The Opportunity

At Grafana Labs, we build observability tools that help users understand, respond to, and improve their systems. We are building an AI-native data intelligence system that gives agents reliable, governed access to enterprise context.

We are looking for a Senior Software (Database) Engineer to help build the underlying storage system for our general purpose data platform. The database layer has both OLAP and OTLP capabilities, embraces separation of compute and storage, and is designed to run on multiple cloud providers.

What You'll Be Doing

• Take ownership over and build one or multiple parts of the database: design, implement, test, and operate ingestion, query planning, distributed query execution, data formats and storage formats.
• Create a scalable SaaS foundation including tenant isolation, usage tracking, quotas, audit logs, background jobs and reliable service boundaries.
• Build APIs and database interfaces that allow AI agents, MCP tools, CLIs and internal applications to retrieve data quickly.
• Partner with the team to make practical tradeoffs between fast experimentation and long-term reliability.
• Instrument database services with metrics, logs, traces, alerts and dashboards.
• Help shape the architecture, service boundaries, storage choices, API contracts and engineering practices.

What Makes You a Great Fit

• Solid experience building production-grade, user-facing software systems.
• Familiarity with AI technologies and frameworks with a practical mindset.
• Comfortable releasing prototypes, collecting feedback and iterating pragmatically.
• Experience with distributed systems, catalogs and table formats, query engines.
• Mastery of Golang, C++ or Rust.
• Proven track record of delivering production software actively used by users.
• Exposure to cloud-native environments (AWS, GCP, Azure).
• Experience using observability tools to understand and troubleshoot system behaviour.

Bonus Points

• Experience building distributed query engines.
• Experience building data warehouses and/or data lakes.
• Experience building tools for data engineering.

Compensation

In the United Kingdom, the base compensation range for this role is GBP 91,000 - GBP 114,700. Actual compensation may vary based on level, experience and skillset.

Why You'll Thrive at Grafana Labs

• 100% remote, global culture.
• Transparent communication and open decision-making.
• Innovation-driven environment with high autonomy.
• 30 days annual leave per annum plus Grafana Shutdown Days.
• Equal opportunity employer welcoming applications from everyone.