Distinguished Software Engineer, Systems Infrastructure

LinkedIn is the world’s largest professional network, built to help members of all backgrounds and experiences achieve more in their careers. Our vision is to create economic opportunities for every member of the global workforce. Every day our members use our products to make connections, discover opportunities, build skills and gain insights. We believe amazing things happen when we work together in an environment where everyone feels a true sense of belonging, and that what matters most in a candidate is having the skills needed to succeed. It inspires us to invest in our talent and support career growth. Join us to challenge yourself with work that matters. At LinkedIn, we trust each other to do our best work where it works best for us and our teams. This role offers a hybrid work option, meaning you can both work from home and commute to a LinkedIn office, depending on what’s best for you and when it is important for your team to be together.
LinkedIn is looking for a Distinguished Engineer to join LinkedIn's Core Infrastructure organization. Data and AI is at the heart of LinkedIn. This role puts you at the intersection of both – leading the building and scaling of our most critical data storage as well as access layers to power LinkedIn products and AI training. As a Distinguished Engineer specializing in database systems, you will lead the architecture and development of cutting-edge, highly reliable, and scalable database solutions. You will be responsible for building next-generation structured storage systems, including the development of relational and graph databases, online analytics, systems, caching solutions, and new systems that support emerging innovations. This role requires deep expertise in transactional databases, graph systems, and caching systems and strategies. The successful candidate will be able to drive business outcomes by working closely with internal product, business, and solution platform stakeholders.
Key Responsibilities:
Design & Architecture:
Lead the design and development of structured storage systems with a focus on transactional integrity, reliability, and massive scale.
Architect and build highly reliable, low-latency graph databases that support large-scale queries and complex data models.
Develop systems that scale from traditional relational databases to emerging unstructured and semi-structured data solutions.
Design new caching strategies that support evolving product/platform access patterns and performance requirements.
Build solution templates that accelerate developer velocity by simplifying access and usage of structured data.
Innovation & Cutting-Edge Technology:
Stay on the forefront of database technology trends, and evaluate new tools, technologies, and methodologies that can be integrated into the company’s data infrastructure.
Work with cross-functional teams to integrate advanced data processing and query capabilities into the company's core systems.
Drive innovation in areas like distributed databases, NoSQL systems, and AI/ML-based data storage solutions.
Lead efforts in open source community engagement for new technologies
Evangelize LinkedIn Job innovation to the broader developer and research community
Customer-Centric approach::
Partner with internal and external stakeholders to understand customer needs, use cases, and business requirements.
Ensure that database systems deliver exceptional performance and meet the demands of complex transactional workloads, queries, and analytics.
Collaborate with product and engineering teams to deliver highly customizable and reliable database platforms for diverse customer profiles.
Performance & Reliability:
Lead efforts to build and maintain high-performance databases that can handle millions of transactions reliably and efficiently.
Architect solutions that provide fault tolerance, consistency, and high availability across multiple data centers.
Design strategies to optimize query performance and streamline data access patterns across different database models.
Data Evolution & Growth:
Drive the evolution of data storage systems ranging from mature relational models to emerging technologies that support transactional unstructured and semi-structured data.
Lead the transition from monolithic database systems to distributed architectures that are cloud-native and support dynamic data growth.
Develop best practices for managing and maintaining databases across their lifecycle, from inception to full-scale operations.
Leadership & Mentorship:
Provide technical leadership and mentorship to teams of engineers, guiding them in the design and implementation of database systems.
Foster a culture of innovation and continuous learning within the database engineering team.

Basic Qualifications:

Bachelor’s degree in computer science, Engineering, or a related technical field.
12+ years of experience in database design, development, and management, with a focus on transactional and distributed systems.
Experience with NoSQL databases, graph databases, and modern data architectures. Experience with cloud-native database technologies, distributed systems, and scalable data platforms.
Experience running high-scale systems in production.
Track record of driving continuous improvement in production excellence.
Demonstrated ability to design systems that provide manageability, resiliency, and operability.
Proven track record of leading engineering teams in building and operating complex, mission-critical systems.

Preferred Qualifications:
Deep knowledge of relational databases (e.g., PostgreSQL, MySQL) and their evolution into distributed and transactional models.
Ability to understand customer needs and design systems that meet current business and technical requirements, while ensuring flexibility and adaptability for long-term needs.
Excellent analytical and problem-solving skills with a focus on data-driven decision making.

"Suggested Skills"
• Relational databases.
• Developing technology strategies at a company-wide scale.
• Technical leadership.
LinkedIn is committed to fair and equitable compensation practices.
The pay range for this role is $238,000 to $390,000. Actual compensation packages are based on several factors that are unique to each candidate, including but not limited to skill set, depth of experience, certifications, and specific work location. This may be different in other locations due to differences in the cost of labor.
The total compensation package for this position may also include an annual performance bonus, stock, benefits and/or other applicable incentive compensation plan. For more information, visit Opportunity Statement
LinkedIn is committed to diversity in its workforce and is proud to be an equal opportunity employer. LinkedIn considers qualified applicants without regard to race, color, religion, creed, gender, national origin, age, disability, veteran status, marital status, pregnancy, sex, gender expression or identity, sexual orientation, citizenship, or any other legally protected class. LinkedIn is an Affirmative Action and Equal Opportunity Employer as described in our equal opportunity statement here: Please reference and for more information.
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