Scaling, Securing, and Managing the Best Open Source Databases on the Most Popular Platforms
About the Company
Percona is a global leader in open-source database software, support, and services, enabling innovation through expert solutions for MySQL, MongoDB, PostgreSQL, and MariaDB. With a fully remote, globally distributed workforce spanning over 50 countries, Percona fosters a collaborative and highly engaged culture. The company values open collaboration, technical excellence, and work-life balance, providing flexible work hours, generous benefits, career development funding, and equity participation opportunities.
About the Role
The Principal Software Engineer at Percona is a senior individual contributor with deep expertise in MySQL internals, specializing in areas such as the optimizer, InnoDB, or Group Replication. This role involves architecting and delivering new features, diagnosing and fixing critical bugs, mentoring engineers, and contributing to open-source innovation. The engineer will work remotely, collaborating with a global team to push the boundaries of database technology while integrating emerging trends like AI/ML into Percona’s products.
Key Responsibilities
- Architect and develop advanced features and improvements for Percona Server for MySQL, XtraBackup, and XtraDB Cluster
- Lead key initiatives from concept to delivery, focusing on quality, scalability, and performance
- Diagnose and resolve critical bugs across Percona and upstream MySQL products
- Collaborate with senior engineers to drive open-source database innovation
- Perform source code merges from other open source repositories
- Stay current with AI, distributed systems, and cloud-native technologies and help incorporate them into future roadmaps
- Mentor fellow engineers and promote a culture of technical excellence
- Represent Percona in the open-source community via speaking, blogging, and code contributions
Required Skills
- 10+ years of hands-on C/C++ development, with at least 5 years focused on database internals
- Deep knowledge of MySQL internals with expertise in at least one area: Query Optimizer, InnoDB Storage Engine, or Group Replication
- Proven record of shipping complex new features under tight deadlines while maintaining code quality
- Strong understanding of DBMS internals such as query optimization, B-tree indexing, multiversion concurrency control, and crash recovery algorithms
- Experience with high concurrency threading models, atomics, and locking mechanisms
- Proficiency with BASH, Perl, Python, and tools like gdb and strace
- Skilled in git, GitHub, and source code management methodologies
- Experience with client/server and distributed communication systems
- Passion for clean, efficient, and performant code
- Familiarity with Linux internals, distributed systems, and concurrency challenges
- Interest or experience in AI/ML applied to databases or development workflows (preferred)
Preferred Qualifications
- Contributions to upstream MySQL or MariaDB projects
- Expertise in troubleshooting multi-threaded cluster solutions
- History of driving performance improvements on multi-core hardware
- Experience with CI/CD tools such as Jenkins, CircleCI, or Travis
- Knowledge of Linux packaging systems and container technologies like Docker and Kubernetes
- Linux system administration skills, including filesystems, hardware, and networking
- Proven ability to work autonomously and asynchronously in a fully remote, distributed environment