Lead Principal Data Systems Software Engineer

Oracle•Pleasanton, CA

6d•$122,800 - $306,400

About The Position

Oracle’s Exadata Database team is developing a cloud-native, autonomous, multitenant, database-optimized smart storage cloud service based on the Exadata platform. Designed to scale across thousands of tenants, the service provides high performance and availability for varied workloads and supports Autonomous Database offerings in Oracle Cloud and Cloud at Customer. The role combines production ownership with software development, giving the engineer responsibility for solving difficult problems in distributed, highly available services and virtualized infrastructure, identifying improvements, and implementing recommendations. The position serves as a domain expert who shapes product architecture and engineering velocity across multiple product areas. It defines scalable patterns for microservices and data modeling, including spatial and graph data; applies in-database analytics and machine learning; and establishes service-level objectives supported by testing and observability. The engineer connects post-release outcomes to revenue, adoption, and retention, and guides technical strategy in partnership with product leadership. The engineer designs, develops, and deploys software to improve Oracle products’ availability, scalability, and efficiency; defines architectures and standards for large-scale distributed systems; and supports capacity planning, demand forecasting, performance analysis, and system tuning. The role also leads architecture and code reviews, complex debugging and customer issue resolution, security and compliance practices, system maintenance, and cross-team technical guidance and mentorship.

Requirements

10 or more years of hands-on software development experience, including design, implementation, debugging, and support, building distributed, scalable system software and/or services, preferably in the cloud.
Bachelor’s or master’s degree in Computer Science, or equivalent experience.
Proficiency in Java and Python, and scripting languages such as Shell, Perl, and Python.
Deep understanding of distributed systems and web services technology.
Experience crafting, building, and debugging large-scale distributed systems.
Strong application of data structures, algorithms, and object-oriented design to challenging problems.
Track record of building and delivering mission-critical, 24x7 production software systems.
Familiarity with microservices-based software architecture and evolving tools such as Nomad and Kubernetes.
Experience with container runtimes such as Docker and LXC/LXD.
Knowledge of professional software engineering practices and full software development lifecycle best practices, including coding standards, code reviews, source control management, build processes, testing, and operations.
Strong desire to build, with a sense of ownership, urgency, and drive; systematic problem-solving approach.
Experience communicating with users, technical teams, and senior management to gather requirements, describe product features and strategy, and influence technical decisions.
Solid understanding of performance and efficiency, with a strong customer focus.
Demonstrated ability to mentor software developers across engineering skill areas.
Strong verbal and written communication skills.

Responsibilities

Set product-wide patterns for microservices and data modeling, including spatial and graph data, to accelerate feature delivery.
Integrate in-database analytics and machine learning for use cases such as personalization, recommendations, and fraud detection.
Define service-level objectives and enforce them through performance gates, query linting, and production telemetry.
Architect existing services and modern or emerging new services.
Lead project initiatives to design software solutions, identify and analyze requirements, and write foundational code for new projects or prototypes.
Improve software development lifecycle execution and coach engineers across teams or units.
Guide software features and enhancements as a subject matter expert, ensuring they follow design specifications and accessibility requirements and documenting designs and code.
Lead process, architecture, and code reviews across projects and products or services.
Use modern and emerging technologies to debug and troubleshoot highly complex software issues.
Lead improvements to functional and nonfunctional testing, quality assurance, error logging, monitoring, and observability.
Promote innovation, research, and industry practices to improve performance across products and domains.
Resolve complex API functionality and integration issues and implement API versioning, lifecycle, and interoperability strategies.
Lead the design and development of software, systems, and services; define project or design scope and review, influence, and approve scope and design recommendations.
Provide technical guidance, domain expertise, coaching, and mentorship on software architecture decisions and best practices.
Review adherence to architectural standards and collaborate with internal and external stakeholders to align architecture with business and customer priorities.
Implement performance optimization and scalability strategies, research architectural enhancements, and translate findings into decisions and plans.
Lead investigation of customer issues, root causes, mitigations, and product enhancements; provide technical guidance and support to customers.
Guide customer issue and defect handling, training, and maintenance processes, ensuring timely resolution and communication.
Collaborate with security and leadership teams to establish and improve development practices and coding standards; promote quality and acceptance criteria through peer reviews.
Apply secure software development practices and automated solutions to prevent security vulnerabilities.
Lead system maintenance, upgrades, patching, testing, automation, and debugging to ensure service availability, health, support, and reliability.
Manage and direct timelines, deliverables, and budgets when applicable for critical, high-impact projects; anticipate resource or timeline changes as priorities shift.
Influence cross-functional leaders and external stakeholders, build partnerships, and incorporate diverse perspectives.
Lead advanced problem-solving efforts, serve as an escalation point, identify root causes, and drive solutions that prevent recurrence.
Monitor emerging trends, technologies, and standards; contribute thought leadership and promote continuous learning and knowledge sharing.
Develop and implement process improvements, evaluate their effectiveness, and design metrics to measure outcomes.
Support talent strategy through interviews, candidate assessment, hiring decisions, and mentoring.

Benefits

Medical, dental, and vision insurance, including expert medical opinion.
Short-term and long-term disability insurance.
Life insurance and accidental death and dismemberment insurance.
Supplemental life insurance for employees and eligible family members.
Health care and dependent care flexible spending accounts.
Pre-tax commuter and parking benefits.
401(k) Savings and Investment Plan with company match.
Flexible or accrued vacation, depending on eligibility and position classification.
11 paid holidays.
Paid sick leave.
Paid parental leave.
Adoption assistance.
Employee Stock Purchase Plan.
Financial planning and group legal benefits.
Voluntary auto, homeowner, and pet insurance.
Potential eligibility for bonus, equity, and compensation deferral.