Applications close Friday, October 16, 2026 at 12:00 p.m. Pacific.
About the role
Applications close Friday, October 16, 2026 at 12:00 p.m. Pacific. We are selecting the first three applicants who qualify for the initial pilot.
## About the work
Build real-world tasks that test how well AI agents handle database engineering. Depending on your specialty, your task may cover database-engine implementation, production diagnosis, or application migration.
Each task should include a clear problem statement, a reproducible repository or environment, a working reference solution, tests, and grading criteria that distinguish a robust engineering solution from one that only appears correct.
## What you'll do
- Design one challenging, self-contained database engineering task.
- Build checks for correctness, failure handling, concurrency, retries, and regressions where relevant.
- Evaluate performance measures such as latency, throughput, and memory use.
- Write clear grading criteria for engineering judgment.
- Work with technical reviewers to refine and validate the task.
## Who we're looking for
- At least five years of hands-on database-engine internals experience, or a database-systems PhD.
- Deep experience with storage engines, query execution, optimization, transactions, replication, or related low-latency systems.
- Strong implementation skills and clear explanations of correctness and performance tradeoffs.
- Experience with Go is preferred.
DBA, SQL analytics, ETL, or application-only database experience does not qualify on its own. You do not need to specialize in every task area.
## Application process
Complete a self-paced technical assessment with written responses and a coding exercise. You control when to advance between sections. (~35 min)
Use a laptop or desktop with a camera, microphone, and entire-screen sharing. Have your own editor and terminal ready, along with Python 3.8+ and a compiler for C, C++, Rust, Go, or Java. The assessment includes a starter kit and public tests. …
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