Open roleExternal
Database Systems Research Engineer
- city of edinburgh, scotland, United Kingdom
- Permanent·On-site
- Full time
- £70 - £110 Per Hour
Job Description
Our client is a well known technology conglomerate, who are looking for a Database Systems Research Engineer to work on next-generation, high-performance data management technologies.
You’ll combine systems research, software engineering and hands-on prototyping, tackling challenging problems across database architecture, distributed systems, cloud infrastructure and AI data platforms.
What You’ll Work On
- Design and implement database kernels, query optimisers, execution engines, storage engines and indexing systems.
- Develop advanced query processing and optimisation techniques for transactional, analytical and AI workloads.
- Research distributed and cloud-native database architectures, including partitioning, replication and distributed execution.
- Develop storage and data management solutions for structured, multimodal and AI-driven workloads.
- Explore AI data infrastructure including vector search, RAG, knowledge graphs, embeddings and agent memory.
- Profile, benchmark and optimise systems across CPU, memory, storage, networking and accelerators.
- Turn research ideas into high-quality prototypes, technical contributions, patents and publications.
What We’re Looking For
- MSc or PhD in Computer Science, Computer Engineering or a related field.
- Strong background in database systems, distributed systems, operating systems, computer architecture or AI systems.
- Understanding of database internals including query processing, optimisation, storage, indexing and transaction processing.
- Strong programming skills in C, C++, Rust or Go.
- Experience with system design, implementation, benchmarking and performance optimisation.
- Strong problem-solving skills and an interest in open-ended research and engineering challenges.
Nice to Have
- Experience with systems such as PostgreSQL, DuckDB, Spark, Flink, ClickHouse, RocksDB, TiDB or similar.
- Knowledge of NUMA, RDMA, CXL, GPUs, NPUs or heterogeneous computing.
- Experience with vector databases, RAG, knowledge graphs or AI data infrastructure.
- Publications in leading systems/database conferences such as SIGMOD, VLDB, ICDE, EuroSys, OSDI or SOSP.