, and troubleshooting large-scale distributed systems.
  • Strong collaboration and communication skills for remote work.
  • Experience with public cloud providers (AWS, GCP, Azure) and relevant services like external-dns, route53, ebs.

Nice to Haves

  • Experience in Java, Go, Rust, or C++.
  • Experience with automation frameworks/tooling.
  • Familiarity with Kubernetes, the operator pattern, Helm, Infrastructure as Code tools like Chef and Terraform.
  • Knowledge of database schema design and query performance profiling.

Location

  • US Remote Eligible, must reside in a US state where Airbnb has a registered entity.

Benefits

  • Base salary range from $191,000 to $225,000 USD.
  • Eligible for bonus, equity, benefits, and Employee Travel Credits.

Airbnb is committed to inclusion and disability accommodations during the application process.