With the continued impact of COVID-19 and social distancing measures, Kensho fully supports remote interviewing and onboarding procedures.

At Kensho, we hire talented people and give them the autonomy, support, and resources needed to build cutting-edge technology and products for our parent company, S&P Global. As a result, we produce technology that solves the challenges of one of the world’s largest, most successful financial institutions. 

As a software engineer on our Query Infrastructure team, you will be responsible for building a highly advanced cross-database querying platform capable of finding and providing data from a wide variety of sources, from SQL databases to S3 buckets.

This platform underpins Kensho’s advanced machine learning and analytics applications, so you will apply cutting-edge compiler, database, and distributed systems ideas to empower your teammates and collaborate on solving difficult real-world data problems. Because we firmly believe in giving back to the community, you will also contribute to the many open-source projects that Kensho’s teams rely on.

Are you looking to make impactful, scalable contributions that transform the way we think about data? If so, we would love to help you excel here at Kensho. We take pride in our tightly-knit, team-based community that provides our Kenshins with a collaborative, supportive environment to bring transparency to the biggest challenges in data.

What We're Working On

• Open-source, optimizing GraphQL-to-database-queries compiler (blog post)
• Topological query scheduler for the OrientDB open-source graph database (pull request)
• Cross-database query cost estimation, query planning, and automatic query pagination

What You'll Do

• You will contribute to our open-source, optimizing GraphQL compiler
• You will build systems that optimize query execution across a variety of SQL, graph, time-series, and blob-storage databases
• You will design flexible caching, load-balancing, and query execution infrastructure with an eye toward scalability and performance
• You will help build the data foundation for Kensho’s newest machine learning and analytics products

Technologies You’ll Use

• Python
• Kubernetes
• PostgreSQL
• Redis
• GraphQL
• gRPC

Required Skills, Knowledge & Experience

• You have 2+ years of experience with complex software infrastructure, such as distributed systems, large databases, or compilers
• You are proficient and comfortable with at least one programming language
• You are well-versed in algorithms, data structures, and systems design
• You have the desire to build a strong, collaborative engineering culture as a code reviewer, mentor, and teammate
• You have impeccable attention to detail and take pride in building cutting-edge query infrastructure

How to Really Get Our Attention

• You have been a major contributor on the backend or infrastructure teams of a top company
• You have open-source project contributions showing innovation and initiative
• You have experience or awards from math or programming olympiads (e.g. IMO or IOI)
• You have relevant research or publications

Benefits & Perks

• At Kensho, we pride ourselves on providing top-of-market benefits, including:
• Medical, Dental, and Vision insurance - 100% company paid premiums
• Unlimited Paid Time Off
• 18 weeks of 100% paid Parental Leave (paternity and maternity)
• 401(k) plan with 6% employer matching
• Generous company matching on donations to non-profit charities
• Up to $20,000 tuition assistance toward degree programs, plus up to $4,000/year for ongoing professional education such as industry conferences
• Plentiful snacks, drinks, and regularly catered lunches
• Dog-friendly office (CAM office)
• In-office gyms and showers (CAM, DC) or Equinox membership (LA, NYC)
• Stipend towards commuter or gym reimbursement
• Bike sharing program memberships
• Compassion leave and elder care leave
• Mentoring and additional learning opportunities
• Opportunity to expand professional network and participate in conferences and events

About Kensho

Kensho uses machine learning, artificial intelligence, natural language processing and data visualization techniques to solve some of the hardest analytical problems and create breakthrough financial intelligence solutions for our parent company, S&P Global. 

Kensho was founded in 2013 by Harvard & MIT alums and was acquired by S&P Global in 2018. Kensho continues to operate as a startup in order to maintain our distinct, independent brand and to promote our breakthrough, innovative culture. Our team of Kenshins enjoy a dynamic and collaborative work environment that runs autonomously from S&P, while leveraging the unparalleled breadth and depth of data and resources available as part of S&P Global. 

As Kenshins, we pride ourselves on maintaining an innovative culture that depends on diversity and inclusion. We are an equal opportunity employer that welcomes future Kenshins with all experiences and perspectives. Kensho is headquartered in Cambridge, MA, with offices in New York City, Washington D.C. and Los Angeles. 

All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, or national origin.