About Us
dbt Labs is the pioneer of analytics engineering, helping data teams transform raw data into reliable, actionable insights. Since 2016, we’ve grown from an open source project into the leading analytics engineering platform, now used by over 50,000 teams every week.
As of February 2025, we’ve surpassed $100 million in annual recurring revenue (ARR) and serve more than 5,400 dbt Cloud customers, including JetBlue, HubSpot, Vodafone New Zealand, and Dunelm. We’re backed by top-tier investors including Andreessen Horowitz, Sequoia Capital, and Altimeter. At our core, we believe in empowering data practitioners:
- Code-based data transformations unlock transparency, flexibility, and collaboration
- Analysts should adopt software engineering best practices to build trusted data products
- Core analytics infrastructure should be open source and user-controlled
- Analytic code—not just tools—should be shared and community-driven
At dbt Labs, we’re building the future of the modern data stack—and we need your help.
We’re looking for a Staff Software Engineer to play a key role in building our platform from zero to one. You’ll partner across teams and disciplines to design and deliver solutions that shape the future of data, while mentoring others and influencing our technical direction.
This position is a unique opportunity to shape the future of dbt’s Compute platform—a new type of analytical query engine. By leveraging dbt’s ability to anticipate and optimize query execution from ingestion to consumption, you’ll help build a truly differentiated system that sets us apart from other database technologies.
This role is perfect for engineers who are excited about query engines, database systems, and large-scale distributed compute—and who want to make a meaningful impact on how data practitioners work every day.
What You’ll Do- Design, build, and maintain the Compute layer that powers dbt’s ability to optimize queries across ingestion, transformation, and consumption.
- Lead technical architecture discussions with a focus on query engines, storage systems, and distributed database design.
- Collaborate with Product, Design, Operations, and Security to deliver well-architected, scalable compute solutions.
- Build services, APIs, and experiences that support user delight, quality, high availability, and performance.
- Tackle ambiguous, open-ended technical challenges with strategic thinking, balancing technical constraints with user needs and product goals.
- Define and drive best practices in testing, observability, and system reliability.
- Mentor engineers across the company, fostering technical growth and collaboration.
- Champion a culture of technical excellence and innovation, influencing engineering direction across multiple teams or domains.
- 10+ years of experience in software engineering, with expertise in database systems, query engines, or storage systems.
- Strong coding skills at the systems level C++, Rust, Go, Python, or Java.
- Experience designing and scaling distributed systems or SaaS platforms.
- Expertise with cloud infrastructure (AWS, GCP, Azure, Kubernetes, Terraform).
- Proven ability to lead complex projects and collaborate across functions.
- Excellent problem-solving skills, clear communication, and a strong sense of ownership.
- Contributions to open source database technologies projects such as Apache Arrow, DuckDB, MongoDB Runtime, or other analytical data systems.
- Experience with performance optimization, observability, or large-scale query engines.
- Exposure to data engineering tools or modern frontend frameworks (React, TypeScript).
- Background in distributed, remote-first teams.
- The chance to work on hard, technical problems that push the boundaries of database and compute systems.
- A culture that values curiosity, inclusivity, and collaboration.
- The opportunity to make a real impact on thousands of data teams around the world.
- Annual Salary: $200,000 - $275,000 USD
- Equity Stake
- Benefits - dbt Labs offers:
- Unlimited vacation (and yes we use it!)
- 401k
- Pension Plan
- 16 weeks Paid Parental Leave
- Wellness stipend
- Home office stipend, and more!
*Equity or comparable benefits may be offered depending on the legal limitations
What to expect in the hiring process (all video interviews unless accommodations are needed):- Interview with Talent Acquisition Partner
- Interview with Hiring Manager
- Team Interviews
- Final Round Values Interview
dbt Labs is an equal opportunity employer, committed to building an inclusive team that welcomes diverse perspectives, backgrounds, and experiences. Even if your experience doesn’t perfectly align with the job description, we encourage you to apply—we value potential just as much as a perfect resume.
Want to learn more about our focus on Diversity, Equity and Inclusion at dbt Labs? Check out our DEI page.
dbt Labs reserves the right to amend or withdraw the posting at any time. For employees outside the United States, dbt Labs offers a competitive benefits package. RSUs or comparable benefits may be offered depending on the legal or country limitations.
Top Skills
What We Do
At dbt Labs, we make data work. Our open-source software, dbt, enables anyone who knows SQL to engineer, document, and test data pipelines. By empowering analysts to work like and with data engineers, dbt drastically increases an organization's ability to model and serve analytics. We’ve built a community of 100,000+ people and are backed by top investors including Andreessen Horowitz and Sequoia Capital. dbt is already used and loved by thousands of companies and dbt Cloud enables this workflow at scale.
dbt Labs headquarters are in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, but we are a distributed team and advocate for a remote-first culture. We want our people to work from the places where they are happiest, healthiest, and most inspired to do great things.
Why Work With Us
At dbt Labs, we bring our whole selves to work. We bring our interests and experiences, our cultural influences, our physical and emotional needs, our communication styles and lifestyles, our values, and our curiosity. We have built a lot of trust in each other, and we work hard to be worthy of it.
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