Senior / Staff Software Engineer (Database)

Who We Are: Materialize is the context engine for AI agents and applications. It lets engineering teams use SQL to transform siloed operational data into up-to-the-second, trustworthy views into any element of their business. Use Materialize to deliver fresh context to AI agents, power data-intensive UIs, and create low-latency, event-driven architectures that drive microservices and core business processes. Materialize is trusted by General Mills, Bilt Rewards, and Crane Worldwide Logistics to solve their most pressing operational data challenges while building a live data foundation for their AI transformation. Our team spans the US (with a NYC headquarters), Canada, and EMEA. Investors: Kleiner Perkins, Redpoint Ventures and Lightspeed Venture Partners. About the Role Our database technology sits at the heart of the Materialize product—a product that transforms years of cutting-edge academic research into the missing element of today’s data architecture . As a member of our Database team, you will join a team of ~10 incredible engineers focused on solving ambitious systems problems in service of delivering this remarkable product to our users. Recent examples of the work the Database team focuses on include: evergreen efforts to drive down freshness & responsiveness while continuing to deliver correct, consistent results; making each layer of the system more easily scalable; building the right primitives to integrate with the varied software development lifecycles of our users; unifying memory and disk through transparent use of swap; making our release process more predictable and reliable; writing clear documentation both internally and externally; improving observability and debugging tooling; and deleting lots of no-longer-needed code. This role is based in our NYC office (by Astor Place), with an expectation of ≥ 3 days per week in person. Responsibilities Design and deliver improvements to the Database, with an eye on correctness, reliability, and performance. Own projects end-to-end, from early stage design to holding the pager. Debug and resolve complex distributed systems issues, sometimes directly with customers. Continually improve system reliability, observability, and automation. Collaborate across your team, with Product, with Field Eng, and all other stakeholders to align on direction, carefully prioritize, and build the best product for our users. Share your work through mentorship, demos, blog posts, and any other relevant channels. About You You have several years of experience developing software, and are passionate about distributed systems and/or databases. If you don’t use it already, you’re excited to learn Rust. You take pride in owning your work all the way through. Whether it’s early design work, close code review, holding the pager, writing the docs, or teaching the system to your newest team member, you take responsibility for your work at every step. You strive to make your work easy for others to understand. You write clear design docs and write clear, well-documented code. You love to take hard problems and make them simpler. And still simpler—until all of the complexity is boiled away. You love to solve hard problems in service of the customer and you approach those hard problems from all perspectives. Some of your greatest engineering moments come from the times you solved problems by not writing any code. You’re excited about working at the intersection of frontier academic research and the fast-paced realities of a venture-backed startup. You love the multidimensional problem of balancing engineering resilience, delivery speed, and product value. You want to build something great. STAFF SALARY RANGE: $200,000 - $230,000 + Equity SENIOR SALARY RANGE: $170,000 - $205,000 + Equity The salary range provided in this job description should not be considered a guarantee or commitment. The actual compensation offered may vary based on individual qualifications objectively assessed during the application and interview process, including but not limited to the candidate’s: Qualifications and relevant work experience Educational background and credentials Relevant skills and certifications Geographic location Market demands Materialize reserves the right to adjust the salary range based on the candidate's specific circumstances and the overall compensation package. We understand it takes a diverse team of highly intelligent, passionate, curious, and creative people to develop the exceptional product we are building. Our dynamic team has incredible perspectives to share, just as we know you do, and we take great pride in being an equal opportunity employer.