Description

We are seeking a Senior Director of Distributed Database Systems Engineering to lead next-generation data architecture innovation within an R&D / incubation-style team. This role is designed for a deeply experienced technical leader (typically 20+ years of relevant experience or equivalent depth) who can set architectural direction, drive hands-on prototyping, and influence platform strategy across a complex services ecosystem.

You will focus on forward-looking distributed database architecture and advanced data strategies—especially partitioning, replication, consistency, indexing, and performance at scale. The emphasis is on technical innovation and architectural leadership, not long-term operational ownership of an established production platform.

Key Responsibilities:

• Set technical vision for distributed data architecture capabilities that enable high-scale, high-availability systems.

• Lead and sponsor prototypes that explore novel approaches to partitioning, replication, and consistency (including clear tradeoff articulation).

• Drive innovation in storage, indexing, and query optimization strategies for large-scale transactional and analytical workloads.

• Evaluate and evolve architectural patterns for distributed data platforms within multi-service, multi-tenant ecosystems.

• Partner across engineering and product leadership to align data architecture direction with platform strategy and long-term roadmaps.

• Lead architectural reviews and act as an executive-level technical authority for distributed systems design decisions.

• Develop and mentor senior technical talent (architects, principal engineers), establishing strong technical bar and best practices.

• Explore and define data infrastructure patterns that support intelligent and agent-driven workloads (e.g., autonomy, planning, tool use, and orchestration at scale).

Required Qualifications:

• 20+ years or equivalent experience in database engineering, storage systems, or distributed systems architecture (or equivalent depth).

• Deep expertise in distributed systems theory, including CAP tradeoffs, consistency models, failure modes, and resilience patterns.

• Extensive experience with sharding, replication, high availability, and large-scale data integrity/performance optimization.

• Strong command of indexing, transactional semantics, and performance tuning at scale.

• Proficiency in systems-level or backend programming languages, with the ability to be hands-on in prototypes and architectural exploration.

• Proven leadership delivering architecture strategy across teams/orgs, including influencing senior stakeholders and mentoring senior engineers.

Preferred Experience:

• Contributions to database engines, storage-layer infrastructure, or query execution components.

• Experience with large-scale SaaS multi-tenant data environments.

• Experience designing and running benchmarking / performance experiments for distributed systems.

• Exposure to data architectures that support AI-assisted, agentic, or automation-heavy workloads.Senior Director, Distributed Database Systems Engineering (Innovation)