Staff Software Engineer, Code Modernization

MongoDB’s mission is to empower innovators to create, transform, and disrupt industries by unleashing the power of software and data. We enable organizations of all sizes to easily build, scale, and run modern applications by helping them modernize legacy workloads, embrace innovation, and unleash AI. Our industry-leading developer data platform, MongoDB Atlas, is the only globally distributed, multi-cloud database and is available in more than 115 regions across AWS, Google Cloud, and Microsoft Azure. Atlas allows customers to build and run applications anywhere—on premises, or across cloud providers. With offices worldwide and over 175,000 new developers signing up to use MongoDB every month, it’s no wonder that leading organizations, like Samsung and Toyota, trust MongoDB to build next-generation, AI-powered applications.

We're seeking a Staff Software Engineer with a strong background in computer science fundamentals, systems design, and extensive experience in modernization to join our engineering team. In this role, you will play a crucial part in designing, building, and optimizing the underlying data structures, algorithms, and database interactions that power our generative AI platform and code generation tools. This involves crafting sophisticated orchestration layers, robust integration points, and high-performance data systems that seamlessly connect and leverage advanced AI capabilities for code generation. While our immediate focus is on this domain, this role emphasizes strong foundational engineering principles that apply broadly to complex, high-performance systems. Deep prior experience with AI models or machine learning is not a requirement; your firm grasp of core computer science is what matters most, and you'll be given ample time and resources to build expertise in the AI domain. You will work on critical components that ensure the scalability, efficiency, and reliability of our services, collaborating closely with AI researchers and other engineers to translate complex requirements into robust technical solutions.

As a Staff Engineer, you'll be hands-on with design and implementation, while working with engineers across experience levels to build a robust, scalable system. The focus is on performance, correctness, and architectural excellence in a rapidly evolving, data-intensive environment.

Many organizations have amassed extensive portfolios of legacy applications. Lack of scalability and resilience, lengthy development times, high operating costs, and the inability to run on the cloud are common issues with these applications. To address these issues, organizations are engaging in large transformational Application Modernization programs. MongoDB is recognized as the developer data platform of choice for transactional systems, offering the best scalability, resiliency, and developer experience in both the cloud and on-premises environments. Organizations continuously migrate workloads from these legacy applications to new platforms, often based on microservices, using MongoDB.

Such transformations are very time-intensive and often risky. MongoDB is bolstering its team by creating tools that guide customers in transitioning their applications from relational databases to MongoDB. As businesses evolve their application development frameworks, they're increasingly drawn to the versatility of the document model.

This role will be based remotely in North America.

• Execute a comprehensive code modernization strategy that aligns transitioned code with cutting-edge practices
• Design, implement, and optimize high-performance data structures and algorithms for core components of our generative AI orchestration platform
• Design and optimize sophisticated code parsers to transform legacy code structures using techniques such as AST, into standardized formats
• Collaborate with AI researchers and machine learning engineers to understand data needs. Identify and address performance bottlenecks and architectural challenges in our systems, particularly within data flow and orchestration
• Contribute to platform features like data versioning, efficient data retrieval, and ensuring data integrity for AI-generated code and related metadata
• Empower the engineering team with unparalleled thought leadership on emerging technologies and best practices
• Proactively engage with product leaders and senior management to align technical solutions with overarching business strategies
• Mentor and guide junior and senior engineers on best practices in data structures, algorithms, and database design
• Participate in code reviews, design discussions, and contribute to the overall technical direction of the team
• Work to develop robust and efficient backend services that orchestrate AI functionalities

• 8+ years of engineering experience in backend systems, distributed systems, or core platform development, with a demonstrated ability to take on more profound technical challenges and provide thought leadership in the domain
• Deep expertise in data structures and algorithms, with a proven track record of applying them to solve complex problems
• Deep understanding of SQL (preferably Oracle), including advanced querying, schema design, and database optimization for performance and scalability
• Proficiency in Java and one or several of Rust, C/C++, and/or Python, with a strong understanding of systems-level programming, memory management, and performance tuning
• Previous experience in a comprehensive code modernisation strategy that aligns transitioned code with cutting-edge practices
• Hands-on experience with sophisticated text processing engines like ANTLR and understanding its underlying principles
• Hands-on experience in AST and control flow graph to analyse and traverse code structures programmatically
• Comprehensive knowledge of compiler design, code parsing, or related disciplines. Familiarity with core concepts such as lexical analysis and syntax analysis
• Curiosity, a positive attitude, and a drive to continue learning
• Actively engages in emerging trends and research relevant to product features
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills.

Within the first three months, you will have:

• Familiarise yourself with the MongoDB database and aggregation language
• Familiarise yourself with the problem space and the domain
• Set up software development infrastructure (tech stack, build tools, etc) to enable development using the relevant tech stacks
• Started collaborating with your peers and contributed to code reviews

Within six months, you will have:

• Worked on and delivered a large-scale code analysis feature in the product
• Contributed to and helped deliver a few releases of the product
• Reviewed and contributed to scope and technical design documents

Within 12 months, you will have:

• Delivered large-scale features across our entire tech stack
• Helped recruit and interview new members of the team
• Collaborated with other teams at MongoDB

To drive the personal growth and business impact of our employees, we’re committed to developing a supportive and enriching culture for everyone. From employee affinity groups, to fertility assistance and a generous parental leave policy, we value our employees’ wellbeing and want to support them along every step of their professional and personal journeys. Learn more about what it’s like to work at MongoDB, and help us make an impact on the world!

MongoDB is committed to providing any necessary accommodations for individuals with disabilities within our application and interview process. To request an accommodation due to a disability, please inform your recruiter.

MongoDB, Inc. provides equal employment opportunities to all employees and applicants for employment and prohibits discrimination and harassment of any type and makes all hiring decisions without regard to race, color, religion, age, sex, national origin, disability status, genetics, protected veteran status, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, or any other characteristic protected by federal, state or local laws.

Req ID: 425546