Role Description
As a Research Scientist at ClickHouse Labs, you will work on high-impact problems at the intersection of database systems, distributed systems, AI, and systems software engineering while collaborating with experienced researchers and engineers. The role covers a broad range of problems across database systems research and engineering, including but not limited to:
• Query optimization
• Execution engines
• Distributed systems
• Consensus protocols
• Materialized views
• Indexing and data structures
• Benchmarking
• Workload analysis
• Emerging agentic workloads
You will investigate performance and scalability bottlenecks in production-quality systems, develop new algorithms and system designs, and evaluate them under realistic workloads and hardware configurations. Projects may involve:
• Improving query planning and execution
• Reducing CPU and memory overhead
• Increasing throughput and concurrency
• Scaling across distributed deployments
• Redesigning system components to leverage modern hardware better
Researchers are encouraged to publish their work, contribute to open-source projects, participate in leading research conferences, and pursue ambitious projects with strong engineering and research support.
Responsibilities
• Conduct applied research aimed at advancing the performance, scalability, reliability, and functionality of open-source database management systems, including ClickHouse and PostgreSQL.
• Design and evaluate new algorithms, data structures, and system architectures for areas such as query optimization, indexing, storage management, query execution, and distributed data management.
• Develop high-quality research prototypes and production-grade implementations, and work with engineering teams to integrate successful techniques into open-source and production systems.
• Collaborate closely with database engine, infrastructure, and data-plane engineers to identify high-impact research problems and translate research results into practical system improvements.
• Analyze large-scale database workloads, performance traces, benchmarks, and production telemetry to identify bottlenecks and optimization opportunities.
• Design rigorous experiments and benchmarks to evaluate new techniques across realistic workloads, hardware configurations, and deployment environments.
• Communicate research results through technical reports, open-source contributions, internal presentations, and publications at leading database and systems venues (e.g., SIGMOD, VLDB, CIDR).
• Contribute to the broader technical direction of ClickHouse Labs by identifying emerging research opportunities and helping shape longer-term research projects.
Qualifications
• Ph.D. in Computer Science, Data Science, or a related field, with research experience in databases, distributed systems, systems software, or machine learning systems.
• Strong publication record in leading peer-reviewed research venues such as SIGMOD, VLDB, SOSP, OSDI, NSDI, or NeurIPS, with work relevant to databases or systems.
• Strong programming and systems-development background, including experience working with database internals or other large systems codebases such as PostgreSQL, MySQL, ClickHouse, or comparable modern DBMSs.
• Proficiency in systems programming using C, C++, Rust, Zig, or a comparable low-level programming language.
• Strong analytical, experimental, problem-solving, and technical communication skills.
Preferred Qualifications
• Experience developing or operating database systems in cloud environments such as AWS, Google Cloud Platform, or Microsoft Azure.
• Familiarity with large language models, reinforcement learning, learned optimization, or other techniques at the intersection of machine learning and systems.
• Experience contributing to large open-source systems projects, particularly database engines, distributed systems, compilers, or storage systems.
Bonus Qualifications
• Familiarity with modern systems-development and verification tooling, including formal specification or model-checking frameworks such as TLA+/PlusCal, Alloy, or Lean, as well as relevant development tools and languages such as LLVM, eBPF, Python, Go, or advanced profiling and debugging tools (e.g., perf, sanitizers, or tracing frameworks).
• Proven track record in optimizing database systems via hardware acceleration (e.g., GPU, FPGA, CXL), with a focus on designing methods for offloading for query execution, storage layers, and data-intensive primitives using frameworks like CUDA, SYCL, ROCm, or specialized FPGA development flows.
Benefits
• Flexible work environment - ClickHouse is a globally distributed company and remote-friendly. We currently operate in over 25 countries.
• Healthcare - Employer contributions towards your healthcare.
• Equity in the company - Every new team member who joins our company receives stock options.
• Time off - Flexible time off in the US, generous entitlement in other countries.
• A USD$500 Home office setup if you’re a remote employee.
• Global Gatherings – We believe in the power of in-person connection and offer opportunities to engage with colleagues at company-wide offsites.
• Culture - As part of a rapidly scaling start-up, you will be instrumental in shaping our culture.