Principal Software Engineer, Couchbase
SQL++/Query Team
$204-239k
Office located in San Jose, CA
Operational data platform for AI
Job no longer available
Operational data platform for AI
501-1000 employees
Job no longer available
$204-239k
Office located in San Jose, CA
501-1000 employees
Company mission
To simplify how organizations develop, deploy, and run modern applications wherever they are.
Role
Who you are
- Experience: Extensive experience in database internals, query processing, and optimization. Prior experience with SQL and NoSQL databases is highly desirable
- Technical Skills: Proficiency in programming languages such as C, C++ or Go. Strong understanding of data structures, algorithms, and distributed systems
- Education: Bachelor's or Master's degree in Computer Science or a related field
- Leadership: Proven track record of leading complex projects and delivering high-quality software solutions
What the job involves
- As a Principal Software Engineer on the SQL++/Query team, you will play a pivotal role in designing, developing, and optimizing the SQL++ query language and its execution engine
- Collaborating closely with cross-functional teams, you will ensure the delivery of robust and high-performance database solutions
- Design & Development: Architect and implement new features and enhancements for the SQL++ query processor and related components with AI first mindset
- Performance Tuning: Analyze and optimize query performance, ensuring low latency and high throughput for complex queries
- Collaboration: Work closely with product management, quality assurance, and other engineering teams to deliver cohesive and innovative solutions
- Mentorship: Provide technical guidance and mentorship to junior engineers, fostering a culture of learning and excellence
Our take
Critical functions for digital businesses such as computing and storage have become cheaper by orders of magnitude with the advent of cloud computing. However, these businesses still face the challenge of architecting their services under this paradigm. Couchbase’s NoSQL database is designed to help organizations build scalable, distributed systems that take advantage of cloud-native infrastructure.
The company's major bets on Kubernetes, mobile and NoSQL have paid off too. With many large enterprises now treating Couchbase as mission-critical infrastructure, a trajectory that culminated because of ts 2021 IPO. While it operates in a highly competitive database market, the company has continued to grow post-IPO and is now positioning itself around the next shift in enterprise architecture: AI-native applications.
The recent launch of Couchbase AI Services reflects an effort to unify operational data, vector search and model hosting within a single platform, reducing the complexity that often prevents generative AI and agent-based systems from moving beyond proof-of-concept. By embedding governance, validation and security controls directly into the data layer, Couchbase is aiming to make its database a core foundation for production AI workloads.
Kirsty
Company Specialist at Welcome to the Jungle
Insights
16% employee growth in 12 months
Company
Funding (last 2 of 8 rounds)
May 2020
$105m
SERIES G
Mar 2016
$30m
SERIES F
Total funding: $251m
Company HQ
Cypress, San Jose, CA
Leadership
BJ Schaknowski
(CEO)Prior to joining Couchbase in 2025, BJ was the CEO of symplr. He also served as the Chief Sales & Marketing Officer at Vertafore and as an SVP of Marketing, Sales & Services at LexisNexis Software Solutions.
Veronica Curran
(CPO)Veronica Previously founded Magnolia People Solutions where she served as a Managing Partner for nearly 2 years. Prior to that, she was the Chief People and culture Officer at SmartBear and the CPO at Alumni Ventures Group.
Gopi Duddi
(CTO)Gopi joined Couchbase in 2022 as an SVP of Engineering, moving into the role of CTO in 2025. Prior to this, he spent 10 years at Amazon AWS, joining in 2012 as a Senior Manager of Database Services before moving into the role of GM. He also spent 7 years at IBM In various Managerial roles.
Josh Harbert
(CMO)Josh is also the co-founder and President of SustainableIT.org. Previously, he served as the CMO at Delphix and the VP of Marketing at Tanium and Qumulo.
Amir Jafari
(CFO)Amir is also the CFO/Head of Finance & Operations at Blend. Previously, he served as the CFO at Plastiq and Reputation.com.
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