Principal Research Scientist, Database Systems
The mission of MongoDB Research is to advance the state of the art in database systems by conducting fundamental and applied research that directly impacts MongoDB's products. Our goal is to foster innovation that benefits MongoDB by addressing critical challenges in data management, performance optimization, security,
What this role actually needs.
The mission of MongoDB Research is to advance the state of the art in database systems by conducting fundamental and applied research that directly impacts MongoDB's products. Our goal is to foster innovation that benefits MongoDB by addressing critical challenges in data management, performance optimization, security, Responsibilities: - Conduct innovative research in query optimization, indexing methods, storage engines, and performance optimization - Design, prototype, and empirically evaluate novel database systems and architectures that leverage modern hardware features, such as SIMD parallelism, GPU acceleration, and multicore processing - Collaborate closely with our Engineering teams to translate cutting-edge research into practical solutions applicable in commercial database products - Publish influential research outcomes in top-tier database and systems conferences and journals (e.g., VLDB, SIGMOD) - Build a Database Systems research group with a critical mass of 2-3 researchers over the next 1-2 years - Mentor junior researchers, fostering a collaborative and productive research environment Requirements: - Ph.D. in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, or a closely related field with a specialization in database systems - 12+ years of experience applying computer science concepts to large scale software development problems, including databases and distributed systems - Proven track record of impactful research publications in top-tier database and systems conferences and journals - Demonstrated expertise in query optimization, efficient data structures, and high-performance database architectures - Strong background in performance engineering, hardware-aware optimizations, and database engine internals - Experience in building research prototypes and conducting rigorous empirical studies to validate theoretical models Company context: MongoDB is the public document database company powering modern applications across cloud, on-prem, and edge.
Day-to-day expectations
Mongodb lists these responsibilities for the Principal Research Scientist, Database Systems role.
- Conduct innovative research in query optimization, indexing methods, storage engines, and performance optimization
- Design, prototype, and empirically evaluate novel database systems and architectures that leverage modern hardware features, such as SIMD parallelism, GPU acceleration, and multicore processing
- Collaborate closely with our Engineering teams to translate cutting-edge research into practical solutions applicable in commercial database products
- Publish influential research outcomes in top-tier database and systems conferences and journals (e.g., VLDB, SIGMOD)
- Build a Database Systems research group with a critical mass of 2-3 researchers over the next 1-2 years
- Mentor junior researchers, fostering a collaborative and productive research environment
What a strong candidate brings
These requirements are extracted from the source listing and normalized for UpJobz readers.
- Ph.D. in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, or a closely related field with a specialization in database systems
- 12+ years of experience applying computer science concepts to large scale software development problems, including databases and distributed systems
- Proven track record of impactful research publications in top-tier database and systems conferences and journals
- Demonstrated expertise in query optimization, efficient data structures, and high-performance database architectures
- Strong background in performance engineering, hardware-aware optimizations, and database engine internals
- Experience in building research prototypes and conducting rigorous empirical studies to validate theoretical models
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Source: mongodb.com · Source ID: 6819978 · Confidence: 90/100 · Last checked: May 7, 2026
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