Senior Software Engineer, Database Systems

The role

You will design and build core modules of Milvus and Zilliz Cloud Vector Lakebase, including storage, query engine, indexing, load balancing, and distributed execution. You will also own the stability of Zilliz Cloud and contribute to the Milvus open-source community.

What you will do

• Design and build core modules of Milvus and Vector Lakebase, including storage, query engine, indexing, load balancing, resource management, and distributed execution
• Drive the evolution of the engine architecture, bringing Lake-native capabilities, elastic scaling, and large-scale multi-tenancy into production
• Design database capabilities for AI and Agent workloads, with higher concurrency, larger scale, and lower latency
• Own the stability of Zilliz Cloud, working with cloud platform and product engineering teams
• Iterate on AI developer tooling to improve team velocity and system observability
• Contribute to the Milvus open-source community through design docs, code, code reviews, and technical discussions

Required qualifications

• 3+ years of experience building database systems, distributed systems, storage engines, query engines, search systems, or large-scale data infrastructure
• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering, or a related field, or equivalent practical experience
• Strong systems programming ability in one or more of C++, Go, or Rust
• Deep understanding of distributed systems and database internals, including consistency, scalability, performance, fault tolerance, query execution, storage, indexing, and resource management
• Strong engineering taste: the ability to judge simpler designs, lasting abstractions, and the performance and cost tradeoffs that matter

Nice to have

• Experience with large-scale cloud-native databases, storage systems, search systems, or data platforms
• Open-source contributions in databases, storage, search, Kubernetes, or distributed systems

Benefits

• Competitive compensation (cash + equity)
• Regular bonus and equity refresh opportunities
• Medical, dental, and vision insurance for employees and eligible family members
• Unlimited PTO, including vacation, sick leave, and global reset/wellbeing days
• Generous 401(k) with company match and regional retirement plans
• Stock options as part of long-term incentives

Before you apply

• Zilliz is an Equal Opportunity Employer

About the company

Zilliz builds data infrastructure for AI, founded in 2017 by the creators of Milvus, an open-source vector database. Its technology is used by more than 10,000 enterprise users worldwide.