Senior Staff Software Engineer - Delta

Databricks
London, United Kingdom
Last month
Seniority
Senior
Posted
9 Apr 2026 (Last month)

P-1127

At Databricks, we are obsessed with enabling data teams to solve the world's toughest problems, from security threat detection to cancer drug development. We do this by building and running the world's best data and AI infrastructure platform, so our customers can focus on the high value challenges that are central to their own missions.

Our engineering teams build highly technical products that fulfill real, important needs in the world. We develop and operate one of the largest scale software platforms. The fleet consists of millions of virtual machines, generating terabytes of logs and processing exabytes of data per day. At our scale, we regularly observe cloud hardware, network, and operating system faults, and our software must gracefully shield our customers from any of the above.

The Delta DML team owns the core write-path operations for Delta Lake, the open-source storage layer behind the Databricks Lakehouse. Our mission is to deliver industry-leading performance and a seamless user experience at massive scale, with most data written in Databricks flowing through our platform. We drive performance innovations like Low Shuffle Merge and Deletion Vectors and actively contribute to open source efforts to unify Delta and Iceberg formats.

We are seeking a highly skilled and experienced Senior Staff Software Engineer to join our backend team. In this role, you will be instrumental in designing, developing, and maintaining robust backend systems that power Databricks workspaces. You will build the next-generation platform for serving workspace assets, ensuring high QPS, low latency, reliable, and performant systems, proactively addressing the future growth challenges. Additionally, as a senior member of the team, you will provide technical leadership, mentorship, and guidance to junior engineers, contributing to the overall improvement of team coding practices and system designs.

The Impact you will have:

  • Solve real business needs at large scale by applying your software engineering.
  • Low level systems debugging, performance measurement, and optimization on large production clusters.
  • Build architecture design, influence product roadmap, and take ownership and responsibility over new projects.
  • Introduce tools to allow greater automation and operability of services.
  • Use your deep experience to help prevent and investigate production issues.
  • Plan and lead complicated technical projects that work with several teams within the company.
  • Contribute as a technical team lead by mentoring others, lead sprint planning, delegating work and assignments to team members and participate in project planning.

What we look for:

  • 15+ years industry experience building and supporting large-scale distributed systems.
  • Comfortable working towards a multi-year vision with incremental deliverables.
  • Motivated by delivering customer value and impact.
  • Strong foundation in algorithms and data structures and their real-world use cases.
  • Experience driving company initiatives towards customer satisfaction.
  • BS/MS/PhD in Computer Science or related majors, or equivalent experience.

About Databricks

Databricks is the data and AI company. More than 10,000 organizations worldwide — including Comcast, Condé Nast, Grammarly, and over 50% of the Fortune 500 — rely on the Databricks Data Intelligence Platform to unify and democratize data, analytics and AI. Databricks is headquartered in San Francisco, with offices around the globe and was founded by the original creators of Lakehouse, Apache Spark™, Delta Lake and MLflow. To learn more, follow Databricks on Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook.

Benefits

At Databricks, we strive to provide comprehensive benefits and perks that meet the needs of all of our employees. For specific details on the benefits offered in your region click here.

Our Commitment to Diversity and Inclusion

At Databricks, we are committed to fostering a diverse and inclusive culture where everyone can excel. We take great care to ensure that our hiring practices are inclusive and meet equal employment opportunity standards. Individuals looking for employment at Databricks are considered without regard to age, color, disability, ethnicity, family or marital status, gender identity or expression, language, national origin, physical and mental ability, political affiliation, race, religion, sexual orientation, socio-economic status, veteran status, and other protected characteristics.

Compliance

If access to export-controlled technology or source code is required for performance of job duties, it is within Employer's discretion whether to apply for a U.S. government license for such positions, and Employer may decline to proceed with an applicant on this basis alone.

Related Jobs

View all jobs
Spotlight

Machine Learning Engineer (Forward Deployed)

Mind Foundry Oxford/ Hybrid, Oxfordshire, United Kingdom
Spotlight

Forward Deployed Engineer

SolveAI London, United Kingdom
Hybrid

Senior/Staff Software Engineer, Back End Leaning

Synthesia London, United Kingdom
Remote

Senior Staff Software Engineer - Delta

Databricks London, United Kingdom

Staff Software Engineer - Biometrics

Entrust London, United Kingdom

Staff Software Engineer - Biometrics

Entrust Portugal

Software Engineer (Principal level)

Synthesia London, United Kingdom
Hybrid

Staff Engineer, Machine Learning

Synthesia London, United Kingdom
Remote

Industry Insights

Discover insightful articles, industry insights, expert tips, and curated resources.

Where to Advertise AI Jobs in the UK (2026 Guide)

Advertising AI jobs in the UK requires a different approach to most technical hiring. The candidate pool is small, highly informed and in demand across multiple sectors simultaneously. General job boards reach a broad audience but lack the specificity that AI professionals expect — and the filtering mechanisms they rely on. Specialist platforms, direct outreach and academic channels each serve a different part of the market. This guide, published by ArtificialIntelligenceJobs.co.uk, covers where to advertise AI roles in the UK in 2026, how the main platforms compare, what employers should expect to pay, and what the data says about time-to-hire across different role types.

AI Jobs UK 2026: What to Expect Over the Next 3 Years

Artificial intelligence is creating jobs faster than the market can name them. New roles are appearing every quarter, existing titles are splitting into specialisms, and the technologies underpinning it all are evolving at a pace that makes even last year's job descriptions feel dated. For job seekers, this presents a genuinely unusual challenge. In most industries, career planning means understanding a relatively stable landscape and working out where you fit within it. In AI, the landscape itself is being redrawn in real time. The roles with the most hiring activity in 2028 may not yet have a widely agreed job title in 2026. That's not a reason to feel overwhelmed — it's a reason to get informed. The candidates who thrive in this market aren't necessarily those with the longest CVs or the most credentials. They're the ones who understand the direction of travel: which skills are gaining value, which technologies are driving employer decisions, and how the definition of an "AI job" is expanding well beyond the tech sector. This article breaks down what the UK AI jobs market is likely to look like over the next three years — covering emerging job titles, the technologies reshaping hiring, the skills employers are prioritising, and how to position yourself ahead of the curve rather than behind it.

New AI Employers to Watch in 2026: UK and Global Companies Reshaping AI Careers

The artificial intelligence job market in the UK is evolving at an extraordinary pace. With record-breaking investment, government backing, and a surge in enterprise adoption, the landscape of AI employers is shifting rapidly. For candidates exploring opportunities on ArtificialIntelligenceJobs.co.uk, understanding who is hiring next is just as important as understanding what skills are in demand. In this article, we explore the new and emerging AI employers to watch in 2026, focusing on organisations that have recently secured funding, won major contracts, or expanded their UK footprint. From cutting-edge startups to global giants doubling down on Britain, these companies represent the next wave of AI career opportunities.