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Selected role

Infrastructure Software Engineer Metadata

Dropbox

Live

$157k - $240k · Senior Full-time Posted 24 days ago 7 min read

PLEASE READ: Zones are based on your zip code. If you’re within 100 miles of a listed metro area (straight-line radius), you’re included in that Zone. For this role, we are hiring in Zones 2 and 3. Check your Zone here before applying.

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.

Many teams at Dropbox run Services with on-call rotations, which entails being available for calls during both core and non-core business hours. If a team has an on-call rotation, all engineers on the team are expected to participate in the rotation as part of their employment. Applicants are encouraged to ask for more details of the rotations to which the applicant is applying.

Requirements

5+ years of 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.

Proficiency in Go, Rust, C++ or similar systems languages.

Familiarity with consensus and coordination systems (e.g. Raft, Paxos, ZooKeeper, etcd).

Experience operating production services and participating in on-call rotations.

Strong debugging and performance analysis skills.

Excellent collaboration and communication abilities across teams.

Preferred Qualifications

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).

Experience operating database systems (e.g. MySQL, Postgres, Cassandra).

Experience with distributed caching, either custom built or operating open source options such as Memcached or Redis.

Experience improving reliability and performance in high-scale data systems.

Experience working with cross-functional teams to understand their current use cases, identify future needs and requirements, and incorporate them into the team’s roadmap.

Interest in deepening distributed systems expertise and expanding technical leadership.

Compensation

US Zone 1

This role is not available in Zone 1 US Zone 2 $177,500—$240,100 USD US Zone 3 $157,800—$213,400 USD

The range(s) listed above is the expected annual salary/OTE (On-Target Earnings) for this role, subject to change.

Please note, OTE are for sales roles only.

Salary/OTE is just one component of Dropbox’s total rewards package. All regular employees are also eligible for the corporate bonus program or a sales incentive (target included in OTE) as well as stock in the form of Restricted Stock Units (RSUs).

Dropbox takes a number of factors into account when determining individual starting pay, including job and level they are hired into, location/metropolitan area, skillset, and peer compensation. We target most new hire offers between the minimum up to the middle of the range.

Dropbox uses the zip code of an employee’s remote work location to determine which metropolitan pay range we use. Current US Zone locations are as follows:

US Zone 1: San Francisco metro, New York City metro, or Seattle metro
US Zone 2: California (outside SF metro), Colorado, Connecticut (outside NYC metro), Delaware, Illinois (Chicago metro), Indiana (Chicago metro), Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan (Chicago metro), New Hampshire, New Jersey (outside NYC metro), New York (outside NYC metro), Oregon, Pennsylvania (D.C. metro), Pennsylvania (outside NYC or DC metro), Texas (Austin metro) Virginia (DC metro), Washington (outside Seattle metro), Washington DC metro, West Virginia (DC metro), Wisconsin (Chicago metro)
US Zone 3: All other US locations

Company Description

Dropbox isn’t just a workplace—it’s a living lab for more enlightened ways of working. We're a global community of bold visionaries and resourceful doers who are shaping the future of Dropbox—and with it the future of work. Our Virtual First model combines the autonomy of a distributed workplace with the power of human connection, making space for both meaningful work and meaningful relationships. With our start-up mindset and enterprise-level opportunities, you can be who you are and grow into who you’re meant to be. Here, you can own your impact to make work more intuitive, joyful, and human—for you as a Dropboxer and for hundreds of millions of people worldwide. If you're ready to push boundaries—and yourself— Dropbox is ready for you.

Team Description

The Dropbox Engineering Team builds the technology that creates more enlightened ways of working for hundreds of millions of people. Every day, our platforms—including Dropbox Dash, Dropbox Sign, and our core sync engine—handle over a billion files for users worldwide, creating engineering challenges as great as the opportunity for impact. Our software engineering team uses a range of technologies to solve interesting problems, including Python, React, Node.js, JavaScript, MongoDB, PostgreSQL, and Android development. We think like a startup but build for an enterprise, exploring new possibilities that transform how people work. If you're excited about turning complex technical challenges into intuitive solutions at scale, join our Engineering team.

Areas of work include Machine Learning Engineers, Infrastructure Engineer, Product SWE Frontend and Backend, Mobile Software Engineers (iOS and Android), Engineering Manager, Data Engineer, Software Development Engineer in Test, Security Engineering, Site Reliability Engineer, Technical Program Managers, Network Engineer, Datacenter Engineer, Technical Supply Chain Manager and more.

Benefits

Dropbox is committed to investing in the holistic health and wellbeing of all Dropboxers and their families. Our benefits and perks programs include, but are not limited to:

Competitive medical, dental, and vision coverage

401(k) plan with a generous company match and immediate vesting

Flexible PTO/Paid Time Off, paid holidays, Volunteer Time Off, and more, allowing you time to unplug, unwind, and refresh

Income Protection Plans: Life and disability insurance

Business Travel Protection: Travel medical and accident insurance

Perks Allowance to be used on what matters most to you, whether that’s wellness, learning and development, food and groceries, and much more

Parental benefits including: Parental Leave, Child and Adult Care, Day Care FSA, Fertility Benefits, Adoption and Surrogacy Support, and Lactation Support

Access to over 10,000 global co-working spaces through Gable.to , making it easy to book flexible workspaces for collaboration or individual work

Quarterly Cell phone and internet allowance

Mental health and wellness benefits

Disability and neurodivergence support benefits

Additional benefit details are available upon request.

Dropbox supports responsible use of AI for preparation, but misrepresentation of skills or experience is not permitted. See our AI philosophy .

Dropbox is an equal opportunity employer. We are a welcoming place for everyone, and we do our best to make sure all people feel supported and connected at work. A big part of that effort is our support for members and allies of internal groups like Asians at Dropbox, BlackDropboxers, enABLE, TODOS (Latinx), Pridebox (LGBTQ), Vets at Dropbox, and Women at Dropbox.

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