Senior Software Engineer - ClickHouse

The role

We're looking for a Senior or Staff Backend Engineer to anchor our small, focused ClickHouse team. You'll own hard technical problems end to end on the platform behind our managed ClickHouse service - from database internals and backup/restore correctness to the data engineering tooling that connects ClickHouse to the wider ecosystem. This is a role with real technical ownership. You'll write RFCs and design documents that change how we build, scope and lead multi-quarter initiatives, and influence the product roadmap for ClickHouse and its ecosystem - streaming ingestion, CDC, benchmarking, and analytics tooling. You'll also mentor the engineers around you and raise the bar for how the team works. We expect you to be equally comfortable designing a new architecture and diving into a production incident - reading ClickHouse source code, untangling a replication race condition, or root-causing a flaky distributed test. Design and lead major platform initiatives: think coordination-service migrations (ZooKeeper → ClickHouse Keeper), backup/restore architecture, cluster topology, sharding, and node lifecycle management Build data engineering tooling around ClickHouse - streaming ingestion pipelines (Kafka → ClickHouse, Postgres → ClickHouse), schema conversion and evolution, integration frameworks, and fault-isolation between data sources Own the ClickHouse version lifecycle: qualify new LTS releases, diagnose upstream regressions, and take releases from early availability to GA Debug deep into the stack - ClickHouse internals (replication, access control, MergeTree, materialized views), distributed coordination, object storage (S3/GCS/Azure), DNS and networking, TLS Write RFCs and drive architectural decisions that extend beyond the team, including security and infrastructure changes Influence the roadmap: scope epics, break down initiatives into deliverable work, and shape what the team builds next - including commercial aspects like plans, sizing, and capacity Mentor engineers on the team through design reviews, code reviews, and pairing - multiply the team, don't just add to it Keep the lights on with pride: production incident response, observability improvements, CI performance, and test reliability are part of the craft Real ownership. The team is small (you plus two engineers) - your designs, RFCs, and roadmap input directly determine what gets built. Genuine depth. Database internals, distributed coordination, streaming data pipelines, and backup correctness - not CRUD apps. Ecosystem scope. You shape not just the managed service but the data engineering tooling around ClickHouse - ingestion, CDC, benchmarking, integrations. Modern tooling. Strict type checking, automated formatting, security scanning, and AI-assisted development are the norm. Helsinki-based, hybrid. The team is in the office regularly; you'll work closely together.

What we offer

• Participate in Aiven’s equity plan.
• Balance work and life with our hybrid work policy.
• Choose the equipment you need to set yourself up for success.
• Use your Professional Development Plan budget for learning opportunities.
• Receive holistic wellbeing support through our global Employee Assistance Program.
• Inquire about our Global Time Off Commitment (Parental and Sick Leave, as well as Personal Time)
• Enjoy country-specific benefits for our global cast.