Engineer/Researcher - Large-Scale Data Systems

IBM Research Zurich seeks a Senior Engineer/Researcher to design and build next-generation large-scale data systems, combining systems research with production engineering for enterprise workloads.

The company is expanding its team to develop advanced data platforms capable of handling both modern and traditional enterprise workloads. The role focuses on creating architectures that execute complex queries and workflows across diverse engines, storage layers, and hardware, blending deep systems research with practical production engineering.

Responsibilities

• Architect and implement core components for next-generation data platforms.
• Engage deeply with the system stack, including query execution engines, schedulers, and distributed resource management layers.
• Conduct systems engineering and research, tailoring the balance between the two based on individual expertise and interests.

Requirements

• Master’s degree in Computer Science, Distributed Systems, Databases, or a related discipline, or equivalent professional experience.
• Proven track record of building distributed systems or large-scale infrastructure software.
• Proficiency in programming languages such as C++, Java, or Scala.
• Hands-on experience with large-scale data processing frameworks or query engines like Spark, Presto/Trino, or Flink.
• Ability to design or apply optimization techniques for complex systems using analytical methods, heuristics, or machine learning.

Nice to have

• Background in developing query engines, optimizers, or execution runtimes.
• Experience constructing distributed schedulers or resource managers.
• Knowledge of serverless or elastic compute architectures.
• Familiarity with columnar data formats and table formats such as Parquet, Arrow, or Iceberg.
• Contributions to large open-source systems.
• Interest in applying ML or analytical models to enhance system performance, such as cost models or scheduling policies.
• Experience with hardware acceleration for data processing, including GPUs, vectorized execution, SIMD, or specialized accelerators.
• PhD in Computer Science or a related field.

What the company offers

• Opportunity to work on systems that are integrated into products and open-source projects used at scale.
• Collaboration with a global team spanning Europe, Africa, the US, and India.
• Chance to influence the architecture of next-generation data platforms.
• Access to real-world workloads and cutting-edge infrastructure.

About the company

IBM Research Zurich focuses on solving core systems challenges, including query optimization, cross-engine query routing, and serverless scheduling. The organization prioritizes building systems that support diverse workloads while delivering strong performance, scalability, and reliability.

• Focus on core systems challenges such as query optimization, cross-engine query routing, serverless scheduling and resource management.
• Systems must support diverse workloads while delivering strong performance, scalability, and reliability.