Staff Software Engineer, Data Systems – Performance

This is a fully remote position, open to applicants in Tennessee.

📋 Description

• Drive the architecture, interfaces, and engineering standards for products aimed at data optimization.

• Lead the technical design of new features and oversee their implementation across various cloud and data systems.

• Utilize and manage AI agents to construct, test, and enhance Stratusphere features, backend services, customer integrations, analytical tools, and user-facing workflows.

• Contribute production code and enhance the platform’s data architecture, performance, and reliability.

• Diagnose performance bottlenecks across queries, schemas, indexes, caching, data layout, compute, storage, and networking.

• Assess sizing, scaling, concurrency, and workload changes against customer performance, reliability, governance, and cost objectives.

• Collaborate with FDEs, Product, and customer teams to identify opportunities, establish baselines, test hypotheses, and implement optimizations.

• Measure outcomes, document trade-offs, and convert repeatable findings into roadmap priorities, features, and integrations.

• Ensure that AI-generated plans, code, queries, and recommendations are thoroughly tested, maintainable, scalable, secure, auditable, and ready for rollback.

• Enhance agent architecture, tooling, prompts, evaluation criteria, and workflows based on recurring errors and missing context.

• Contribute to the development standards, processes, tools, and agent-first engineering methodologies.

• Collaborate transparently with Engineering, Product, FDEs, and customers.

• Take ownership of work from start to finish, communicate progress and risks, adhere to change-control and customer-experience standards, and maintain comprehensive documentation.

⛳️ Requirements

• Proven track record of overseeing architecture and implementation for complex production systems.

• Documented success in enhancing complex data systems through profiling, query plans, observability, and representative benchmarks.

• Extensive expertise in relational databases and significant optimization experience in at least one additional category: search, document or key-value systems, or analytical platforms.

• Strong foundational knowledge in SQL, data modeling, indexing, and distributed systems.

• Practical experience with Apache Iceberg and distributed query engines such as Athena, Starburst, or Trino.

• High proficiency in at least one programming language.

• Capability to contribute across backend services, APIs, integrations, and frontend workflows.

• Quick learner of new languages, frameworks, and data systems, with the ability to critically assess AI-assisted work.

• Experience in architecting layered testing and developing automated delivery checks.

• Familiarity with metrics, logs, traces, and diagnostics for data systems.

• Experience working in production cloud environments and managing infrastructure using infrastructure as code (IaC).

• Effective utilization of AI and coding agents for analysis, planning, implementation, and testing.

• Ability to clearly translate complex findings into technical and business decisions.

• Capacity to perform effectively in a dynamic startup environment with shifting priorities and incomplete requirements.

• Strong initiative, ownership, urgency, and follow-through.

• Willingness and ability to travel to the Chattanooga, Tennessee headquarters quarterly, with flexibility for potential monthly travel.

• Access to reliable high-speed internet and a professional workspace.

• Legally authorized to work in the United States at the time of hire.

• Eligible and able to fulfill applicable customer requirements for GovCloud and CJIS-regulated environments, including necessary background screening, security training, and access restrictions.

• Experience with Databricks, including Spark, Delta Lake, and workload optimization, is highly preferred.

• Familiarity with other lakehouse and analytical platforms is advantageous.

• Skills in TypeScript, React/Next.js, Python, caching systems, and reusable optimization tools are differentiators.

• Experience with dbt, DevOps practices, and policy as code is a differentiator.

• Knowledge of graph data models and databases, vector search, and RAG is a differentiator.

🏝️ Benefits

• Competitive salary.

• Medical, dental, and vision insurance.

• Life insurance.

• Coverage for short-term and long-term disability.

• 401(k) plan.

• Flexible PTO.

• Paid sick leave.

• Paid holidays.