Software Developer 4

Job Summary:

We are seeking a highly skilled Backend/Distributed Systems Engineer to help build Oracle’s next-generation AI-native database platform. This role combines backend engineering, distributed systems development, database infrastructure, and AI platform capabilities to create scalable, high-performance systems powering enterprise AI workloads.

The ideal candidate brings strong systems engineering fundamentals, hands-on backend development experience in Java or C++, and a passion for solving complex infrastructure and performance challenges across AI, search, storage, and distributed computing domains.

Qualifications & Skills Mandatory:

• Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, or related field.

• 5+ years of experience designing and building backend services or infrastructure systems.

• Strong programming skills in Java or C++.

• Experience building scalable APIs and production-grade backend systems.

• Foundational understanding of distributed systems concepts including scalability, replication, consistency, and reliability.

• Knowledge of database systems concepts such as storage engines, indexing, query execution, or performance optimization.

• Understanding of search and retrieval concepts including ranking, semantic retrieval, graph search, or vector search.

• Strong problem-solving skills with the ability to analyze system-level trade-offs involving performance, scalability, and reliability.

Good-to-Have

• Experience with vector databases, embeddings, RAG systems, or AI/ML infrastructure.

• Exposure to database kernel engineering or low-level systems programming.

• Experience working on cloud infrastructure, platform engineering, or developer platforms.

• Familiarity with distributed storage systems or large-scale data processing frameworks.

• Knowledge of AI-native infrastructure or agentic AI systems.

• Experience optimizing high-throughput, low-latency systems at scale.

Self-Assessment Questions

• Do I have hands-on experience building scalable backend systems or distributed services using Java or C++?

• Have I worked on infrastructure challenges involving scalability, reliability, performance optimization, or distributed architectures?

• Am I comfortable working with database internals, indexing systems, retrieval systems, or storage-related engineering concepts?

• Have I contributed to production-quality APIs, platform services, or large-scale backend systems?

• Am I interested in solving low-level systems engineering problems related to AI infrastructure and distributed computing?

• Career Level

• IC4

Key Responsibilities

• Design, develop, and maintain scalable backend services and APIs using Java or C++.
• Contribute to core database infrastructure including storage engines, indexing systems, query optimization, and data formats.
• Build and improve advanced retrieval capabilities including vector search, semantic retrieval, ranking systems, and graph search.
• Develop distributed system components with a focus on scalability, replication, consistency, reliability, and fault tolerance.
• Support AI infrastructure initiatives including embeddings, retrieval-augmented generation (RAG), AI agents, and large-scale data pipelines.
• Optimize system performance, throughput, latency, and operational reliability through benchmarking, profiling, and systems tuning.
• Collaborate cross-functionally with product managers and engineering stakeholders to translate platform requirements into scalable technical solutions.
• Help shape developer platform capabilities, backend-as-a-service offerings, and cloud-native infrastructure features.