Senior Software Engineer - Cloud Infrastructure
📍 Job Overview
- Job Title: Senior Software Engineer - Cloud Infrastructure
- Company: ClickHouse
- Location: Netherlands (remote)
- Job Type: Full-time
- Category: DevOps Engineer, System Administrator, Cloud Engineer
- Date Posted: 2025-08-08
- Experience Level: Mid-Senior level
🚀 Role Summary
- Lead the design, deployment, and maintenance of ClickHouse's cloud infrastructure, ensuring scalability, reliability, and high availability.
- Collaborate with the ClickHouse core database development team and security team to produce the Software as a Service (SaaS) offering.
- Improve the performance, cost-efficiency, and security of ClickHouse's infrastructure.
- Work on routing and traffic components to enhance the reliability and scalability of ClickHouse's cloud service.
- 📝 Enhancement Note: This role requires a strong background in cloud infrastructure, distributed systems, and software development, with a focus on cloud-native platforms and multi-cloud environments.
💻 Primary Responsibilities
- 🌐 Infrastructure Design & Deployment: Architect and build a robust, scalable, and highly available distributed infrastructure using cloud-native technologies.
- 🤝 Cross-Team Collaboration: Work closely with the ClickHouse core database development team and security team to integrate infrastructure components and ensure a secure and reliable SaaS offering.
- 🛡️ Security & Compliance: Design and build security components such as firewalls, PKI, and certificate infrastructure, and implement zero-trust network principles to protect ClickHouse's cloud environment.
- 📈 Performance Optimization: Continuously monitor and optimize the performance and cost-efficiency of ClickHouse's infrastructure, ensuring it meets the demands of a rapidly growing user base.
- 🛠️ Troubleshooting & Maintenance: Diagnose and resolve infrastructure-related issues, and implement preventative measures to minimize downtime and ensure high availability.
- 📊 Traffic Management: Work on routing and traffic components to improve the reliability and scalability of ClickHouse's cloud service, ensuring minimal latency and maximum throughput.
- 📝 Enhancement Note: This role requires a strong focus on system design, problem-solving, and a deep understanding of distributed systems, cloud technologies, and security principles.
🎓 Skills & Qualifications
Education: A bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or a related field. Relevant experience may be considered in lieu of a degree.
Experience: 5+ years of relevant software development experience building and operating scalable, fault-tolerant, distributed systems.
Required Skills:
- Proficient in one or more object-oriented programming languages, such as Go, C/C++, or Java.
- Experience with cloud technologies such as AWS, Azure, or GCP, including infrastructure-as-code (IaC) tools such as Terraform or CloudFormation.
- Experience developing cloud infrastructure services, preferably with Kubernetes.
- Experience developing cloud-native edge or service mesh services, preferably with envoy and Istio.
- Strong leadership and project management skills, with experience leading and shipping large scope technical projects in collaboration with multiple experienced engineers.
- Excellent communication skills and the ability to work well within a global team.
Preferred Skills:
- Experience with ClickHouse or other open-source database systems.
- Familiarity with SQL and data warehousing concepts.
- Knowledge of cloud security best practices, including encryption, access controls, and compliance standards like SOC2 and GDPR.
- Experience with network topologies, protocols, and security principles, such as VPNs, firewalls, and load balancers.
📝 Enhancement Note: This role requires a strong background in cloud infrastructure, distributed systems, and software development, with a focus on cloud-native platforms and multi-cloud environments. Experience with open-source database systems and data warehousing concepts is a plus.
📊 Web Portfolio & Project Requirements
Portfolio Essentials:
- A portfolio showcasing your experience in designing, deploying, and maintaining scalable, fault-tolerant distributed systems using cloud-native technologies.
- Examples of your work on cloud infrastructure services, preferably with Kubernetes, and cloud-native edge or service mesh services, preferably with envoy and Istio.
- Case studies demonstrating your ability to improve the performance, cost-efficiency, and security of cloud infrastructure.
Technical Documentation:
- Detailed documentation of your cloud infrastructure projects, including system design, architecture decisions, and trade-offs.
- Examples of your work on security components, such as firewalls, PKI, and certificate infrastructure, and your approach to implementing zero-trust network principles.
- Performance metrics and optimization techniques used in your cloud infrastructure projects.
📝 Enhancement Note: This role requires a strong focus on system design, problem-solving, and a deep understanding of distributed systems, cloud technologies, and security principles. Your portfolio should demonstrate your ability to lead and collaborate with multiple experienced engineers on large scope technical projects.
💵 Compensation & Benefits
Salary Range: €100,000 - €150,000 per year (gross), depending on experience and location. This estimate is based on market research for senior cloud infrastructure engineer roles in the Netherlands and ClickHouse's compensation philosophy.
Benefits:
- Flexible work environment - ClickHouse is a globally distributed company and remote-friendly, operating in 20 countries.
- Healthcare - Employer contributions towards your healthcare.
- Equity in the company - Every new team member who joins ClickHouse receives stock options.
- Time off - Flexible time off in the US, generous entitlement in other countries.
- A $500 home office setup if you're a remote employee.
- Global Gatherings - Opportunities to engage with colleagues at company-wide offsites.
Working Hours: Full-time, with flexible working hours and a focus on results and delivery.
📝 Enhancement Note: ClickHouse offers a competitive salary range and comprehensive benefits package for senior cloud infrastructure engineer roles. The salary range provided is an estimate based on market research and ClickHouse's compensation philosophy.
🎯 Team & Company Context
🏢 Company Culture
Industry: ClickHouse operates in the database technology industry, providing an open-source column-oriented database system driven by the vision of becoming the fastest OLAP database globally.
Company Size: ClickHouse is a mid-sized company with a global presence, operating in 20 countries and serving a growing user base, including prominent enterprises such as Lyft, Sony, IBM, GitLab, Twilio, and HubSpot.
Founded: 2009, with a strong commitment to open-source technology and a customer-centric approach.
Team Structure:
- The Cloud Infrastructure Engineering team builds and manages the foundational blocks of ClickHouse Cloud data plane end-to-end, including compute, networking, security, and a multi-cloud, multi-region architecture.
- The team collaborates closely with the ClickHouse core database development team and security team to ensure a reliable, scalable, and secure managed ClickHouse experience for ClickHouse Cloud customers.
Development Methodology:
- ClickHouse follows Agile development methodologies, with a focus on continuous integration, continuous deployment, and iterative improvement.
- The company emphasizes collaboration, code review, and testing practices to ensure high-quality software and infrastructure.
Company Website: ClickHouse
📝 Enhancement Note: ClickHouse's culture values innovation, collaboration, and a strong commitment to open-source technology. The company's team structure and development methodologies emphasize cross-functional collaboration and continuous improvement.
📈 Career & Growth Analysis
Web Technology Career Level: Senior Cloud Infrastructure Engineer - Leads the design, deployment, and maintenance of cloud infrastructure, ensuring scalability, reliability, and high availability. Collaborates with cross-functional teams to integrate infrastructure components and ensure a secure and reliable SaaS offering.
Reporting Structure: Reports directly to the Head of Cloud Infrastructure Engineering or a similar role, depending on the organization's structure.
Technical Impact: Senior Cloud Infrastructure Engineers have a significant impact on ClickHouse's cloud environment, ensuring the scalability, reliability, and security of the company's SaaS offering. Their work directly influences the user experience and performance of ClickHouse's cloud services.
Growth Opportunities:
- Technical Leadership: As ClickHouse continues to grow, there are opportunities for senior cloud infrastructure engineers to take on technical leadership roles, mentoring junior engineers, and driving the company's cloud strategy.
- Architecture & Design: Senior cloud infrastructure engineers can specialize in architecture and design, focusing on system design, network topologies, and security principles.
- Cloud Security: With the increasing importance of cloud security, there are opportunities for senior cloud infrastructure engineers to specialize in this area, focusing on encryption, access controls, and compliance standards.
📝 Enhancement Note: ClickHouse's growth and expanding user base present numerous opportunities for senior cloud infrastructure engineers to take on technical leadership roles, specialize in architecture and design, or focus on cloud security.
🌐 Work Environment
Office Type: Remote-friendly, with a globally distributed team operating in 20 countries.
Office Location(s): ClickHouse's headquarters are in Moscow, Russia, but the company has a strong global presence, with team members working remotely from various locations worldwide.
Workspace Context:
- 🌐 Remote Collaboration: ClickHouse's remote-friendly work environment emphasizes effective communication, collaboration, and project management tools to facilitate global teamwork.
- 🛠️ Tooling & Infrastructure: ClickHouse provides remote employees with a $500 home office setup and access to the necessary tools and infrastructure to perform their jobs effectively.
- 🌱 Global Team Culture: ClickHouse's global team fosters a diverse and inclusive work environment, with a strong emphasis on collaboration, knowledge sharing, and continuous learning.
Work Schedule: Flexible working hours, with a focus on results and delivery. ClickHouse's global presence requires occasional adjustments to working hours to accommodate team members in different time zones.
📝 Enhancement Note: ClickHouse's remote-friendly work environment and global team culture provide a unique opportunity for senior cloud infrastructure engineers to work with a diverse and talented team, driving the company's cloud strategy and ensuring the scalability, reliability, and security of ClickHouse's SaaS offering.
📄 Application & Technical Interview Process
Interview Process:
- Phone Screen: A brief call to discuss your experience, motivation, and cultural fit with ClickHouse.
- Technical Deep Dive: A detailed technical conversation focused on your experience with cloud infrastructure, distributed systems, and software development. This may include system design exercises, coding challenges, and architecture discussions.
- Team Fit: A conversation with the Cloud Infrastructure Engineering team to assess your collaboration skills, cultural fit, and alignment with ClickHouse's values and mission.
- Final Review: A meeting with the Head of Cloud Infrastructure Engineering or a similar role to discuss your fit for the position and next steps.
Portfolio Review Tips:
- Highlight your experience in designing, deploying, and maintaining scalable, fault-tolerant distributed systems using cloud-native technologies.
- Showcase your work on cloud infrastructure services, preferably with Kubernetes, and cloud-native edge or service mesh services, preferably with envoy and Istio.
- Demonstrate your ability to improve the performance, cost-efficiency, and security of cloud infrastructure through case studies and technical documentation.
Technical Challenge Preparation:
- Brush up on your knowledge of cloud infrastructure, distributed systems, and software development, with a focus on cloud-native platforms and multi-cloud environments.
- Familiarize yourself with ClickHouse's open-source column-oriented database system and its architecture.
- Prepare for system design exercises, coding challenges, and architecture discussions, focusing on your problem-solving skills and ability to work within a global team.
📝 Enhancement Note: ClickHouse's interview process emphasizes technical depth, cultural fit, and alignment with the company's values and mission. Senior cloud infrastructure engineer candidates should be prepared to discuss their experience with cloud infrastructure, distributed systems, and software development in detail and demonstrate their ability to work effectively within a global team.
🛠 Technology Stack & Web Infrastructure
Cloud Infrastructure Technologies:
- AWS: Amazon Web Services, including EC2, RDS, and S3.
- Azure: Microsoft Azure, including Virtual Machines, Azure SQL Database, and Azure Storage.
- GCP: Google Cloud Platform, including Compute Engine, Cloud SQL, and Cloud Storage.
- Kubernetes: Container orchestration platform for automating application deployment, scaling, and management.
- Terraform: Infrastructure as Code (IaC) software tool for building, changing, and versioning infrastructure safely and efficiently.
- CloudFormation: Infrastructure as Code (IaC) service provided by AWS for defining and provisioning AWS resources.
Cloud-Native Technologies:
- Envoy: Cloud-native edge and service mesh technology for managing network traffic and load balancing.
- Istio: Service mesh platform for managing and securing microservices architectures.
- Prometheus: Open-source monitoring and alerting toolkit for cloud-native applications.
Security Technologies:
- PKI: Public Key Infrastructure for managing and distributing digital certificates and public-key cryptography.
- Zero Trust Network: Security model that assumes all users, devices, and applications are potential threats and requires continuous verification and monitoring.
📝 Enhancement Note: ClickHouse's cloud infrastructure and web infrastructure technologies emphasize cloud-native platforms, multi-cloud environments, and security best practices. Senior cloud infrastructure engineer candidates should have experience with these technologies and be prepared to discuss their application in a production environment.
👥 Team Culture & Values
Web Development Values:
- Innovation: ClickHouse values innovation and encourages its team members to explore new technologies, tools, and methodologies to improve the company's cloud infrastructure and SaaS offering.
- Collaboration: ClickHouse emphasizes cross-functional collaboration and knowledge sharing, fostering a culture of learning and continuous improvement.
- Customer Focus: ClickHouse prioritizes the needs of its users and strives to provide a reliable, scalable, and secure cloud environment that meets the demands of a growing user base.
- Performance Optimization: ClickHouse is committed to improving the performance, cost-efficiency, and security of its cloud infrastructure, ensuring it meets the needs of its users and the company's business objectives.
Collaboration Style:
- 🌐 Global Teamwork: ClickHouse's global team fosters a culture of effective communication, collaboration, and project management, with a strong emphasis on remote-friendly tools and processes.
- 🛠️ Code Review & Knowledge Sharing: ClickHouse values code review and knowledge sharing, with a focus on continuous learning and improvement.
- 🌱 Continuous Learning: ClickHouse encourages its team members to stay up-to-date with the latest cloud infrastructure technologies, tools, and best practices.
📝 Enhancement Note: ClickHouse's culture values innovation, collaboration, and a strong commitment to open-source technology. The company's team structure and development methodologies emphasize cross-functional collaboration and continuous improvement.
⚡ Challenges & Growth Opportunities
Technical Challenges:
- 🌐 Multi-Cloud Environment: Designing, deploying, and maintaining a multi-cloud, multi-region architecture that ensures scalability, reliability, and high availability.
- 🛡 Security & Compliance: Implementing and managing security components such as firewalls, PKI, and certificate infrastructure, and ensuring compliance with industry standards like SOC2 and GDPR.
- 📈 Performance Optimization: Continuously monitoring and optimizing the performance and cost-efficiency of ClickHouse's cloud infrastructure, ensuring it meets the demands of a rapidly growing user base.
- 🌐 Network Topologies: Designing and managing complex network topologies, protocols, and traffic management components to improve the reliability and scalability of ClickHouse's cloud service.
Learning & Development Opportunities:
- 🌐 Cloud Infrastructure Specialization: Deepen your expertise in cloud infrastructure, distributed systems, and software development, with a focus on cloud-native platforms and multi-cloud environments.
- 🛡 Security & Compliance: Specialize in cloud security and compliance, focusing on encryption, access controls, and industry standards like SOC2 and GDPR.
- 🌱 Technical Leadership: Develop your leadership skills and take on technical leadership roles within ClickHouse, mentoring junior engineers and driving the company's cloud strategy.
📝 Enhancement Note: ClickHouse's growth and expanding user base present numerous opportunities for senior cloud infrastructure engineers to take on technical leadership roles, specialize in architecture and design, or focus on cloud security. The company's commitment to innovation, collaboration, and continuous learning provides a unique environment for professional growth and development.
💡 Interview Preparation
Technical Questions:
- 🌐 Cloud Infrastructure: Describe your experience with cloud infrastructure, distributed systems, and software development. Discuss your approach to designing, deploying, and maintaining scalable, fault-tolerant distributed systems using cloud-native technologies.
- 🛡 Security & Compliance: Explain your understanding of cloud security principles, industry standards like SOC2 and GDPR, and your approach to implementing and managing security components such as firewalls, PKI, and certificate infrastructure.
- 📈 Performance Optimization: Discuss your experience with performance optimization, cost-efficiency, and monitoring cloud infrastructure. Describe your approach to continuously improving the performance and cost-efficiency of cloud services.
- 🌐 Network Topologies: Explain your understanding of network topologies, protocols, and traffic management components. Describe your experience designing and managing complex network topologies to improve the reliability and scalability of cloud services.
Company & Culture Questions:
- 🌐 Global Teamwork: Describe your experience working with global teams and your approach to effective communication, collaboration, and project management in a remote-friendly environment.
- 🛠️ Code Review & Knowledge Sharing: Explain your approach to code review, knowledge sharing, and continuous learning. Discuss your experience with code review practices and their impact on the quality and security of cloud infrastructure.
- 🌱 Technical Leadership: Describe your experience with technical leadership roles and your approach to mentoring junior engineers, driving cloud strategy, and fostering a culture of innovation and collaboration.
Portfolio Presentation Strategy:
- 🌐 Cloud Infrastructure: Highlight your experience in designing, deploying, and maintaining scalable, fault-tolerant distributed systems using cloud-native technologies. Showcase your work on cloud infrastructure services, preferably with Kubernetes, and cloud-native edge or service mesh services, preferably with envoy and Istio.
- 🛡 Security & Compliance: Demonstrate your understanding of cloud security principles and industry standards like SOC2 and GDPR. Showcase your work on security components, such as firewalls, PKI, and certificate infrastructure, and your approach to implementing zero-trust network principles.
- 📈 Performance Optimization: Highlight your experience with performance optimization, cost-efficiency, and monitoring cloud infrastructure. Showcase your work on improving the performance and cost-efficiency of cloud services through case studies and technical documentation.
📝 Enhancement Note: ClickHouse's interview process emphasizes technical depth, cultural fit, and alignment with the company's values and mission. Senior cloud infrastructure engineer candidates should be prepared to discuss their experience with cloud infrastructure, distributed systems, and software development in detail and demonstrate their ability to work effectively within a global team.
📌 Application Steps
To apply for this senior cloud infrastructure engineer position at ClickHouse:
- 📝 Tailor Your Resume: Highlight your experience with cloud infrastructure, distributed systems, and software development, with a focus on cloud-native platforms and multi-cloud environments. Include relevant keywords and phrases to optimize your resume for ClickHouse's Applicant Tracking System (ATS).
- 📝 Prepare Your Portfolio: Showcase your experience in designing, deploying, and maintaining scalable, fault-tolerant distributed systems using cloud-native technologies. Include case studies and technical documentation demonstrating your ability to improve the performance, cost-efficiency, and security of cloud infrastructure.
- 📝 Research ClickHouse: Familiarize yourself with ClickHouse's open-source column-oriented database system, its architecture, and the company's mission and values. Prepare thoughtful questions to ask during your interviews, demonstrating your interest in ClickHouse's technology and culture.
- 📝 Practice Technical Interviews: Brush up on your knowledge of cloud infrastructure, distributed systems, and software development, with a focus on cloud-native platforms and multi-cloud environments. Prepare for system design exercises, coding challenges, and architecture discussions, focusing on your problem-solving skills and ability to work within a global team.
📝 Enhancement Note: ClickHouse's application process emphasizes technical depth, cultural fit, and alignment with the company's values and mission. Senior cloud infrastructure engineer candidates should be prepared to discuss their experience with cloud infrastructure, distributed systems, and software development in detail and demonstrate their ability to work effectively within a global team.
Application Requirements
Candidates should have 5+ years of experience in building scalable, fault-tolerant distributed systems and proficiency in programming languages such as Go, C/C++, or Java. Experience with cloud technologies and security best practices is also required.