Pay
$127K–$190K is typical
The middle half of what similar US postings state. This one doesn’t list pay.
From 2,239 postings in the last year. Stated ranges, not salaries paid.
Database Research Scientist
Reads like a Data Engineer role: pipelines and data infrastructure.
United States · Canada · United Kingdom · Germany · The Netherlands · San Francisco, CA, United States
Actively hiring, first seen by us 22 hours ago- Pay
- Pay not listedSimilar roles state $127K–$190K
- Work setting
Remote — work setting source
Location type: Remote
From the employer’s posting- Employment
Full-time — employment source
Employment type: Full-time
From the employer’s posting- Team
Engineering › ClickHouse Labs — team source
Department: Engineering › ClickHouse Labs
From the employer’s posting
Before you apply
- Employer’s visa record
- 10 H-1B petitions approved in fiscal 2024 and 2025For the employer as a whole. This posting doesn’t say whether the role is sponsored. US Citizenship and Immigration Services.
- Sponsorship
Visa sponsorship not confirmed — sponsorship source
Do you require sponsorship by an employer for your right to work in your current location?
From the employer’s application form
What you’ll work on
Full postingAs a Research Scientist at ClickHouse Labs, you will work on high-impact problems at the intersection of database systems, distributed systems, AI, and systems software engineering while collaborating with experienced researchers and engineers.
In this role, you will work on leading open-source database systems (e.g., ClickHouse, PostgreSQL).
Design and evaluate new algorithms, data structures and system architectures for databases
Build research prototypes and production-grade implementations with engineering teams
Analyze large-scale workloads, traces and telemetry to find bottlenecks
Design rigorous experiments and benchmarks across realistic workloads and hardware
Publish results through papers, technical reports and open-source contributions
From the employer’s posting
As a Research Scientist at ClickHouse Labs, you will work on high-impact problems at the intersection of database systems, distributed systems, AI, and systems software engineering while collaborating with experienced researchers and engineers. The role covers a broad range of problems across database systems research and engineering, including but not limited to query optimization, execution engines, distributed systems, consensus protocols, materialized views, indexing and data structures, benchmarking, workload analysis, and emerging agentic workloads.
In this role, you will work on leading open-source database systems (e.g., ClickHouse, PostgreSQL). You will investigate performance and scalability bottlenecks in production-quality systems, develop new algorithms and system designs, and evaluate them under realistic workloads and hardware configurations. Projects may involve improving query planning and execution, reducing CPU and memory overhead, increasing throughput and concurrency, scaling across distributed deployments, or redesigning system components to leverage modern hardware better. You will work closely with engineers to turn successful ideas into robust implementations that can be deployed and maintained in widely used open-source systems.
Design and evaluate new algorithms, data structures, and system architectures for areas such as query optimization, indexing, storage management, query execution, and distributed data management.
Develop high-quality research prototypes and production-grade implementations, and work with engineering teams to integrate successful techniques into open-source and production systems.
Analyze large-scale database workloads, performance traces, benchmarks, and production telemetry to identify bottlenecks and optimization opportunities.
Design rigorous experiments and benchmarks to evaluate new techniques across realistic workloads, hardware configurations, and deployment environments.
Communicate research results through technical reports, open-source contributions, internal presentations, and publications at leading database and systems venues
What you’ll bring
All qualificationsCore experience
- Proficiency in systems programming using C, C++, Rust, Zig, or a comparable low-level programming language.
Preferred experience
- Experience developing or operating database systems in cloud environments such as AWS, Google Cloud Platform, or Microsoft Azure.
- Familiarity with modern systems-development and verification tooling, including formal specification or model-checking frameworks such as TLA+/PlusCal, Alloy, or Lean, as well as relevant development tools and languages such as LLVM, eBPF, Python, Go, or advanced profiling and debugging tools (e.g., perf, sanitizers, or tracing frameworks).
- Familiarity with large language models, reinforcement learning, learned optimization, or other techniques at the intersection of machine learning and systems.
- Experience contributing to large open-source systems projects, particularly database engines, distributed systems, compilers, or storage systems.
Qualification wording
Proficiency in systems programming using C, C++, Rust, Zig, or a comparable low-level programming language.
Experience developing or operating database systems in cloud environments such as AWS, Google Cloud Platform, or Microsoft Azure.
Familiarity with modern systems-development and verification tooling, including formal specification or model-checking frameworks such as TLA+/PlusCal, Alloy, or Lean, as well as relevant development tools and languages such as LLVM, eBPF, Python, Go, or advanced profiling and debugging tools (e.g., perf, sanitizers, or tracing frameworks).
Familiarity with large language models, reinforcement learning, learned optimization, or other techniques at the intersection of machine learning and systems.
Experience contributing to large open-source systems projects, particularly database engines, distributed systems, compilers, or storage systems.
Education & alternatives
Minimum Qualifications - Masters/Ph.D. in Computer Science, Data Science, or a related field, with research experience in databases, distributed systems, systems software, or machine learning systems. - Strong publication record in leading peer-reviewed research venues such as SIGMOD, VLDB, SOSP, OSDI, NSDI, or NeurIPS, with work relevant to databases or systems.
Benefits in the posting
Full benefits wording- Healthcare - Employer contributions towards your healthcare.
- Equity in the company - Every new eligible team member who joins our company receives equity.
- Culture - We All Shape It
From the employer’s posting.
Posting record
Report an errorActively hiringFirst seen by us today, still listed, and not a repost of an earlier posting.
- Status in our records
- Live
- First seen by us
- Nov 13, 2026today
- Recorded sightings
- 2
- Last seen by us
- Nov 14, 2026
- Employer says posted
- Oct 2, 2026
These dates show when we found the posting. Check the employer’s website to confirm it is still accepting applications.
How this job compares
Time since we first saw it
Day 0
Early. Similar jobs usually come down between day 6 and day 56.
From 13,630 similar postings that came down. Coming down is not always a hire.
ClickHouse is hiring
3 open jobs
Open jobs by the week we first saw them, last 12 weeks.
Hiring recordSee how this role fits your experience
Add your resume and we’ll mark which of these tools you already use, and point out anything in the posting that could rule you out.
- C
- C++
- Python
- Rust
- AWS
- Azure
- ClickHouse
- MySQL
- PostgreSQL
- Go
- GCP
Where the posting names them
- Strong programming and systems-development background, including experience working with database internals or other large systems codebases such as PostgreSQL, MySQL, ClickHouse, or comparable modern DBMSs. - Proficiency in systems programming using C, C++, Rust, Zig, or a comparable low-level programming language. - Strong analytical, experimental, problem-solving, and technical communication skills.
Bonus Qualifications - Familiarity with modern systems-development and verification tooling, including formal specification or model-checking frameworks such as TLA+/PlusCal, Alloy, or Lean, as well as relevant development tools and languages such as LLVM, eBPF, Python, Go, or advanced profiling and debugging tools (e.g., perf, sanitizers, or tracing frameworks). - Proven track record in optimizing database systems via hardware acceleration (e.g., GPU, FPGA, CXL), with a focus on designing methods for offloading for query execution, storage layers, and data-intensive primitives using frameworks like CUDA, SYCL, ROCm, or specialized FPGA development flows.
Preferred Qualifications - Experience developing or operating database systems in cloud environments such as AWS, Google Cloud Platform, or Microsoft Azure. - Familiarity with large language models, reinforcement learning, learned optimization, or other techniques at the intersection of machine learning and systems.
ClickHouse Labs is an applied research group that works closely with engineering teams to identify challenging problems in database systems and develop novel solutions. Our goal is to advance the state of the art and translate research ideas into real-world system improvements. About the Role
About the Role As a Research Scientist at ClickHouse Labs, you will work on high-impact problems at the intersection of database systems, distributed systems, AI, and systems software engineering while collaborating with experienced researchers and engineers. The role covers a broad range of problems across database systems research and engineering, including but not limited to query optimization, execution engines, distributed systems, consensus protocols, materialized views, indexing and data structures, benchmarking, workload analysis, and emerging agentic workloads. In this role, you will work on leading open-source database systems (e.g., ClickHouse, PostgreSQL). You will investigate performance and scalability bottlenecks in production-quality systems, develop new algorithms and system designs, and evaluate them under realistic workloads and hardware configurations. Projects may involve improving query planning and execution, reducing CPU and memory overhead, increasing throughput and concurrency, scaling across distributed deployments, or redesigning system components to leverage modern hardware better. You will work closely with engineers to turn successful ideas into robust implementations that can be deployed and maintained in widely used open-source systems.
As a Research Scientist at ClickHouse Labs, you will work on high-impact problems at the intersection of database systems, distributed systems, AI, and systems software engineering while collaborating with experienced researchers and engineers. The role covers a broad range of problems across database systems research and engineering, including but not limited to query optimization, execution engines, distributed systems, consensus protocols, materialized views, indexing and data structures, benchmarking, workload analysis, and emerging agentic workloads. In this role, you will work on leading open-source database systems (e.g., ClickHouse, PostgreSQL). You will investigate performance and scalability bottlenecks in production-quality systems, develop new algorithms and system designs, and evaluate them under realistic workloads and hardware configurations. Projects may involve improving query planning and execution, reducing CPU and memory overhead, increasing throughput and concurrency, scaling across distributed deployments, or redesigning system components to leverage modern hardware better. You will work closely with engineers to turn successful ideas into robust implementations that can be deployed and maintained in widely used open-source systems. Researchers are encouraged to publish their work, contribute to open-source projects, participate in leading research conferences, and pursue ambitious projects with strong engineering and research support.
Responsibilities - Conduct applied research aimed at advancing the performance, scalability, reliability, and functionality of open-source database management systems, including ClickHouse and PostgreSQL. - Design and evaluate new algorithms, data structures, and system architectures for areas such as query optimization, indexing, storage management, query execution, and distributed data management.
- Communicate research results through technical reports, open-source contributions, internal presentations, and publications at leading database and systems venues (e.g., SIGMOD, VLDB, CIDR). - Contribute to the broader technical direction of ClickHouse Labs by identifying emerging research opportunities and helping shape longer-term research projects. Qualifications
- Strong publication record in leading peer-reviewed research venues such as SIGMOD, VLDB, SOSP, OSDI, NSDI, or NeurIPS, with work relevant to databases or systems. - Strong programming and systems-development background, including experience working with database internals or other large systems codebases such as PostgreSQL, MySQL, ClickHouse, or comparable modern DBMSs. - Proficiency in systems programming using C, C++, Rust, Zig, or a comparable low-level programming language.
Perks - Flexible work environment - ClickHouse is a globally distributed company and remote-friendly. We currently operate in over 25 countries. - Healthcare - Employer contributions towards your healthcare.
As part of a rapidly scaling start-up, you will be instrumental in shaping our culture. Are you interested in finding out more about our culture? Learn more about our values here. Check out our blog posts or follow us on LinkedIn to find out more about what’s happening at ClickHouse. Equal Opportunity & Privacy
Equal Opportunity & Privacy ClickHouse provides equal employment opportunities to all employees and applicants and prohibits discrimination and harassment of any type based on factors such as race, color, religion, age, sex, national origin, disability status, genetics, protected veteran status, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, or any other characteristic protected by federal, state or local laws. Please see here for our Privacy Statement.
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Demand for Data Engineer roles
New Data Engineer postings at the employers we follow are up 7% over the last 6 weeks compared with the 6 before.
Each bar is one week of new postings. The darkest bars are the last 6 weeks.
Counted from the hiring pages we’ve followed for at least five weeks, so employers we add don’t look like growth. Updated weekly.
About the role
We file this job under Data Engineer, by the work the posting describes.
Data engineers build and run the pipelines that copy data out of apps and outside services into a warehouse or lake, and fix them when a source changes or a load fails.
Expect SQL, Python, a cloud platform, a scheduler such as Airflow, and often tools for large data such as Spark or Kafka.
An analytics engineer works one step later, turning the raw data a data engineer lands into clean tables people can query.
US government figures for database architects
- Median yearly pay, May 2025
- $139,500
- Expected change, 2025 to 2035
- 9.4% more jobsagainst 3.5% for all jobs
The government has no code for data engineers, so these figures are for the closest group, database architects, which includes data integration and data warehousing specialists.
Source: US Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (May 2025) and Employment Projections (2025 to 2035). Occupation code 15-1243.
Job description
ClickHouse Labs is an applied research group that works closely with engineering teams to identify challenging problems in database systems and develop novel solutions. Our goal is to advance the state of the art and translate research ideas into real-world system improvements.
About the Role
As a Research Scientist at ClickHouse Labs, you will work on high-impact problems at the intersection of database systems, distributed systems, AI, and systems software engineering while collaborating with experienced researchers and engineers. The role covers a broad range of problems across database systems research and engineering, including but not limited to query optimization, execution engines, distributed systems, consensus protocols, materialized views, indexing and data structures, benchmarking, workload analysis, and emerging agentic workloads.
In this role, you will work on leading open-source database systems (e.g., ClickHouse, PostgreSQL). You will investigate performance and scalability bottlenecks in production-quality systems, develop new algorithms and system designs, and evaluate them under realistic workloads and hardware configurations. Projects may involve improving query planning and execution, reducing CPU and memory overhead, increasing throughput and concurrency, scaling across distributed deployments, or redesigning system components to leverage modern hardware better. You will work closely with engineers to turn successful ideas into robust implementations that can be deployed and maintained in widely used open-source systems.
Researchers are encouraged to publish their work, contribute to open-source projects, participate in leading research conferences, and pursue ambitious projects with strong engineering and research support.
Responsibilities
Conduct applied research aimed at advancing the performance, scalability, reliability, and functionality of open-source database management systems, including ClickHouse and PostgreSQL.
Design and evaluate new algorithms, data structures, and system architectures for areas such as query optimization, indexing, storage management, query execution, and distributed data management.
Develop high-quality research prototypes and production-grade implementations, and work with engineering teams to integrate successful techniques into open-source and production systems.
Collaborate closely with database engine, infrastructure, and data-plane engineers to identify high-impact research problems and translate research results into practical system improvements.
Analyze large-scale database workloads, performance traces, benchmarks, and production telemetry to identify bottlenecks and optimization opportunities.
Design rigorous experiments and benchmarks to evaluate new techniques across realistic workloads, hardware configurations, and deployment environments.
Communicate research results through technical reports, open-source contributions, internal presentations, and publications at leading database and systems venues (e.g., SIGMOD, VLDB, CIDR).
Contribute to the broader technical direction of ClickHouse Labs by identifying emerging research opportunities and helping shape longer-term research projects.
Qualifications
Minimum Qualifications
Masters/Ph.D. in Computer Science, Data Science, or a related field, with research experience in databases, distributed systems, systems software, or machine learning systems.
Strong publication record in leading peer-reviewed research venues such as SIGMOD, VLDB, SOSP, OSDI, NSDI, or NeurIPS, with work relevant to databases or systems.
Strong programming and systems-development background, including experience working with database internals or other large systems codebases such as PostgreSQL, MySQL, ClickHouse, or comparable modern DBMSs.
Proficiency in systems programming using C, C++, Rust, Zig, or a comparable low-level programming language.
Strong analytical, experimental, problem-solving, and technical communication skills.
Preferred Qualifications
Experience developing or operating database systems in cloud environments such as AWS, Google Cloud Platform, or Microsoft Azure.
Familiarity with large language models, reinforcement learning, learned optimization, or other techniques at the intersection of machine learning and systems.
Experience contributing to large open-source systems projects, particularly database engines, distributed systems, compilers, or storage systems.
Bonus Qualifications
Familiarity with modern systems-development and verification tooling, including formal specification or model-checking frameworks such as TLA+/PlusCal, Alloy, or Lean, as well as relevant development tools and languages such as LLVM, eBPF, Python, Go, or advanced profiling and debugging tools (e.g., perf, sanitizers, or tracing frameworks).
Proven track record in optimizing database systems via hardware acceleration (e.g., GPU, FPGA, CXL), with a focus on designing methods for offloading for query execution, storage layers, and data-intensive primitives using frameworks like CUDA, SYCL, ROCm, or specialized FPGA development flows.
Perks
Flexible work environment - ClickHouse is a globally distributed company and remote-friendly. We currently operate in over 25 countries.
Healthcare - Employer contributions towards your healthcare.
Equity in the company - Every new eligible team member who joins our company receives equity.
Time off - Flexible time off in the US, generous entitlement in other countries.
A USD$500 Home office setup if you’re a remote employee.
Global Gatherings – We believe in the power of in-person connection and offer opportunities to engage with colleagues at company-wide offsites.
Culture - We All Shape It
As part of a rapidly scaling start-up, you will be instrumental in shaping our culture.
Are you interested in finding out more about our culture? Learn more about our values here. Check out our blog posts or follow us on LinkedIn to find out more about what’s happening at ClickHouse.
Equal Opportunity & Privacy
ClickHouse provides equal employment opportunities to all employees and applicants and prohibits discrimination and harassment of any type based on factors such as race, color, religion, age, sex, national origin, disability status, genetics, protected veteran status, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, or any other characteristic protected by federal, state or local laws.
Please see here for our Privacy Statement.
Source details
Source notes
Source excerptsSelected passages from the saved posting. Check the full description for conditions and exceptions.
- Pay
No pay amount identified in the saved description.
- Location & working pattern
San Francisco, CA, United States
Perks - Flexible work environment - ClickHouse is a globally distributed company and remote-friendly. We currently operate in over 25 countries. - Healthcare - Employer contributions towards your healthcare.
More source context
- Time off - Flexible time off in the US, generous entitlement in other countries. - A USD$500 Home office setup if you’re a remote employee. - Global Gatherings – We believe in the power of in-person connection and offer opportunities to engage with colleagues at company-wide offsites.
- Work authorization
No clear work-authorization passage found. Eligibility is unconfirmed.