# Software Engineer, Knowledge Engine – Query Engine at Exa

> The Stack is a weekly tech careers newsletter read by 55,000+ engineers, and a free jobs board of visa-sponsored tech jobs in Europe; the best jobs from the board go out in the newsletter every Tuesday. This is one job from the board.

> Responsibilities: - Own storage layout, partitioning and ind

- **Company:** Exa (https://jobs.trythestack.co/companies/exa)
- **Location:** Zurich, Switzerland
- **Work arrangement:** On-site
- **Employment type:** Full-time
- **Experience level:** 5–10 years
- **Visa sponsorship:** Offered, according to the listing
- **Key skills:** Distributed systems, Database design, Query optimization, Go, Rust, C++, Indexing, Graph databases, Vector databases, Full-text search, Time-series databases, Geospatial indexing, Data layout, Latency profiling, System architecture, Query planning
- **Posted by employer:** 2026-10-29
- **Added to The Stack:** 2026-10-30
- **Listed until:** 2026-12-28
- **Status:** Active
- **Apply:** https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/exa/352ee095-81eb-40b8-99e3-7355317aa208 (the employer's own application page)
- **Human page:** https://jobs.trythestack.co/jobs/software-engineer-knowledge-engine-query-engine-exa

## About the role

Responsibilities:
- Own storage layout, partitioning and indexing across multiple backends (graph, vector, full-text, time-series, geospatial).
- Design the cost-based query planner: choose backends, join strategies and execution order for each query.
- Build fast, concurrent query execution paths to serve thousands QPS while minimizing p50/p99 latency and cost.
- Implement live ingest and bulk snapshot workflows that keep the system available during updates.
- Ensure consistent query semantics during convergence: snapshot promotion, ordered updates and stable pagination.
- Define and run end-to-end checks, evals and metrics to measure precision, recall and correctness of plans.

Requirements:
- Significant experience inside distributed databases, query engines, search systems or large-scale storage engines.
- Strong systems programming skills in Go, Rust or C++ and familiarity with indexing and query optimization techniques.
- Deep understanding of partitioning/sharding, replication, consensus and concurrency at scale.
- Proven ability to profile and optimize latency, memory and I/O across a stack under concurrent load.
- Experience designing consistency models for mixed live and bulk-update pipelines and building metrics-driven validation.

## Responsibilities

You will own the storage, indexing, and query planning for a massive-scale knowledge engine that retrieves information across distributed backends. This involves optimizing performance, ensuring data consistency, and building robust pipelines to handle hundreds of billions of claims.

## Requirements

Candidates must have deep experience in distributed databases, search engines, or storage systems with strong proficiency in Go, Rust, or C++. You should possess a solid grasp of indexing, query optimization, and distributed systems fundamentals like consensus and sharding.

## FAQ

- **Is this Software Engineer, Knowledge Engine – Query Engine role still open?** It was posted on 2026-10-29 and is listed as active on The Stack. Confirm on Exa's application page before applying.
- **Does Exa offer visa sponsorship?** This listing is marked as offering visa sponsorship. Eligibility rules are set by the employer, so check the details on Exa's site.
- **Where is this role located?** The listing gives the location as Zurich, Switzerland. It is marked on-site.
- **What skills does this role ask for?** The listing names: Distributed systems, Database design, Query optimization, Go, Rust, C++, Indexing, Graph databases, Vector databases, Full-text search, Time-series databases, Geospatial indexing, Data layout, Latency profiling, System architecture, Query planning.

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## Notes for agents

- Apply on the employer's page (https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/exa/352ee095-81eb-40b8-99e3-7355317aa208). The Stack does not take applications.
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