Principal Software Engineer

About the role

In this pivotal position, you will join the database team at Roblox, where you will play a crucial role in developing a next-generation multi-tenant database platform. This role is designed for an experienced engineer who is passionate about building scalable and efficient systems that support a vast array of online data workloads. You will be responsible for shaping the architecture and launching essential database capabilities that ensure our services remain fast, reliable, and efficient on a global scale. Reporting directly to the Technical Director for Storage, you will be at the forefront of innovation in database technologies.

Key facts

What you'll do

• Design and implement innovative engine features, including indexing, storage formats, write-ahead logging (WAL), replication protocols, sharding, and enhancements to query planners, all aimed at pushing the limits of latency, throughput, and availability.
• Evolve the control plane to enable elastic scaling, autonomous healing, and zero-downtime schema or tenant migrations across global regions.
• Profile and optimize critical code paths using advanced performance tools and kernel-level tracing, focusing on systematic reductions in tail latency.
• Establish and promote engineering best practices by leading design reviews, conducting performance benchmarks, organizing failure drills, and facilitating post-incident retrospectives.
• Automate processes by developing frameworks for testing, continuous integration and deployment (CI/CD), rollout safety, observability, and autoscaling, ensuring the platform operates efficiently at scale.
• Mentor and support fellow engineers, fostering a culture of deep database craftsmanship and sharing knowledge across Storage, Platform, and product teams.
• Engage with the open-source community by contributing patches, sharing insights, and influencing the evolution of databases such as Postgres and RocksDB.
• Collaborate with cross-functional teams to convert ambiguous product requirements into a clear technical roadmap, ensuring alignment and effective communication among stakeholders.

Requirements

• A minimum of 8 years of experience in software engineering or a related field.
• Extensive experience in building and managing large-scale distributed databases or storage engines, such as PostgreSQL, MySQL/InnoDB, RocksDB, Spanner, Aurora, or AlloyDB.
• In-depth knowledge of database internals, including B-trees, multi-version concurrency control (MVCC), WAL, query optimization, and buffer management, along with strong programming skills in C/C++, Go, or Rust.
• Practical experience with consensus algorithms like Raft or Paxos and multi-region replication models that ensure strong consistency and high availability.
• Proven track record of delivering high-query-per-second (QPS), low-latency services on container orchestration platforms such as Kubernetes or Nomad, with a focus on comprehensive observability.
• Ability to distill complex product requirements into a clear technical strategy and effectively influence cross-functional teams.
• A strong commitment to automation, rigorous testing, and data-driven decision-making that enhances reliability and efficiency.

Nice to have

• Contributions to open-source projects such as PostgreSQL, RocksDB, or other database systems.
• Familiarity with disaggregated storage architectures, hybrid transactional/analytical processing (HTAP) workloads, or custom query languages.
• Experience with cloud-native technologies and microservices architecture.

Skills & tools

• Proficient in programming languages such as C/C++, Go, or Rust.
• Familiarity with database technologies and tools, including PostgreSQL, RocksDB, and container orchestration platforms like Kubernetes.
• Strong understanding of distributed systems and cloud computing principles.
• Experience with performance monitoring and optimization tools.

Practical notes

For positions based at our headquarters in San Mateo, CA, the starting base salary for this role is between $293,800 and $343,340 USD. The actual salary may vary based on factors such as professional background, training, work experience, location, and market demand. All full-time employees are eligible for equity compensation and benefits as outlined on our careers page.

Roblox is committed to providing equal employment opportunities to all employees and applicants, ensuring a workplace free from discrimination and harassment. We also offer reasonable accommodations for candidates with qualifying disabilities or religious beliefs during the recruitment process.

Please note that for U.S.-based roles, the company may not be able to employ candidates who require work authorization under certain U.S. visa categories or support future H-1B sponsorship for this position.