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Staff Software Engineer - Distributed Data Systems

Pay
USD 192,000–260,000/yearAnnual period assumed — pay source
Local Pay Range $192,000—$260,000 USD About Databricks
Read the full posting
Work setting
Not stated
Employment
Not stated

Before you apply

Employer’s visa record
620 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.

What you’ll work on

Full posting
  • Build next-generation distributed data storage and processing systems

  • Develop and improve Apache Spark, the open source big data framework

  • Deliver reliable, high-performance storage services and client libraries for cloud storage

  • Build the next-generation query optimizer and execution engine

  • Help orchestrate and operate tens of thousands of data pipelines (Delta Pipelines)

From the employer’s posting
you will be building the next generation distributed data storage and processing systems
Develop the de facto open source standard framework for big data.
Deliver reliable and high performance services and client libraries for storing and accessing humongous amount of data on cloud storage backends
Build the next generation query optimizer and execution engine that's fast, tuning free, scalable, and robust.
The goal of the Delta Pipelines project is to make it simple and possible to orchestrate and operate tens of thousands of data pipelines.
Education & alternatives
- BS in Computer Science, related technical field or equivalent practical experience. - Optional: MS or PhD in databases, distributed systems. - Comfortable working towards a multi-year vision with incremental deliverables.

About Databricks

More than 20,000 organizations worldwide — including adidas, AT&T, Bayer, Block, Mastercard, Rivian, Unilever, and 70% of the Fortune 500 — rely on the Databricks Data + AI Platform to build and scale data and AI apps, analytics and agents.

In the employer’s words · Read in context

Apply at Databricks

Posting record

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Open 7 monthsWe first saw this posting 213 days ago and it is still up. Roles open this long are often slow to fill or kept open to collect applications.

Status in our records
Live
First seen by us
Apr 14, 2026213 days ago
Recorded sightings
441
Last seen by us
Nov 13, 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

Pay

Higher than most similar jobs

$192K–$260K against $127K–$190K, the middle half of what similar US postings state.

From 2,239 postings in the last year. Stated ranges, not salaries paid.

Time since we first saw it

Day 213

Up longer than most. Similar jobs usually come down between day 6 and day 56.

Well past Databricks’s usual: its jobs come down by about day 63.

From 13,630 similar postings that came down, and 19 of Databricks’s. Coming down is not always a hire.

Databricks is hiring

29 open jobs

Open jobs by the week we first saw them, last 12 weeks.

  • Data Engineer hiring has slowed
  • Its jobs tend to stay up a long time
  • 3% of open jobs were reposted
Hiring record

See 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++
  • Java
  • Scala
  • SQL
  • AWS
  • Azure
  • Databricks
  • Delta Lake
  • Hadoop
  • S3
  • Spark
Where the posting names them
- Driven by delivering customer value and impact. - 8+ years of production level experience in either Java, Scala or C++. - Strong foundation in algorithms and data structures and their real-world use cases.
We develop and operate one of the largest scale software platforms. The fleet consists of millions of virtual machines, generating terabytes of logs and processing exabytes of data per day. At our scale, we regularly observe cloud hardware, network, and operating system faults, and our software must gracefully shield our customers from any of the above. Modern data analysis employs sophisticated methods such as machine learning that go well beyond the roll-up and drill-down capabilities of traditional SQL query engines. As a software engineer on the Runtime team at Databricks, you will be building the next generation distributed data storage and processing systems that can outperform specialized SQL query engines in relational query performance, yet provide the expressiveness and programming abstractions to support diverse workloads ranging from ETL to data science. Below are some example projects:
Apache Spark™: Develop the de facto open source standard framework for big data. Data Plane Storage: Deliver reliable and high performance services and client libraries for storing and accessing humongous amount of data on cloud storage backends, e.g., AWS S3, Azure Blob Store. Delta Lake: A storage management system that combines the scale and cost-efficiency of data lakes, the performance and reliability of a data warehouse, and the low latency of streaming. Its higher level abstractions and guarantees, including ACID transactions and time travel, drastically simplify the complexity of real-world data engineering architecture.
P-186 At Databricks, we are obsessed with enabling data teams to solve the world's toughest problems, from security threat detection to cancer drug development. We do this by building and running the world's best data and AI infrastructure platform, so our customers can focus on the high value challenges that are central to their own missions. Founded in 2013 by the original creators of Apache Spark™, Databricks has grown from a tiny corner office in Berkeley, California to a global organization with over 1000 employees. Thousands of organizations, from small to Fortune 100, trust Databricks with their mission-critical workloads, making us one of the fastest growing SaaS companies in the world.
At Databricks, we are obsessed with enabling data teams to solve the world's toughest problems, from security threat detection to cancer drug development. We do this by building and running the world's best data and AI infrastructure platform, so our customers can focus on the high value challenges that are central to their own missions. Founded in 2013 by the original creators of Apache Spark™, Databricks has grown from a tiny corner office in Berkeley, California to a global organization with over 1000 employees. Thousands of organizations, from small to Fortune 100, trust Databricks with their mission-critical workloads, making us one of the fastest growing SaaS companies in the world. Our engineering teams build highly technical products that fulfill real, important needs in the world. We constantly push the boundaries of data and AI technology, while simultaneously operating with the resilience, security and scale that is critical to making customers successful on our platform.
Pay Range Transparency Databricks is committed to fair and equitable compensation practices. The pay range(s) for this role is listed below and represents the expected salary range for non-commissionable roles or on-target earnings for commissionable roles. Actual compensation packages are based on several factors that are unique to each candidate, including but not limited to job-related skills, depth of experience, relevant certifications and training, and specific work location. Based on the factors above, Databricks anticipates utilizing the full width of the range. The total compensation package for this position may also include eligibility for annual performance bonus, equity, and the benefits listed above. For more information regarding which range your location is in visit our page here. Local Pay Range
$192,000—$260,000 USD About Databricks Databricks is the Data and AI company. More than 20,000 organizations worldwide — including adidas, AT&T, Bayer, Block, Mastercard, Rivian, Unilever, and 70% of the Fortune 500 — rely on the Databricks Data + AI Platform to build and scale data and AI apps, analytics and agents. Headquartered in San Francisco with 30+ offices around the globe, Databricks offers a unified platform that includes Genie, Lakebase, Agent Bricks, Lakeflow, Lakehouse, and Unity Catalog. To learn more, follow Databricks on LinkedIn, X, YouTube, and Instagram.
About Databricks Databricks is the Data and AI company. More than 20,000 organizations worldwide — including adidas, AT&T, Bayer, Block, Mastercard, Rivian, Unilever, and 70% of the Fortune 500 — rely on the Databricks Data + AI Platform to build and scale data and AI apps, analytics and agents. Headquartered in San Francisco with 30+ offices around the globe, Databricks offers a unified platform that includes Genie, Lakebase, Agent Bricks, Lakeflow, Lakehouse, and Unity Catalog. To learn more, follow Databricks on LinkedIn, X, YouTube, and Instagram. Benefits
Benefits At Databricks, we strive to provide comprehensive benefits and perks that meet the needs of all of our employees. For specific details on the benefits offered in your region click here. Our Commitment to Diversity and Inclusion
Our Commitment to Diversity and Inclusion At Databricks, we are committed to fostering a diverse and inclusive culture where everyone can excel. We take great care to ensure that our hiring practices are inclusive and meet equal employment opportunity standards. Individuals looking for employment at Databricks are considered without regard to age, color, disability, ethnicity, family or marital status, gender identity or expression, language, national origin, physical and mental ability, political affiliation, race, religion, sexual orientation, socio-economic status, veteran status, and other protected characteristics. Compliance
Data Plane Storage: Deliver reliable and high performance services and client libraries for storing and accessing humongous amount of data on cloud storage backends, e.g., AWS S3, Azure Blob Store. Delta Lake: A storage management system that combines the scale and cost-efficiency of data lakes, the performance and reliability of a data warehouse, and the low latency of streaming. Its higher level abstractions and guarantees, including ACID transactions and time travel, drastically simplify the complexity of real-world data engineering architecture. Delta Pipelines: It's difficult to manage even a single data engineering pipeline. The goal of the Delta Pipelines project is to make it simple and possible to orchestrate and operate tens of thousands of data pipelines. It provides a higher level abstraction for expressing data pipelines and enables customers to deploy, test & upgrade pipelines and eliminate operational burdens for managing and building high quality data pipelines.
- Strong foundation in algorithms and data structures and their real-world use cases. - Experience with distributed systems, databases, and big data systems (Apache Spark™, Hadoop). Pay Range Transparency
Below are some example projects: Apache Spark™: Develop the de facto open source standard framework for big data. Data Plane Storage: Deliver reliable and high performance services and client libraries for storing and accessing humongous amount of data on cloud storage backends, e.g., AWS S3, Azure Blob Store.

Your next step

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  • Greenhouse doesn’t read resumes over 2.5 MB, or details placed in a header, footer, text box, table or second column. The file still attaches, but a recruiter has to type you in by hand.

Already applied? Track this application

Has Databricks posted this job before?

Yes. We’ve followed 3 other Staff Software Engineer - Distributed Data Systems jobs there since April 2026. All 3 are still up.

  1. BelgradeStill up after 213 days, first seen Apr 14
  2. San FranciscoStill up after 213 days, first seen Apr 14
  3. BellevueStill up after 213 days, first seen Apr 14
  4. This jobUp 213 days so far, first seen Apr 14

Large employers often post one title for several teams, so these can be separate openings.

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.

Weekly new Data Engineer postings at the same employers, from the week of August 17 to the week of November 2. The fewest in a week was 860, the most 1,354, and the latest week had 1,335.
August 17Last week

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

View original posting ↗

P-186

At Databricks, we are obsessed with enabling data teams to solve the world's toughest problems, from security threat detection to cancer drug development. We do this by building and running the world's best data and AI infrastructure platform, so our customers can focus on the high value challenges that are central to their own missions.

Founded in 2013 by the original creators of Apache Spark™, Databricks has grown from a tiny corner office in Berkeley, California to a global organization with over 1000 employees. Thousands of organizations, from small to Fortune 100, trust Databricks with their mission-critical workloads, making us one of the fastest growing SaaS companies in the world.

Our engineering teams build highly technical products that fulfill real, important needs in the world. We constantly push the boundaries of data and AI technology, while simultaneously operating with the resilience, security and scale that is critical to making customers successful on our platform.

We develop and operate one of the largest scale software platforms. The fleet consists of millions of virtual machines, generating terabytes of logs and processing exabytes of data per day. At our scale, we regularly observe cloud hardware, network, and operating system faults, and our software must gracefully shield our customers from any of the above.

Modern data analysis employs sophisticated methods such as machine learning that go well beyond the roll-up and drill-down capabilities of traditional SQL query engines. As a software engineer on the Runtime team at Databricks, you will be building the next generation distributed data storage and processing systems that can outperform specialized SQL query engines in relational query performance, yet provide the expressiveness and programming abstractions to support diverse workloads ranging from ETL to data science.

Below are some example projects:

Apache Spark™: Develop the de facto open source standard framework for big data.

Data Plane Storage: Deliver reliable and high performance services and client libraries for storing and accessing humongous amount of data on cloud storage backends, e.g., AWS S3, Azure Blob Store.

Delta Lake: A storage management system that combines the scale and cost-efficiency of data lakes, the performance and reliability of a data warehouse, and the low latency of streaming. Its higher level abstractions and guarantees, including ACID transactions and time travel, drastically simplify the complexity of real-world data engineering architecture.

Delta Pipelines: It's difficult to manage even a single data engineering pipeline. The goal of the Delta Pipelines project is to make it simple and possible to orchestrate and operate tens of thousands of data pipelines. It provides a higher level abstraction for expressing data pipelines and enables customers to deploy, test & upgrade pipelines and eliminate operational burdens for managing and building high quality data pipelines.

Performance Engineering: Build the next generation query optimizer and execution engine that's fast, tuning free, scalable, and robust.

What we look for:

  • BS in Computer Science, related technical field or equivalent practical experience.
  • Optional: MS or PhD in databases, distributed systems.
  • Comfortable working towards a multi-year vision with incremental deliverables.
  • Driven by delivering customer value and impact.
  • 8+ years of production level experience in either Java, Scala or C++.
  • Strong foundation in algorithms and data structures and their real-world use cases.
  • Experience with distributed systems, databases, and big data systems (Apache Spark™, Hadoop).

 

Pay Range Transparency

Databricks is committed to fair and equitable compensation practices. The pay range(s) for this role is listed below and represents the expected salary range for non-commissionable roles or on-target earnings for commissionable roles.  Actual compensation packages are based on several factors that are unique to each candidate, including but not limited to job-related skills, depth of experience, relevant certifications and training, and specific work location. Based on the factors above, Databricks anticipates utilizing the full width of the range. The total compensation package for this position may also include eligibility for annual performance bonus, equity, and the benefits listed above. For more information regarding which range your location is in visit our page here.

 

Local Pay Range
$192,000—$260,000 USD

About Databricks

Databricks is the Data and AI company. More than 20,000 organizations worldwide — including adidas, AT&T, Bayer, Block, Mastercard, Rivian, Unilever, and 70% of the Fortune 500 — rely on the Databricks Data + AI Platform to build and scale data and AI apps, analytics and agents. Headquartered in San Francisco with 30+ offices around the globe, Databricks offers a unified platform that includes Genie, Lakebase, Agent Bricks, Lakeflow, Lakehouse, and Unity Catalog. To learn more, follow Databricks on LinkedIn, X, YouTube, and Instagram.

Benefits

At Databricks, we strive to provide comprehensive benefits and perks that meet the needs of all of our employees. For specific details on the benefits offered in your region click here.

Our Commitment to Diversity and Inclusion

At Databricks, we are committed to fostering a diverse and inclusive culture where everyone can excel. We take great care to ensure that our hiring practices are inclusive and meet equal employment opportunity standards. Individuals looking for employment at Databricks are considered without regard to age, color, disability, ethnicity, family or marital status, gender identity or expression, language, national origin, physical and mental ability, political affiliation, race, religion, sexual orientation, socio-economic status, veteran status, and other protected characteristics.

Compliance

If access to export-controlled technology or source code is required for performance of job duties, it is within Employer's discretion whether to apply for a U.S. government license for such positions, and Employer may decline to proceed with an applicant on this basis alone.

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View original posting ↗

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Pay
Local Pay Range $192,000—$260,000 USD About Databricks
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Mountain View, California

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