Cockroach Labs
About this role
Cockroach Labs is forming a new Specialized Indexing subteam inside its SQL Queries group, and this is a founding engineer seat on it. The mandate is to push CockroachDB's indexing beyond traditional relational workloads into vector, full text and geospatial indexes, so the database can serve AI native and search driven applications. Concretely that means improving existing vector indexing including backfill, query planning and import workflows, and building hybrid search that combines vector similarity with text search. The preferred languages are Go, C or C++ and Rust. Ten years of building large scale production grade systems is the stated bar, and the posting publishes a clear month by month ramp. Bangalore.
Who this is for
What the posting asks for:
- Typically 10+ years of experience building large scale, production grade systems.
- A strong background in backend or systems programming, preferably with Go, C, C++ or Rust.
- Experience working on indexing or query execution systems such as vector, text or spatial search.
- Solid understanding of data structures, algorithms and distributed systems.
- Genuine interest in databases, indexing systems and high performance distributed architectures.
- Curiosity about AI driven and hybrid workloads combining structured and unstructured data.
Day to day: designing, building and maintaining specialised indexing features for CockroachDB including vector, full text and geospatial indexing; improving the performance and reliability of existing vector indexing including backfill, query planning and import workflows; integrating new indexing mechanisms into the query engine with other database teams; developing hybrid search that combines vector similarity with text based search; and owning work from design through implementation, testing and release.
The published ramp: in the first month, getting familiar with the SQL architecture, the vector indexing implementation and surrounding systems while contributing smaller fixes. Within three months, owning components of specialised indexing and making measurable performance and reliability improvements. After six months, helping shape the roadmap for future indexing and search features.
Why it is unusual: this is a new subteam, so the early work shapes what the team becomes rather than inheriting an established roadmap.
Location and office reality: Bangalore. Cockroach Labs runs a hybrid model with Monday, Tuesday and Thursday office days for those local to an office.
Honest fit guidance: the word 'typically' in front of the ten year figure suggests some flexibility, and the indexing or query execution experience is likely to matter more than the exact year count. Database internals experience is effectively required.
- Typically 10+ years of experience building large scale, production grade systems.
- A strong background in backend or systems programming, preferably with Go, C, C++ or Rust.
- Experience working on indexing or query execution systems such as vector, text or spatial search.
- Solid understanding of data structures, algorithms and distributed systems.
- Genuine interest in databases, indexing systems and high performance distributed architectures.
- Curiosity about AI driven and hybrid workloads combining structured and unstructured data.
Day to day: designing, building and maintaining specialised indexing features for CockroachDB including vector, full text and geospatial indexing; improving the performance and reliability of existing vector indexing including backfill, query planning and import workflows; integrating new indexing mechanisms into the query engine with other database teams; developing hybrid search that combines vector similarity with text based search; and owning work from design through implementation, testing and release.
The published ramp: in the first month, getting familiar with the SQL architecture, the vector indexing implementation and surrounding systems while contributing smaller fixes. Within three months, owning components of specialised indexing and making measurable performance and reliability improvements. After six months, helping shape the roadmap for future indexing and search features.
Why it is unusual: this is a new subteam, so the early work shapes what the team becomes rather than inheriting an established roadmap.
Location and office reality: Bangalore. Cockroach Labs runs a hybrid model with Monday, Tuesday and Thursday office days for those local to an office.
Honest fit guidance: the word 'typically' in front of the ten year figure suggests some flexibility, and the indexing or query execution experience is likely to matter more than the exact year count. Database internals experience is effectively required.
Apply on company site
Opens www.cockroachlabs.com, the employer's own application page. Applying is always free.