Research Engineer / Scientist - AI for Databases

21 Hours ago • All levels • Research & Development • Artificial Intelligence • $137,750 PA - $237,500 PA

Job Summary

Job Description

This Research Engineer/Scientist role at ByteDance focuses on applying AI/ML to database management systems. Responsibilities include developing intelligent algorithms for query planning, indexing, storage, and workload prediction, integrating AI models into production systems, analyzing large datasets, and publishing research findings. The ideal candidate will have a PhD in a relevant field, a strong publication record in top-tier conferences (SIGMOD, VLDB, NeurIPS, etc.), expertise in database internals, and hands-on experience with ML frameworks. The team works on advanced VectorDBs, multi-modal databases, and LLM-based developer tools, deploying at scale and contributing to open source.
Must have:
  • PhD in CS/DS with focus on databases/systems/ML
  • Strong publication record in top-tier conferences
  • Database internals expertise (PostgreSQL, MySQL etc.)
  • Hands-on experience with ML frameworks (TensorFlow, PyTorch etc.)
Good to have:
  • Proficiency in Python, C++, or Java
  • Experience with cloud database platforms (AWS, GCP, Azure)
  • Familiarity with LLMs, reinforcement learning, or automated database tuning
Perks:
  • Competitive compensation
  • Strong research support
  • Innovation-driven environment
  • Medical, dental, and vision insurance
  • 401(k) savings plan
  • Paid parental leave
  • Paid time off

Job Details

Responsibilities
About the Team The Infrastructure System Lab is a hybrid research and engineering team dedicated to building the next generation of AI-native data infrastructure. Operating at the crossroads of databases, large-scale systems, and AI, the team innovates across multiple domains, including advanced VectorDBs and multi-modal databases for large-scale retrieval and reasoning, intelligent infrastructure optimization using machine learning, LLM-based developer tools like NL2SQL and NL2Chart, and high-performance cache systems for distributed storage and LLM inference. The lab is deeply collaborative, with researchers and engineers working side by side to turn groundbreaking ideas into production-ready systems. Their work is deployed at scale, powering products used by millions, and frequently shared through publications and open-source contributions. About the Role We are looking for a passionate and skilled professional to join our AI4DB team, where artificial intelligence meets cutting-edge database technology. In this role, you will design and implement intelligent systems that improve the performance, scalability, and usability of modern databases. Your work will span query optimization, indexing strategies, workload forecasting, and the development of self-managing databases. This role offers the chance to solve complex, high-impact problems at the intersection of AI, systems, and software engineering, while collaborating with a top-tier team. You'll have opportunities to publish, contribute to open-source, attend leading conferences, and benefit from competitive compensation, strong research support, and an innovation-driven environment. Responsibilities - Conduct research and development in applying AI/ML techniques to database management systems. - Develop intelligent algorithms for tasks such as query planning, indexing, storage management, and workload prediction/scheduling. - Collaborate with data infrastructure and engineering teams to integrate AI models into production systems. - Analyze large-scale datasets from database workloads to uncover optimization opportunities. - Publish findings in top-tier conferences and journals (VLDB, SIGMOD, ICDE, NeurIPS, etc.). - Contribute to open-source projects or internal tools supporting AI-enhanced databases.
Qualifications
Minimum Qualifications - PhD in Computer Science, Data Science or a related field with a focus on databases, systems, or machine learning. - Strong publication record in top-tier venues (e.g., SIGMOD, VLDB, ICDE, NeurIPS, etc.) related to the AI4DB area. - Strong background in database internals (e.g., PostgreSQL, MySQL, or any modern cloud-native databases or BigData platform). - Hands-on experience with machine learning frameworks (e.g. XGBoost, LightGBM, TensorFlow, PyTorch, scikit-learn). Preferred Qualifications - Proficiency in Python, C++, or Java. - Experience with cloud database platforms (AWS, GCP, Azure) is a plus. - Strong analytical, problem-solving, and communication skills. - Familiarity with LLM, reinforcement learning, neural architecture search, or automated database tuning.
Job Information
【For Pay Transparency】Compensation Description (Annually)

The base salary range for this position in the selected city is $137750 - $237500 annually.

Compensation may vary outside of this range depending on a number of factors, including a candidate’s qualifications, skills, competencies and experience, and location. Base pay is one part of the Total Package that is provided to compensate and recognize employees for their work, and this role may be eligible for additional discretionary bonuses/incentives, and restricted stock units.

Benefits may vary depending on the nature of employment and the country work location. Employees have day one access to medical, dental, and vision insurance, a 401(k) savings plan with company match, paid parental leave, short-term and long-term disability coverage, life insurance, wellbeing benefits, among others. Employees also receive 10 paid holidays per year, 10 paid sick days per year and 17 days of Paid Personal Time (prorated upon hire with increasing accruals by tenure).

The Company reserves the right to modify or change these benefits programs at any time, with or without notice.

For Los Angeles County (unincorporated) Candidates:

Qualified applicants with arrest or conviction records will be considered for employment in accordance with all federal, state, and local laws including the Los Angeles County Fair Chance Ordinance for Employers and the California Fair Chance Act. Our company believes that criminal history may have a direct, adverse and negative relationship on the following job duties, potentially resulting in the withdrawal of the conditional offer of employment:

1. Interacting and occasionally having unsupervised contact with internal/external clients and/or colleagues;

2. Appropriately handling and managing confidential information including proprietary and trade secret information and access to information technology systems; and

3. Exercising sound judgment.

About Us

Founded in 2012, ByteDance's mission is to inspire creativity and enrich life. With a suite of more than a dozen products, including TikTok, Lemon8, CapCut and Pico as well as platforms specific to the China market, including Toutiao, Douyin, and Xigua, ByteDance has made it easier and more fun for people to connect with, consume, and create content.

Why Join ByteDance

Inspiring creativity is at the core of ByteDance's mission. Our innovative products are built to help people authentically express themselves, discover and connect – and our global, diverse teams make that possible. Together, we create value for our communities, inspire creativity and enrich life - a mission we work towards every day.

As ByteDancers, we strive to do great things with great people. We lead with curiosity, humility, and a desire to make impact in a rapidly growing tech company. By constantly iterating and fostering an "Always Day 1" mindset, we achieve meaningful breakthroughs for ourselves, our Company, and our users. When we create and grow together, the possibilities are limitless. Join us.

Diversity & Inclusion

ByteDance is committed to creating an inclusive space where employees are valued for their skills, experiences, and unique perspectives. Our platform connects people from across the globe and so does our workplace. At ByteDance, our mission is to inspire creativity and enrich life. To achieve that goal, we are committed to celebrating our diverse voices and to creating an environment that reflects the many communities we reach. We are passionate about this and hope you are too.

Reasonable Accommodation

ByteDance is committed to providing reasonable accommodations in our recruitment processes for candidates with disabilities, pregnancy, sincerely held religious beliefs or other reasons protected by applicable laws. If you need assistance or a reasonable accommodation, please reach out to us at

Similar Jobs

STAGE - Analytics Engineer

STAGE

Noida, Uttar Pradesh, India (On-Site)
8 Months ago
ByteDance - Software Engineer, SRE - Platform Services

ByteDance

San Jose, California, United States (On-Site)
2 Months ago
Info Stretch - Programmer Analyst 5

Info Stretch

Lansing, Michigan, United States (Hybrid)
5 Months ago
Google - Customer Solutions Engineer III

Google

São Paulo, State Of São Paulo, Brazil (On-Site)
1 Week ago
ByteDance - Software Engineer Intern, Security Engineering

ByteDance

Singapore (On-Site)
1 Month ago
NVIDIA - Senior Software Engineer - Automated Parallel Programming

NVIDIA

Santa Clara, California, United States (Remote)
3 Months ago
Google - Senior CPU RTL Designer

Google

Austin, Texas, United States (On-Site)
1 Week ago
NVIDIA - MCU Firmware Engineer

NVIDIA

Taipei City, Taiwan (On-Site)
3 Months ago
Riot Games - Senior Manager, Software Engineering - Unpublished R&D Product

Riot Games

Los Angeles, California, United States (On-Site)
1 Month ago
NVIDIA - Senior Systems Software Engineer, Data Center - CUDA

NVIDIA

Santa Clara, California, United States (On-Site)
3 Months ago

Get notifed when new similar jobs are uploaded

Similar Skill Jobs

Sporty Group - Weekend Backend Engineer

Sporty Group

(On-Site)
9 Months ago
Microsoft - Senior Software Engineer

Microsoft

Redmond, Washington, United States (On-Site)
23 Hours ago
Microsoft - Senior Software Engineer - CTJ - TS/SCI

Microsoft

Redmond, Washington, United States (On-Site)
1 Week ago
Google - Software Engineer III, Chrome Enterprise Core

Google

Warsaw, Masovian Voivodeship, Poland (On-Site)
1 Week ago
Fluxon - Staff Software Engineer

Fluxon

Bengaluru, Karnataka, India (Remote)
6 Months ago
Meta - Research Scientist Intern, Language and Multimodal Research for MetaAI (PhD)

Meta

Menlo Park, California, United States (On-Site)
5 Months ago
Google - Software Engineering Manager, Google Cloud, Looker

Google

Kirkland, Washington, United States (On-Site)
17 Hours ago
Omnissa - Staff Data Scientist

Omnissa

Bengaluru, Karnataka, India (Hybrid)
7 Months ago
Epic Games - Senior Web Engineer

Epic Games

(On-Site)
2 Months ago
Google - Customer Solutions Engineer

Google

Tel Aviv-Yafo, Tel Aviv District, Israel (On-Site)
1 Week ago

Get notifed when new similar jobs are uploaded

Jobs in Seattle, Washington, United States

The Walt Disney Company - Senior Software Engineer, iOS

The Walt Disney Company

Glendale, California, United States (On-Site)
2 Weeks ago
Microsoft - Principal Software Engineer - RDMA

Microsoft

Santa Clara, California, United States (On-Site)
6 Days ago
CharacterAI - Engineering Manager, Safety

CharacterAI

Menlo Park, California, United States (On-Site)
1 Month ago
The Walt Disney Company - Manager, Employee Relations

The Walt Disney Company

Anaheim, California, United States (On-Site)
1 Week ago
ByteDance - Senior Software Development Engineer - Distributed NoSQL Database Systems

ByteDance

San Jose, California, United States (On-Site)
3 Months ago
Framestore - FREELANCE: FLAME - NEW YORK

Framestore

New York, New York, United States (On-Site)
11 Months ago
Xsolla - Head of Audit

Xsolla

Los Angeles, California, United States (Hybrid)
1 Month ago
Google - Data Scientist III, Product, ODS

Google

Sunnyvale, California, United States (On-Site)
1 Week ago
ION - Lead Python Engineer, New York

ION

New York, New York, United States (Hybrid)
6 Months ago
Microsoft - Member of Technical Staff, Copilot Prompt Engineer

Microsoft

Redmond, Washington, United States (Hybrid)
1 Week ago

Get notifed when new similar jobs are uploaded

Research & Development Jobs

ByteDance - Machine Learning Engineer Intern (Search-TikTok Recommendation)

ByteDance

Seattle, Washington, United States (On-Site)
1 Month ago
ByteDance - Machine Learning Engineer - Inference

ByteDance

Seattle, Washington, United States (On-Site)
1 Month ago
NVIDIA - Senior Software Engineer

NVIDIA

Tel Aviv-Yafo, Tel Aviv District, Israel (On-Site)
2 Months ago
NVIDIA - Clock Design Engineer

NVIDIA

Tel Aviv-Yafo, Tel Aviv District, Israel (Hybrid)
2 Months ago
Riot Games - Principal Software Engineer, Gameplay - Teamfight Tactics

Riot Games

Dublin, County Dublin, Ireland (On-Site)
5 Months ago
NVIDIA - Senior Mask Design Engineer - Hardware

NVIDIA

Canada (On-Site)
3 Months ago
Microsoft - Software Engineer - Systems

Microsoft

Redmond, Washington, United States (On-Site)
23 Hours ago
Google - Senior Staff Software Engineer, Infrastructure, Google Cloud

Google

Bengaluru, Karnataka, India (On-Site)
1 Week ago
Google - CPU Hardware Emulation Engineer

Google

Haifa, Haifa District, Israel (On-Site)
1 Week ago
Google - CPU Silicon Validation Lead

Google

Tel Aviv-Yafo, Tel Aviv District, Israel (On-Site)
16 Hours ago

Get notifed when new similar jobs are uploaded

About The Company

Where imagination meets innovation, delivering limitless gaming experiences.

San Diego, California, United States (On-Site)

San Jose, California, United States (On-Site)

Dubai, Dubai, United Arab Emirates (On-Site)

New York, New York, United States (On-Site)

San Jose, California, United States (On-Site)

San Jose, California, United States (On-Site)

Seattle, Washington, United States (On-Site)

View All Jobs

Get notified when new jobs are added by ByteDance

Level Up Your Career in Game Development!

Transform Your Passion into Profession with Our Comprehensive Courses for Aspiring Game Developers.

Job Common Plug