Middle Software Engineer (Java/C++) — Query Engine / Data Platform Offline

About Our Client:

Our client is a leading enterprise data platform company building an open, high-performance data lakehouse for AI and analytical workloads. The platform combines an intelligent SQL query engine, an AI-ready semantic layer, and an open catalog built on Apache Iceberg — enabling Fortune 500 companies across finance, energy, manufacturing, and logistics to unify, query, and govern data at massive scale across cloud and on-premise sources.

About the Role:

We are looking for a Middle-level Software Engineer to work on the core query engine of a large-scale distributed data platform. You will develop features across query planning, optimization, and execution, contribute to performance-critical components, and help investigate and fix production issues reported by real enterprise customers.

This is a systems-level, backend engineering role focused on distributed data processing internals — not application development or CRUD services.

Responsibilities:

• Develop and maintain features across the query engine — planning, optimization, execution, and data access layers
• Write performance-conscious code in Java and/or C++
• Investigate and fix production and customer-reported issues under the guidance of senior engineers, including fixes delivered across multiple supported release lines
• Work with SQL semantics, query plans, and execution operators over large-scale distributed data
• Integrate with columnar formats, open table formats, and connectivity drivers
• Contribute to CI/CD and automated testing in Jenkins
• Deploy and validate changes on Kubernetes (GKE/EKS/AKS) across GCP, AWS, or Azure with Docker
• Debug issues across query planning, distributed execution, memory management, and I/O; collaborate with US-based teams on design and code reviews.

Required Qualifications:

• B.S. or M.S. in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, or a related field
• 3+ years in backend / systems software engineering
• Strong proficiency in Java or C++ with solid OOP and software design fundamentals, including concurrency and asynchronous programming (comfort with both languages is especially valued)
• Strong SQL and understanding of relational and analytical data systems, including query execution concepts
• Hands-on experience with data processing systems: query engines, distributed databases, ETL/ELT, or analytical platforms
• Experience with Jenkins pipelines and modern development workflows
• Docker and basic Kubernetes (running workloads, debugging pods, kubectl fluency)
• Hands-on experience with at least one major cloud (GCP, AWS, or Azure)
• Confident Git/GitHub workflows
• Comfortable with AI-assisted development workflows — using modern AI tools for code comprehension, debugging, and test generation, and critically validating their output
• English Upper-Intermediate or higher (B2+) — daily written and verbal communication with a US-based engineering team
• Availability to work EU business hours shifted 2–3 hours later for daily overlap with US West Coast mornings.

Desired Skills:

• Apache Arrow (columnar in-memory format) and SQL planner/optimizer frameworks such as Apache Calcite
• LLVM-based runtime expression compilation
• Open table formats — Apache Iceberg, Delta Lake, or Hudi — and columnar file formats such as Parquet, Avro, or ORC
• MPP query engines (Presto, Trino, or similar); exposure to distributed data platforms such as Spark, Snowflake, or Databricks
• Messaging systems: Kafka, NATS, or cloud pub/sub services
• Query planning, optimization, and execution internals
• Connectivity drivers: JDBC, ODBC, Arrow Flight
• Managed Kubernetes (GKE/EKS/AKS), multi-cloud exposure; Terraform
• Performance profiling of latency-sensitive systems.

Details:

• Engagement: Long-term contract
• Location: Europe (EU / EEA / UK), remote
• Working hours: EU business hours, shifted 2–3 hours later for daily overlap with the US West Coast team