Engineering Manager - Query Engine
About the Position
Your role is to lead our team of query engineers. The Query Engine team at Ditto is responsible for building the primary surface for our customers to interact with their data and the Ditto system: the Ditto Query Language (DQL). We use DQL extensively throughout both the cloud database and on-device SDKs, and query engineers work closely with many other teams to integrate with their systems. This team owns a core technology that spans the entire Ditto product.
Ditto is rapidly growing. Today, while the team is small, there is an opportunity for hands-on contributions, but your role should be considered a pure people management role in the near future. As a specialist team this group is laser-focused on enabling customers to get the most out of Ditto while providing a familiar, SQL-like experience. You will work closely with product managers, designers, and other teams to shape the future of our technology and the services that underpin it.
As the Engineering Manager, You Will:
Lead, Mentor, and Grow: Guide and grow a team of 5–8 skilled and globally distributed engineers, supporting their technical success, career development, and personal growth. Provide mentorship and coaching to help team members achieve their full potential.
Deliver Excellence: Plan and deliver high-quality solutions that meet business and technical goals, focusing on query performance, reliability, and developer experience.
Contribute to Architecture: Be an active participant in the design and implementation of query optimization strategies, execution plans, and indexing mechanisms that work efficiently in distributed edge environments.
Optimize Query Performance: Drive initiatives to improve query execution speed, reduce memory footprint, and enhance the efficiency of our custom query language and execution engine.
Shape the Roadmap: Collaborate with product managers and stakeholders to build the team's roadmap, incorporating input from customers, engineers, and researchers.
Cross-team Collaboration: Work closely with the Database, Core Library, Data Sync, and SDK teams to ensure seamless integration of query capabilities across the entire Ditto platform.
Foster Culture: Set an example by cultivating a culture of trust, collaboration, and continual improvement aligned with Ditto's core values.
What You’ll Need:
Management Experience: 3+ years managing software engineering teams, including responsibilities like hiring, performance management, and career development.
Technical Expertise: 5+ years of technical leadership experience with a strong background in platform and database technologies, distributed systems, and similar domains.
Systems Programming: Strong experience with systems programming languages, preferably Rust or C++, and understanding of performance optimization at the systems level.
Distributed Systems Experience: Understanding of distributed systems concepts including consistency models, replication strategies, and the challenges of operating in eventually consistent environments.
Project Management Excellence: Strong project management skills including stakeholder management, resource allocation and scheduling, risk identification and mitigation, and the ability to deliver complex technical projects on time.
Collaborative Leadership: Proven ability to manage remote, globally distributed teams with strong asynchronous communication skills. Exceptional written and verbal communication to effectively convey complex ideas and align team efforts.
Proactive Leadership: A high level of self-direction, autonomy, and responsibility in leading teams and driving projects forward.
Ability to Travel: You likely will need to travel (including internationally) once a quarter for team get-togethers and design sessions.
Nice to Haves:
Bachelor’s degree or higher in Computer Science or Engineering.
Experience building or maintaining SQL query engines, custom query languages, or similar systems
Knowledge of CRDTs and their implications for query processing in eventually consistent systems
Experience with property-based testing, formal verification, or other advanced testing methodologies for query correctness
Understanding of mobile and embedded system constraints and their impact on query processing
Experience with incremental computation, materialized views, or reactive query systems
Familiarity with various indexing structures (B-trees, LSM trees, inverted indexes) and their trade-offs
Previous experience leading teams working with Rust as the primary programming language
Experience managing a remote, globally distributed team
About the job
Apply for this position
Engineering Manager - Query Engine
About the Position
Your role is to lead our team of query engineers. The Query Engine team at Ditto is responsible for building the primary surface for our customers to interact with their data and the Ditto system: the Ditto Query Language (DQL). We use DQL extensively throughout both the cloud database and on-device SDKs, and query engineers work closely with many other teams to integrate with their systems. This team owns a core technology that spans the entire Ditto product.
Ditto is rapidly growing. Today, while the team is small, there is an opportunity for hands-on contributions, but your role should be considered a pure people management role in the near future. As a specialist team this group is laser-focused on enabling customers to get the most out of Ditto while providing a familiar, SQL-like experience. You will work closely with product managers, designers, and other teams to shape the future of our technology and the services that underpin it.
As the Engineering Manager, You Will:
Lead, Mentor, and Grow: Guide and grow a team of 5–8 skilled and globally distributed engineers, supporting their technical success, career development, and personal growth. Provide mentorship and coaching to help team members achieve their full potential.
Deliver Excellence: Plan and deliver high-quality solutions that meet business and technical goals, focusing on query performance, reliability, and developer experience.
Contribute to Architecture: Be an active participant in the design and implementation of query optimization strategies, execution plans, and indexing mechanisms that work efficiently in distributed edge environments.
Optimize Query Performance: Drive initiatives to improve query execution speed, reduce memory footprint, and enhance the efficiency of our custom query language and execution engine.
Shape the Roadmap: Collaborate with product managers and stakeholders to build the team's roadmap, incorporating input from customers, engineers, and researchers.
Cross-team Collaboration: Work closely with the Database, Core Library, Data Sync, and SDK teams to ensure seamless integration of query capabilities across the entire Ditto platform.
Foster Culture: Set an example by cultivating a culture of trust, collaboration, and continual improvement aligned with Ditto's core values.
What You’ll Need:
Management Experience: 3+ years managing software engineering teams, including responsibilities like hiring, performance management, and career development.
Technical Expertise: 5+ years of technical leadership experience with a strong background in platform and database technologies, distributed systems, and similar domains.
Systems Programming: Strong experience with systems programming languages, preferably Rust or C++, and understanding of performance optimization at the systems level.
Distributed Systems Experience: Understanding of distributed systems concepts including consistency models, replication strategies, and the challenges of operating in eventually consistent environments.
Project Management Excellence: Strong project management skills including stakeholder management, resource allocation and scheduling, risk identification and mitigation, and the ability to deliver complex technical projects on time.
Collaborative Leadership: Proven ability to manage remote, globally distributed teams with strong asynchronous communication skills. Exceptional written and verbal communication to effectively convey complex ideas and align team efforts.
Proactive Leadership: A high level of self-direction, autonomy, and responsibility in leading teams and driving projects forward.
Ability to Travel: You likely will need to travel (including internationally) once a quarter for team get-togethers and design sessions.
Nice to Haves:
Bachelor’s degree or higher in Computer Science or Engineering.
Experience building or maintaining SQL query engines, custom query languages, or similar systems
Knowledge of CRDTs and their implications for query processing in eventually consistent systems
Experience with property-based testing, formal verification, or other advanced testing methodologies for query correctness
Understanding of mobile and embedded system constraints and their impact on query processing
Experience with incremental computation, materialized views, or reactive query systems
Familiarity with various indexing structures (B-trees, LSM trees, inverted indexes) and their trade-offs
Previous experience leading teams working with Rust as the primary programming language
Experience managing a remote, globally distributed team