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, scalability, and usability. Through collaboration, publication, and active engagement with leading research institutions, we strive to shape the future of database technology and ensure MongoDB remains at the forefront of innovation.

We seek an exceptional researcher specializing in database systems with particular expertise in database architecture, including query optimization, storage engines, indexing, and multicore processing. The ideal candidate will demonstrate a strong track record in designing and implementing highly performant database systems.

This role can be in-office, flexible, or based remotely in North America.

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

Qualifications:

• 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
• Excellent analytical, communication, and interpersonal skills, with the ability to collaborate across teams

Success metrics:

• Within the first three months, you will have established working relationships with key stakeholders across Product and Engineering
• Within the first six months, you will have completed a review of the company’s database roadmap and identified opportunities for research impact. You will have established a clear research agenda for the team
• Within the first twelve months, you will have successfully attracted and interviewed researchers to join the team 

About MongoDB

MongoDB is built for change, empowering our customers and our people to innovate at the speed of the market. We have redefined the database for the AI era, enabling innovators to create, transform, and disrupt industries with software. MongoDB’s unified database platform—the most widely available, globally distributed database on the market—helps organizations modernize legacy workloads, embrace innovation, and unleash AI. Our cloud-native platform, MongoDB Atlas, is the only globally distributed, multi-cloud database and is available across AWS, Google Cloud, and Microsoft Azure.

With offices worldwide and nearly 60,000 customers—including 75% of the Fortune 100 and AI