Core Performance Engineer (C++)

About ClickHouse

Recognized on the 2025 Forbes Cloud 100 list, ClickHouse is one of the most innovative and fast-growing private cloud companies. With more than 3,000 customers and ARR that has grown over 250 percent year over year, ClickHouse leads the market in real-time analytics, data warehousing, observability, and AI workloads.

The company’s sustained, accelerating momentum was recently validated by a $400M Series D financing round. Over the past three months, customers including Capital One, Lovable, Decagon, Polymarket, and Airwallex have adopted the platform or expanded existing deployments. These customers join an established base of AI innovators and global brands such as Meta, Cursor, Sony, and Tesla.

We’re on a mission to transform how companies use data. Come be a part of our journey!

NOTE: this role can be located anywhere ClickHouse has a hiring presence.

With over 42,000 stars on GitHub, ClickHouse is the fastest and most resource efficient open-source database for real-time apps and analytics. Our Core Engineering teams own the heart of our ClickHouse Open Source project.  We are looking for exceptional C++ engineers to join our remote-first, global team and continue to scale and grow both our open source and ClickHouse Cloud offerings.  More specifically, our Performance Engineering team is seeking engineers who love optimizing the performance of distributed systems.

What will you do?

• As part of the ClickHouse Core Performance team, you will analyze and optimize the performance of the core ClickHouse database. The team works on many different topics such as query optimization, distributed query optimization, relational operators (e.g. aggregation and joins), caching, and low-level optimizations like SIMD instructions.
• You will ensure that the database performance does not deteriorate over time by extending existing and adding new performance tests, based on real-world or synthetic datasets.
• You will serve as a resource for the Support Engineering team, helping to debug the most advanced performance issues encountered by our customers.
• As the core ClickHouse database continues to move at a fast pace, you will closely collaborate with our other core teams to assess the impact of new features on performance and support colleagues with performance tests and advice.
• You will work with our open-source community. This will include resolving issues, reviewing and finishing PRs, answering questions from mail, chats, google groups, external Slack channels, etc.

About you: 

• You bring along solid professional software development experience in C++. This includes experience with Unix Systems.
• You have strong knowledge in database internals and design.
• You have experience in performance engineering, ideally in a database but other areas like high-frequency trading, simulation, real time data processing etc. are also okay.
• You communicate well with others and have the ability to work well within and across engineering teams. 
• You are ready to work closely with our open-source community. You participate in code reviews with patience and attention to detail fostering a culture of collaboration and mutual respect.
• You are a strong problem-solver and have solid production debugging skills.
• You are passionate about efficiency, availability, scalability and data governance.
• You thrive in a fast-paced start-up environment, seeing yourself as a partner with the business with the shared goal of moving forward and building together.
• You have a high level of responsibility, ownership, and accountability.

Bonus points for:

• Experience with ClickHouse.
• Experience in security, privacy, and compliance.
• Experience with TCP/IP and network programming.
• Experience developing cloud infrastructure services, preferably with Kubernetes.
• Experience giving public talks at technical conferences and meetups.
• Previous contributions to open source projects.

#LI-Remote

Compensation

For roles based in the United States, the typical starting salary range for this position is listed above. In certain locations, such as the San Francisco Bay Area and the New York City Metro Area, a premium market range may apply, as listed.

These salary ranges reflect what we reasonably and in good faith believe to be the minimum and maximum pay for this role at the time of posting. The actual compensation may be higher or lower than the amounts listed, and the ranges may be subject to future adjustments.

An individual’s placement within the range will depend on various factors, including (but not limited to) education, qualifications, certifications, experience, skills, location, performance, and the needs of the business or organization.

If you have any questions or comments about compensation as a candidate, please get in touch with us at paytransparency@clickhouse.com.

Perks

• Flexible work environment - ClickHouse is a globally distributed company and remote-friendly. We currently operate in 20 countries.
• Healthcare - Employer contributions towards your healthcare.
• Equity in the company - Every new team member who joins our company receives stock options.
• Time off - Flexible time off in the US, generous entitlement in other countries.
• A $500 Home office setup if you’re a remote employee.
• Global Gatherings – We believe in the power of in-person connection and offer opportunities to engage with colleagues at company-wide offsites.

Culture - We All Shape It

As part of our first 500 employees, you will be instrumental in shaping our culture. 

Are you interested in finding out more about our culture?  Learn more about our values here.  Check out our blog posts or follow us on LinkedIn to find out more about what’s happening at ClickHouse.

Equal Opportunity & Privacy 

ClickHouse provides equal employment opportunities to all employees and applicants and prohibits discrimination and harassment of any type based on factors such as race, color, religion, age, sex, national origin, disability status, genetics, protected veteran status, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, or any other characteristic protected by federal, state or local laws. 

Please see here for our Privacy Statement.