Systems Architecture at Neon (Databricks)
Neon separates Postgres compute from storage using a custom Rust Pageserver that ingests WAL streams, compacts delta layers into immutable L0/L1 image layers on S3, and reconstructs 8KB pages on demand.
Build high-durability distributed write-ahead-log (Safekeepers) and multi-tier LSM page servers in Rust powering instant copy-on-write Postgres branching. Base pay for this remote role sits at $190,000 to $265,000 USD plus equity.
What You Will Own in Production
- Improve L0-to-L1 compaction throughput over `tokio-epoll-uring`, lower tail latency on cold page reconstructions, and harden Paxos WAL quorum recovery.
- Profile CPU cache misses, syscall bottlenecks, and tail latency spikes across LSM-Tree, Raft, io_uring services using hardware perf counters and flamegraphs.
- Review architectural RFCs and maintain strict memory-safety invariants in async and unsafe Rust blocks.
Background We Look For
- Production track record shipping low-level systems in Rust, C, or C++ with deep fluency in LSM-Tree, Raft, io_uring, Tokio, Parquet.
- Hands-on experience debugging Linux kernel networking, NVMe storage, or GPU compute pipelines under heavy load.
- Compensation: $190,000 to $265,000 USD per year, equity grant, and full remote workstation budget (Worldwide Remote).
