Software Engineer - Platform

About MotherDuck

Don’t let the quirky name fool you! We’re on a mission to transform the way people interact with and understand their data. We aim to empower and delight data practitioners by building an even richer, more scalable, and more collaborative experience atop the already amazing DuckDB open-source project. We’ve launched a minimally-viable product and we need your help to build out key pieces of our infrastructure, scale our operational maturity, and contribute directly to a delightful product experience.

Our team is a diverse mix of passionate, collaborative and empathetic data industry veterans from Google, Amazon, Meta, Snowflake, SingleStore, Databricks, and the like. We’re geographically distributed across 4 engineering hubs, spanning the US and Europe.

As a Software Engineer on the Platforms team, you’ll build and optimize the runtime that manages our flock of little DuckDBs hard at work running customer queries. Challenges include dynamic resource allocation, custom storage formats, state management, and observability.

You have a passion for being at the center of many moving pieces, partnering with internal engineering teams, cross functional partners, and customers to weave together a coherent system. You know what it takes to build a distributed system that is reliable, efficient, secure, and observable, but you also know how to launch and iterate in a fast moving environment. You thrive through the full lifecycle of a feature, from clarifying product requirements and key metrics to carrying the pager and investing in making it squawk less.

This is a hybrid position that can be based in either our Seattle or San Francisco offices.

Core Responsibilities

• Design, build and care for the server-side infrastructure for MotherDuck.

• Write clean, well-documented, and maintainable code that follows established coding standards and best practices.

• Monitor and troubleshoot production issues, and work to resolve them in a timely manner.

• Embrace feedback, empower your teammates, and invest in the team’s success.

• Go beyond the job description to ensure we build an extraordinary product for our users.

What we’re looking for

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science or a related field, or equivalent work experience.

• 5+ years of experience in software development, with a focus on backend development and devops.

• Experience with C++ programming or other systems programming language

• Experience with infrastructure management, deployment automation, and scaling.

• Strong understanding of distributed systems and microservices architecture.

• Experience with cloud platforms such as AWS, GCP, or Azure.

• Experience with SQL databases, such as PostgreSQL and DuckDB.

• Excellent problem-solving and communication skills.

• Self-directed, can get at the core of a problem independently but solve it as a team.

• Sense of fun, ability to not take yourself too seriously.

What we provide

• Competitive compensation and stock options

• 100% paid medical, dental, and vision for employees

• 80% paid medical, dental, and vision for dependents

• Unlimited Paid Time Off

• 401k plan

• Regular company wide and team offsites at various locations

• Hybrid work environment

Please Apply

Does this role sound appealing to you, but you’re missing some of the requirements or don’t quite think you’re qualified?  Please apply anyway. Research has shown that underrepresented groups in technology often shy away from roles which aren’t a 100% match. We aim to build a diverse team and will strongly consider applicants who bring many of the requirements plus have other experiences which round out their qualifications.

MotherDuck is proud to be an Equal Employment Opportunity and Affirmative Action employer. We do not discriminate based on race, religion, color, national origin, gender (including pregnancy, childbirth, or related medical conditions), sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, age, status as a protected veteran, status as an individual with a disability, or other applicable legally protected characteristics. MotherDuck is committed to working with and providing reasonable accommodations to applicants with physical and mental disabilities.