Database Research Scientist

The role

You will conduct applied research to advance the performance, scalability, and reliability of open-source database management systems. You will design algorithms, develop research prototypes, and collaborate with engineers to integrate techniques into production systems.

What you will do

• Conduct applied research for open-source database management systems including ClickHouse and PostgreSQL.
• Design and evaluate new algorithms, data structures, and system architectures.
• Develop high-quality research prototypes and production-grade implementations.
• Collaborate with database engine, infrastructure, and data-plane engineers.
• Analyze large-scale database workloads, performance traces, benchmarks, and production telemetry.
• Design rigorous experiments and benchmarks to evaluate new techniques.
• Communicate research results through technical reports, open-source contributions, and publications.
• Contribute to the technical direction of ClickHouse Labs.

Required qualifications

• Masters/Ph.D. in Computer Science, Data Science, or a related field, with research experience in databases, distributed systems, systems software, or machine learning systems.
• Strong publication record in leading peer-reviewed research venues such as SIGMOD, VLDB, SOSP, OSDI, NSDI, or NeurIPS, with work relevant to databases or systems.
• Strong programming and systems-development background, including experience working with database internals or other large systems codebases such as PostgreSQL, MySQL, ClickHouse, or comparable modern
• Proficiency in systems programming using C, C++, Rust, Zig, or a comparable low-level programming language.
• Strong analytical, experimental, problem-solving, and technical communication skills.

Nice to have

• Experience developing or operating database systems in cloud environments such as AWS, Google Cloud Platform, or Microsoft Azure.
• Familiarity with large language models, reinforcement learning, learned optimization, or other techniques at the intersection of machine learning and systems.
• Experience contributing to large open-source systems projects, particularly database engines, distributed systems, compilers, or storage systems.
• Familiarity with modern systems-development and verification tooling, including formal specification or model-checking frameworks such as TLA+/PlusCal, Alloy, or Lean, as well as relevant development
• Proven track record in optimizing database systems via hardware acceleration (e.g., GPU, FPGA, CXL), with a focus on designing methods for offloading for query execution, storage layers, and data-inte

Benefits

• Flexible work environment
• Employer contributions towards your healthcare
• Stock options
• Flexible time off in the US, generous entitlement in other countries
• USD$500 Home office setup if you’re a remote employee
• Opportunities to engage with colleagues at company-wide offsites

About the company

ClickHouse Labs is an applied research group that works closely with engineering teams to identify challenging problems in database systems and develop novel solutions.