Principal Architect

About the Role As a Principal Architect, you will be responsible for the architectural design and end-to-end implementation of a high-performance OLAP query engine and semantic layer. The primary goal is to develop a custom JSON-based query language (DSL) and a translation engine that converts these requests into optimized SQL for columnar databases. This role requires a deep understanding of systems programming, compiler theory, and multi-dimensional data modeling to serve high-concurrency read loads in a microservices environment. What You'll Do Architectural Design & Query Execution Compiler & DSL development: Design a custom JSON-based OLAP query language. Define eBNF grammars and build a translation layer to convert functional formulas and DSL requests into an optimized execution plan. SQL generation & optimization: Implement and oversee the generation of highly optimized SQL tailored for columnar databases including ClickHouse, SingleStore, and DuckDB. Semantic layer management: Architect the representation of multi-dimensional data models within columnar structures, ensuring efficient data retrieval and aggregation. Custom function logic: Implement logic for custom functions, determining the optimal balance between SQL push-down and application-layer execution Caching & Performance Engineering Multi-dimensional caching: Envisage and implement a distributed caching strategy for multidimensional data, utilizing shared memory systems like Redis. Concurrency & scaling: Build and maintain high-performance microservices using Java (Micronaut or Spring Boot) with Project Loom (Virtual Threads) to handle massive concurrent read loads. Low-level optimization: Manage system-level performance including connection pooling, array pooling, and off-heap memory management. JVM tuning: Apply expert knowledge of Java Garbage Collectors (including ZGC and Shenandoah) to maintain low-latency response times. Engineering Excellence & AI Integration AI-augmented development: Leverage AI coding agents and tools to accelerate the software development lifecycle, from prototyping to debugging. Technical documentation: Maintain a disciplined approach to software development by documenting architectural decisions, design patterns, and technical specifications. Technical leadership: Act as the primary technical authority on query engine internals, providing guidance on complex systems-level challenges. What We're Looking For 15+ years in software engineering with a focus on backend systems and data infrastructure Strong theoretical and practical knowledge of compilers, ASTs, eBNF, and query planning In-depth understanding of SQL, query optimization, and the internal workings of columnar databases Expert proficiency in Java, specifically regarding multi-threading, asynchronous I/O, networking, and memory management Proven experience in designing distributed caching layers and managing state across microservices