Senior Open Source Engineer

Senior Open Source Engineer ABOUT LANCEDB LanceDB http://lancedb.com/ is a developer-friendly, open-source database for multimodal AI. From hyper-scalable vector search to advanced retrieval for RAG, from streaming training data to interactive exploration of large-scale AI datasets, LanceDB is the best foundation for your AI application, and powers some of the most groundbreaking applications and challenging requirements today. ABOUT THE ROLE We’re looking for a Senior Open Source Engineer to help expand the reach of Lance and LanceDB within the broader data infrastructure ecosystem. You’ll work at the intersection of high-performance computing, big data, and open-source systems—driving integrations, improving distributed operations, and contributing to projects across the Apache and AI communities. YOU’LL BE RESPONSIBLE FOR - Driving open-source community efforts to integrate the Lance format with Spark, Hive Metastore, Presto, Trino, Ray, and other data infrastructure systems - Designing and maintaining efficient distributed Lance dataset operations - Building efficient indices to enable predicate pushdown and accelerate queries in Spark, Ray, or Trino - Working on table formats, data encodings, and various aspects of the Lance format in Rust - Operating and improving internal data processing infrastructure - Promoting the Lance format in open-source communities and at Big Data conferences REQUIREMENTS - 10+ years of experience building high-performance databases, big data systems, or large-scale data services - Deep understanding of internals of open-source Big Data or AI training systems (e.g., Hadoop, Spark, Flink, Ray, Iceberg, Delta Lake, Hudi, ClickHouse, Trino, Presto, PyTorch, or JAX) - Strong experience with high-performance computing in Java or Scala - Experience with Rust (or willingness to learn it) - Proven ability to move fast, work independently, and collaborate with a high-caliber team NICE TO HAVE - Contributor, committer, or PMC member in Apache or other large open-source projects - Experience with Java, Rust, C++, Apache Arrow, DataFusion, Parquet, Iceberg, or Delta Lake - Track record of driving large features or integrations in distributed systems - Strong community presence and passion for open-source collaboration WHAT WE OFFER - A key role shaping an open-source project with real production usage - Remote-first team with flexible hours - Competitive compensation, equity, and benefits - Generous learning budget and support for open-source contributions WHY JOIN US You’ll join a world-class team of open-source builders (co-authors of pandas, and contributors to HDFS, Arrow, Iceberg, and HBase) working on cutting-edge AI infrastructure. You’ll collaborate on systems that power next-generation AI workloads while shaping how LanceDB operates and scales production environments.