Aerospike is the real-time database for mission-critical use cases and workloads, including machine learning, generative, and agentic AI. Aerospike powers millions of transactions per second with millisecond latency, at a fraction of the total cost of ownership compared to other databases.
Global leaders, including Adobe, Airtel, Barclays, Criteo, DBS Bank, Experian, Grab, HDFC Bank, PayPal, Sony Interactive Entertainment, The Trade Desk, and Wayfair, rely on Aerospike for customer 360, fraud detection, real-time bidding, profile stores, recommendation engines, and other use cases.
At Aerospike, we dream big and deliver even bigger. Our mission is to unleash the power of the world’s real-time data with a database built for infinite scale, speed, and sustainability.
To foster strong team alignment and productivity, Bay Area–based team members are expected to work from the office 2–3 times per week—typically Tuesday through Thursday.
If you're ready to shape the future of data, join us.
As a Senior Systems Engineer at Aerospike, you will play a pivotal role in advancing our high-performance, low-latency platform by developing core systems software with a strong emphasis on performance, reliability, and efficiency. Experience with kernel modules or filesystems is a plus, though not a core focus of this role. You will collaborate with project managers, performance engineers, and quality engineers to align development with business needs and ensure quality.
Responsibilities- Design and implement systems-level software, especially in areas related to networking, low-level I/O, and hardware interfaces.
- Develop high-performance, low-latency code for interacting with storage and network hardware.
- Debug and optimize OS-level issues across Linux-based environments.
- Ensure system quality through rigorous testing and benchmarking.
- Work with storage hardware to optimize performance.
- Participate in pair programming to improve code quality and knowledge sharing.
- Fluent in C with deep understanding of low-level programming and memory management.
- Strong understanding of OS internals – threading, concurrency, memory management, and I/O subsystems.
- 5+ years of experience in systems-level software development, such as networking, kernel, drivers, RTOS, embedded, or firmware.
- Experience shipping and deploying performance-critical systems in production environments.
- Proficiency in at least one other language: C#, Go, Java, Python, Rust, etc.
- Self-motivated problem solver – you know when to execute, when to ask for help, and how to drive projects to completion.
- Experience with large distributed systems software internals, such as Lustre or Ceph.
- Experience with pair programming or technical collaboration.
- Knowledge of the CAP theorem and/or distributed consensus protocols (Paxos, Raft, etc.).
- Familiarity with low-level performance optimization techniques for high-throughput data processing.
- Knowledge of ACID, consistency models, database internals, and indexing techniques.
- Experience with filesystems or Linux kernel development or tuning.
- Familiarity with PCIe, NVMe, DMA, RDMA, epoll, io_uring, or other low-level interfaces.
Join us at Aerospike and be part of a dynamic team that is shaping the future of data management. Salary Range for California Based Applicants: [$170,000 - $195,000] (actual compensation will be determined based on experience, location, and other factors permitted by law
Aerospike Compensation & Benefits Highlights
The following summarizes recurring compensation and benefits themes identified from responses generated by popular LLMs to common candidate questions about Aerospike and has not been reviewed or approved by Aerospike.
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Fair & Transparent Compensation — Compensation is characterized as very competitive across roles, with total compensation (cash, equity, and benefits) seen favorably. Market-aligned engineering and sales packages contribute to overall pay satisfaction.
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Healthcare Strength — Health coverage is described as comprehensive with strong medical plans and FSA/HSA options. This breadth supports a positive view of the overall rewards package.
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Leave & Time Off Breadth — Flexible Time Off alongside company holidays is emphasized. Remote-friendly norms and the ability to take time as needed reinforce time-off flexibility.
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What We Do
The Aerospike Real-time Data Platform enables organizations to act instantly across billions of transactions while reducing server footprint up to 80%. The Aerospike multi-cloud platform powers real-time applications with predictable sub-millisecond performance up to petabyte scale with five-nines uptime with globally distributed, strongly consistent data. Applications built on the Aerospike Real-time Data Platform fight fraud, provide recommendations that dramatically increase shopping cart size, enable global digital payments, and deliver hyper-personalized user experiences to tens of millions of customers. Customers such as Airtel, Experian, European Central Bank, Nielsen, PayPal, Snap, Verizon Media and Wayfair rely on Aerospike as their data foundation for the future.
