Database Software Engineer

About RisingWave

RisingWave is a next-generation cloud-native streaming database that makes real-time data processing simple, affordable, and highly scalable. Teams use RisingWave to build continuous, low-latency pipelines and power real-time dashboards, AI/ML features, and business-critical analytics — all with familiar SQL. Our customers span financial services, digital natives, gaming, manufacturing, and more.

About the Role

RisingWave is hiring a Database Engineer to help build the next generation of real-time data infrastructure.

You will work on the core data integration layer of RisingWave’s streaming database, including connector infrastructure, streaming sources and sinks, CDC, exactly-once semantics, schema evolution, and integrations with systems such as Kafka, MySQL, PostgreSQL, and Iceberg.

This is a hands-on engineering role for someone who enjoys building database systems, working close to the kernel, solving complex distributed systems problems, and turning real customer needs into reliable product capabilities.

What You’ll Do

• Design and build core data integration capabilities for a streaming database, including integrations with Kafka, MySQL, PostgreSQL, Iceberg, and other external systems.
• Troubleshoot complex production issues and drive long-term improvements to system stability and developer experience.
• Stay current with emerging technologies in data integration, stream processing, Lakehouse architectures, and AI-native engineering, and evaluate how they can be applied to the product.
• Work with users, product, solution engineering, community, and R&D teams to understand real-world use cases and deliver practical, scalable technical solutions.

What We’re Looking For

• Strong programming experience in Rust, or strong systems programming experience in C/C++ or Java with an eagerness to build in Rust.
• Solid computer science fundamentals, including data structures, algorithms, operating systems, networking, and databases.
• Experience with stream processing, data integration, or distributed data systems such as Kafka, Flink, Spark Streaming, or similar technologies.
• Strong ownership and the ability to identify problems, make sound technical decisions, and drive projects to completion.
• Strong collaboration skills and comfort working across engineering, product, solution engineering, and community teams.

Nice to Have

• Experience with connector technologies such as MySQL, PostgreSQL, Iceberg, Delta Lake, Kafka, Debezium, Flink CDC, or Kafka Connect.
• Experience building or contributing to databases, stream processing systems, or data integration platforms such as RisingWave, Flink, Kafka, ClickHouse, TiDB, CockroachDB, or DuckDB.
• Experience with performance profiling, benchmarking, and system-level optimization.
• Familiarity with agentic coding workflows and AI coding tools such as Claude Code, Cursor, or Codex.
• Ability to review, validate, and improve AI-generated code in a production engineering workflow.
• Experience working directly with users or customers to understand technical requirements and turn them into product improvements.
• Open-source contribution experience.

Why Join Us

• At RisingWave, you’ll work at the forefront of real-time streaming innovation. You’ll help customers unlock the power of their data, shape the product roadmap, and represent a technology that’s redefining what’s possible in real-time analytics. You’ll be part of a collaborative, global team that values technical excellence, curiosity, and making a measurable impact.