Senior Backend Engineer - Databases - Analytics

Grafana Labs is building an AI-native data intelligence system designed to provide AI agents with reliable, governed access to enterprise context. As part of a new skunkworks initiative, this system helps agents retrieve data, metadata, definitions, lineage, quality signals, and institutional knowledge across the enterprise.

We are looking for a Senior Software (Database) Engineer to help build the underlying storage system for our general-purpose data platform. The database layer incorporates both OLAP and OTLP capabilities to support classic analytics queries alongside freshly stored data, fully embracing the separation of compute and storage across multiple cloud providers.

Note: This is a remote opportunity open to applicants located in Spain, Sweden, the UK, Ireland, or Germany.

What You'll Be Doing

• Build core database components: Design, implement, test, and operate ingestion, query planning, distributed query execution, data formats, and storage formats.
• Create a scalable SaaS foundation: Help define and build the architecture for a multi-tenant database service, including tenant isolation, usage tracking, quotas, audit logs, background jobs, and reliable service boundaries.
• Power agent-facing retrieval workflows: Build APIs and database interfaces that allow AI agents, MCP tools, CLIs, and internal applications to retrieve data quickly.
• Work across product and infrastructure: Partner with the team to make practical tradeoffs between rapid experimentation and long-term reliability as the project moves from prototype to production.
• Operate what you build: Instrument database services with metrics, logs, traces, alerts, and dashboards using observability tools to monitor and improve system behavior.
• Contribute to technical direction: Help shape the architecture, service boundaries, storage choices, API contracts, deployment patterns, and engineering practices.
• Drive ownership and impact: Take full ownership of database solutions, ensuring they are innovative, scalable, maintainable, and aligned with real user workflows.

What Makes You a Great Fit

• Strong engineering background: Solid track record of delivering production-grade, user-facing software systems with minimal supervision.
• Core language mastery: Deep proficiency in a systems programming language such as Go, C++, or Rust.
• Distributed systems expertise: Proven experience working with distributed systems, catalogs, table formats, and query engines.
• Cloud-native exposure: Hands-on experience operating systems in cloud-native environments (AWS, GCP, Azure).
• Pragmatic AI & prototyping mindset: Familiarity with AI technologies, comfortable releasing prototypes, gathering feedback, and iterating rapidly in ambiguous environments.
• Observability knowledge: Experience utilizing observability tools to troubleshoot and inspect system performance.

Bonus Points For

• Experience building distributed query engines.
• Experience designing and building data warehouses or data lakes.
• Experience building developer tools for data engineering.

Compensation & Benefits

• Compensation: In Sweden, the base compensation range is SEK 775,000 – SEK 969,000 (country-specific; adjusted based on local market, level, and skillset).
• Equity & Bonus: Equity awards and company bonus eligibility.
• Paid Time Off: 30 days of annual leave, including 3 dedicated Grafana Shutdown Days to fully disconnect.