Principal Software Engineer - Distributed

Principal Software Engineer (Distributed)

MariaDB is making a big impact on the world. Whether you're checking your bank account, buying a coffee, shopping online, making a phone call, listening to music, taking out a loan or ordering takeout – MariaDB is the backbone of applications used everyday. Companies small and large, including 75% of the Fortune 500, run MariaDB, touching the lives of billions of people. With massive reach through Linux distributions, enterprise deployments and public clouds, MariaDB is uniquely positioned as the leading database for modern application development.

We're looking for a Principal Software Engineer (Distributed) who's excited about solving hard problems in distributed systems and enjoys turning complex challenges into elegant, reliable solutions.

The Role

You'll join a small, highly skilled team where your work will have a direct impact. Expect to dig deep into replication, sharding, concurrency, and performance optimization—making our systems faster, smarter, and more resilient. You'll collaborate globally, contribute to open source, and push the limits of what a distributed database can do.

What You'll Do

• Build and test distributed database solutions that scale.
• Make systems rock-solid in performance and reliability, across both on-prem and cloud.
• Work on replication, sharding, and consistency models (Raft, MVCC, ACID).
• Profile, debug, and fine-tune performance with tools like perf, htop, iostat—and your own tricks.
• Keep code clean and reviewable with Git.
• Shape infrastructure using CMake or Bazel.
• Configure and monitor with YAML/JSONnet, Prometheus, and Grafana.
• Dive into Linux/Unix internals (systemd, cgroups, logging, core dumps).
• Automate testing and performance validation with load-testing scripts (YandexTank or your own).

What You Bring

• 10+ years of professional experience in C++ (Python/Bash scripting a plus).
• Deep SQL knowledge (MariaDB/MySQL/PostgreSQL) and passion for distributed systems (Raft, MVCC, ACID etc).
• Solid background in distributed systems, concurrency, and multithreading.
• Comfort with Linux/Unix systems. (systemd, cgroups, logging, etc). and debugging tools
• Hands-on experience with performance profiling with tools like perf, htop, or iostat.
• YAML/JSONnet for configs plus familiarity with observability tools (Prometheus, Grafana).
• Bonus points for open-source contributions, automation expertise, or performance/load testing.

Remote - India

Why You'll Love It Here

• A globally distributed team where your code truly matters.
• Remote or hybrid work options (location dependent)
• Projects that stretch your skills and make an impact at scale.
• Competitive pay, 25 days paid annual leave (plus holidays), and a culture that values creativity and clean engineering.

How to Apply

If you are interested in this position, please submit your application along with your CV/Resume through our ATS Greenhouse on our MariaDB Careers site.

• At MariaDB we celebrate the diverse experiences and perspectives of our employees because this drives innovation and success. MariaDB is an equal opportunity employer dedicated to creating a welcoming and inclusive workplace for everyone.
• MariaDB does not sponsor work visas or relocation.
• MariaDB is committed to providing accommodations for individuals with disabilities within our application and interview process. To request an accommodation due to a disability, please inform your recruiter.
• MariaDB will not accept agency resumes without a prior contractual agreement with HR. Please do not forward resumes to any recruiting alias or employee directly. MariaDB is not responsible for paying any fees associated with any unsolicited submitted CV/Resumes.