Senior Software Engineer, Zilliz

Cloud Reliability

$175-225k

AWS

Docker

Kubernetes

GCP

Terraform

Azure

Prometheus

Grafana

Mid and Senior level

San Francisco Bay Area

Office located in Redwood City, CA

Vector database for production-ready AI

Open for applications

Vector database for production-ready AI

101-200 employees

B2BArtificial IntelligenceData storageAnalyticsSaaS

Open for applications

$175-225k

AWS

Docker

Kubernetes

GCP

Terraform

Azure

Prometheus

Grafana

Mid and Senior level

San Francisco Bay Area

Office located in Redwood City, CA

101-200 employees

B2BArtificial IntelligenceData storageAnalyticsSaaS

Company mission

To democratise AI, Zilliz is committed to simplifying data management for AI applications and making vector databases accessible to every organisation.

Job

Company

Role

Who you are

3+ years building or operating production cloud systems, infrastructure platforms, database systems, or large-scale online services
Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering, or a related field, or equivalent practical experience
Strong hands-on experience with Kubernetes, Docker, and at least one major cloud platform (AWS, GCP, or Azure)
Solid understanding of distributed systems; availability, scalability, performance, failure recovery, and operational tradeoffs
Experience with distributed databases, storage systems, search systems, or large-scale online systems is a strong plus
Experience operating highly multi-tenant systems or large infrastructure fleets; thousands of nodes, clusters, tenants, or customer deployments is especially valuable
Familiarity with modern cloud operations tooling such as Terraform, Helm, Argo CD, Prometheus, Grafana, and CI/CD systems
Strong bias for action, and the drive to thrive in a fast-paced, rapidly scaling environment

What the job involves

We're entering our next phase of 10x growth; more customers, larger datasets, and far higher expectations for reliability
You'll join a small, fast-moving Cloud Platform team that operates large-scale, multi-cloud, distributed database systems in production
This is a high-ownership role for engineers who want to move fast, build automation instead of toil, and take real responsibility for production stability
Own the reliability, availability, and production stability of Zilliz Cloud as we scale through the next stage of growth
Debug complex production issues across Kubernetes, cloud infrastructure, networking, storage, and distributed database systems
Build automation and diagnostic tooling; log analysis, alert correlation, incident investigation, runbook automation, and remediation workflows so problems get solved once, not repeatedly
Turn recurring incidents into reusable tools, automation, documentation, and product improvements
Improve observability across latency, availability, throughput, and resource efficiency
Partner with database and infrastructure engineers to make Zilliz Cloud more reliable, scalable, and automated

Our take

Vector databases have become essential for powering advanced AI applications, which demand high recall, low latency, and robust throughput. Zilliz has positioned itself at the forefront of this field with its vector database management system, Milvus.

Building on its initial success, Zilliz released Milvus 2.4m in 2024, which significantly enhances vector search capabilities. This version introduced GPU indexing, leveraging NVIDIA's CUDA-Accelerated Graph Index for Vector Retrieval (CAGRA), which outperforms traditional CPU-based indexes like HNSW. In 2026, Milvus 2.6 was released, harnessing even more power at a lower cost.

Zilliz's commitment to innovation is further demonstrated by the expansion of its Hybrid Search capabilities, including a beta version of sparse vector embeddings for more accurate and semantically rich searches. These advancements, along with the evolution of Zilliz Cloud, emphasise the company's dedication to pushing the boundaries of what vector databases can achieve and make the future of the company an exciting one.

Freddie

Company Specialist at Welcome to the Jungle

Insights

27% employee growth in 12 months

Glassdoor (4)

Company

Funding (last 2 of 3 rounds)

Aug 2022

$60m

SERIES B

Nov 2020

$43m

SERIES B

Total funding: $113m

Company benefits

Equity
Regular bonus and equity refresh opportunities
Comprehensive medical, dental, and vision insurance
Paid time off, including vacation, bereavement, and sick days
Generous 401(k) and regional retirement plans
Hybrid work model/Remote work opportunities available

Company HQ

Centennial, Redwood City, CA

Leadership

Charles Xie

(CEO)

Previously worked as a Senior Software Engineer at Oracle, before creating The Milvus Project. Serves on the governing board of the LF AI & Data Foundation.

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