Staff Software Engineer- Public Sector

Databricks

Virginia, USonsite$181k-$248k/yrPosted Apr 21, 2026
Posting intelligenceListed a while

At a glance

Highlights

  • Large-scale public sector impact
  • Work on sovereign and air-gapped clouds
  • Zero-waste compute initiatives
  • Top secret clearance opportunity

Heads up

  • Top secret clearance required
  • Export-controlled technology access may be restricted

Why this role might suit you

The role offers the chance to design and scale distributed systems for a leading data and AI platform, working on high-impact public sector projects with significant technical challenges and competitive compensation.

Skills

scalajavagoc++cdistributed-systemsconcurrencyperformance-optimizationcloud-nativebackend-engineeringmicroservicesdata-storage

About the role

P-1604

About Databricks

At Databricks, we are passionate about enabling data teams to solve the world's toughest problems — from making the next mode of transportation a reality to accelerating the development of medical breakthroughs. We do this by building and running the world's best data and AI infrastructure platform so our customers can use deep data insights to improve their business. Founded by engineers — and customer obsessed — we leap at every opportunity to solve technical challenges, from designing next-gen UI/UX for interfacing with data to scaling our services and infrastructure across millions of virtual machines. And we're only getting started.

The Role

At Databricks, we don’t just build software for the cloud; we are "cloud maximalists." We run our platform across every region of every major cloud provider (AWS, Azure, and GCP) simultaneously, creating a technical surface area that is unique in the industry. As a Software Engineer on our Public Sector team, you will be responsible for the core backend engineering that allows our Data Intelligence Platform for the Public Sector to operate at massive scale within sovereign and air-gapped cloud environments.

We are looking for world-class Software Engineers to join our core Backend Engineering teams. You will design, build, and scale the distributed systems that power one of the largest data and AI infrastructures in the world. You will tackle high-scale infrastructure challenges where "zero-waste" compute efficiency and 100% system resilience are mandatory. From optimizing massive data storage layers to architecting low-latency microservices that must function in disconnected regions, you will own the end-to-end lifecycle of mission-critical code.

The Impact You’ll Have

Architect Scalable Systems: Design and implement highly available backend services using Scala, Java, Go, C++/C or similar.

Distributed Systems Engineering: Design and implement highly scalable backend services in Java, Scala, or Go that power our Data Intelligence Platform across sovereign and air-gapped clouds.

Infrastructure at Scale: Solve complex architectural trade-offs around concurrency, storage, and networking to ensure the platform remains resilient in high-consequence public sector environments.

Performance Optimization: Drive "zero-waste" compute initiatives, optimizing our engine and services to perform in resource-constrained or specialized regions (e.g., GovCloud).

Security & Reliability: Partner with Production Engineering to ensure all backend services meet the highest security standards and compliance guardrails while maintaining high availability.

What We Look For

Required: Candidates must be eligible for a Top Secret / Sensitive Compartmented Information (TS/SCI) security clearance.

Nice to have: Possession of a current polygraph (Counterintelligence or Full Scope) is highly desired and considered a significant plus.

Technical Breadth: BS/MS/PhD in Computer Science or a related field.

Experience: Staff : 9+ years of professional software development experience.

Systems Expertise: Deep understanding of Distributed Systems, concurrency, and performance optimization.

Language Proficiency: Strong production-level experience in at least one of: Java, Scala, Go, C++ or similar.

Cloud Experience: Experience building and deploying large-scale SaaS or cloud-native applications.

Pay Range Transparency

Databricks is committed to fair and equitable compensation practices. The pay range(s) for this role is listed below and represents the expected salary range for non-commissionable roles or on-target earnings for commissionable roles. Actual compensation packages are based on several factors that are unique to each candidate, including but not limited to job-related skills, depth of experience, relevant certifications and training, and specific work location. Based on the factors above, Databricks anticipates utilizing the full width of the range. The total compensation package for this position may also include eligibility for annual performance bonus, equity, and the benefits listed above. For more information regarding which range your location is in visit our page here.

Local Pay Range

$180,500—$248,150 USD

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

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.

Compensation

This Government & Nonprofit role pays $181k-$248k/yr. Within typical range for government & nonprofit roles in United States.

Questions about this role

Click "Apply with AI Applyd" above and you are done. Your resume is rewritten for this advert, the screening questions are answered, and it is submitted on Databricks's own hiring system. No retyping your history, no fourteen tabs, no evening lost.

Compensation for Government & Nonprofit roles in United States varies widely by seniority, employer size, and remote vs onsite arrangement. Check the salary range on this listing when published, or browse our Government & Nonprofit hub for United States medians across recent openings.

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