Design, build, and operate Dropbox’s large-scale distributed metadata databases. Responsibilities include developing strongly consistent, low-latency systems; optimizing replication, consensus, caching, availability, and durability; participating in on-call operations; collaborating on technical roadmaps; conducting design reviews and postmortems; and writing performance-critical Go and Rust code.
Role Description
As a Software Engineer on the Metadata team, you’ll build and operate the large-scale distributed databases that every Dropbox service depends on. Metadata systems are mission-critical, in the live path for all user operations and must meet stringent requirements for latency, durability, and transactional consistency.
You’ll design and evolve the core infrastructure that manages Dropbox’s databases at scale, enabling fast, reliable access to data for millions of users and hundreds of internal services. This work spans distributed systems, replication, caching, and transactional database systems.
You’ll collaborate closely with engineers across Infrastructure and Product teams to ensure the metadata layer meets business needs and continues to scale with Dropbox’s growth. This is an opportunity to leverage your expertise in distributed systems and grow into broader technical leadership.
Our Engineering Career Framework is viewable by anyone outside the company and describes what’s expected for our engineers at each of our career levels. Check out our blog post on this topic and more here.
Responsibilities- Design and maintain distributed database systems providing low-latency, strongly consistent data access
- Implement and optimize replication, consensus, and caching mechanisms to meet availability and performance goals
- Operate production systems, including participating in the on-call rotation, ensuring high availability and data durability
- Collaborate with infrastructure and product teams to assess current and future use cases and requirements, supporting the development of a mid- to long-term roadmap that reflects these needs
- Contribute to system design reviews, postmortems, and reliability improvements
- Write high-quality, efficient code in Go and Rust for performance-critical systems
On-call work may be necessary occasionally to help address bugs, outages, or other operational issues, with the goal of maintaining a stable and high-quality experience for our customers.
Requirements- BS, MS, or PhD in Computer Science or related technical field involving coding (e.g., physics or mathematics), or equivalent technical experience
- 5+ years of professional software development experience
- Experience designing and implementing software using distributed systems fundamentals: replication, consistency, partitioning, and fault tolerance
- Experience building databases, storage systems, or large scale data infrastructure
- Proficient in programming and debugging across a range of languages such as Python, Go, Rust, C/C++, or Java
- Familiarity with consensus and coordination systems (e.g. Raft, Paxos, ZooKeeper, etc)
- Strong debugging and performance analysis skills
- Familiarity with Semaphores and Mutexes
- Experience building distributed databases or storage systems
- Practical experience with and deep understanding of data structures used in storage systems (e.g. LSM trees, B-trees, Hash Indexes)
Durable Skills
AI fluency means using these tools to amplify human judgment, not replace it. We believe people with these skills will thrive as work and technology continue to evolve:
- Awareness: Understand yourself and others.
- Judgment: Evaluate information and make decisions in complex situations.
- Adaptability: Learn, adjust, and stay effective through change.
- Connection: Communicate, collaborate, and build trust.
To learn more about why these skills matter and what the data shows about thriving through change, read this blog post from our Chief People Officer, Melanie Rosenwasser.
CompensationPoland Pay Range
272 000 zł—368 000 zł PLN
Dropbox Dublin, Dublin, IRL Office
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Though remote is our primary way of working, meaningful in-person connection and collaboration is a critical part of Virtual First. Our Dublin Studio is a place for teams to come together to host meetings, off-sites, and build community.
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