Software Engineer III, Database Internals, AlloyDB

Software Engineer III, Database Internals, AlloyDB Location: Sunnyvale, CA, USA

Experience Level: Mid

Overview The AlloyDB team is part of Google Cloud Databases, focused on building a relational database for the cloud era by re-imagining the traditional Relational Database Management System (RDBMS) architecture.

Minimum Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree or equivalent practical experience.
• 2 years of experience with software development in C or C++.
• 2 years of experience designing, building, or maintaining backend infrastructure, distributed systems, or large-scale storage architecture.
• Experience developing concurrent, multithreaded systems, or engineering core database internals (e.g., storage engines, transaction processing, indexing).
• Experience building fault-tolerant distributed systems, data replication mechanisms, or consensus protocols (e.g., Paxos, Raft).

Preferred Qualifications

• Master's degree or PhD in Computer Science or related technical fields.
• Experience modifying or contributing to the internals of open-source databases (e.g., PostgreSQL, MySQL) or storage engines (e.g., RocksDB, LevelDB).
• Experience with query processing, cost-based query optimization, compiler theory, or vectorized execution engines.
• Experience engineering lock-free data structures, latches, and advanced thread synchronization mechanisms.
• Experience analyzing and tuning system performance using standard benchmarks (e.g., TPC-C, TPC-H) and low-level profiling tools (e.g., perf, eBPF).

About the Job Google's software engineers develop next-generation technologies that change how billions of users connect, explore, and interact with information. The AlloyDB team re-imagines the RDBMS architecture, disaggregating compute and storage for independent scaling and availability.

Responsibilities

• Design and implement high-performance C++ components for the AlloyDB kernel, including storage engines, indexing, buffer management, and transaction logging.
• Build and harden distributed consensus and replication mechanisms to ensure data consistency, high availability, and zero data loss during failovers across large-scale deployments.
• Integrate upstream PostgreSQL features into a cloud-native storage engine, ensuring SQL compliance while maximizing Google's hardware advantages.
• Profile and optimize the core database path to reduce latency and improve query execution for enterprise-scale workloads.
• Collaborate with cross-functional teams to resolve architectural challenges and performance bottlenecks.

Compensation

• US Salary Range: $147,000 - $210,000 (USD) + 15% bonus target + equity + benefits

Additional Information

• Google is an equal opportunity and affirmative action employer. We are committed to building a diverse workforce and provide equal employment opportunity regardless of various factors such as race, gender, and disability.
• English proficiency is required for all roles globally.
• Agency resumes are not accepted.

For more information about benefits at Google, please visit our Benefits page.