MIT- Software Engineer Intern | Engine

About SingleStore

SingleStore is a cloud-native distributed SQL database built for real-time applications, analytics, and AI. Our platform unifies transactions and analytics so organizations can work with data quickly, reliably, and at scale.

About the Engine Team

The Database Engine team builds the core technology behind SingleStore, including query processing, optimization, storage, data ingestion, distributed systems, reliability, and performance.

As an intern, you will join a small, collaborative engineering team and contribute to meaningful projects that move from design to production through our regular release cycles. You will learn from experienced engineers while developing a strong foundation in systems and database engineering.

About the Role

As a Software Engineer Intern, you will design, implement, test, and improve production-quality software for the SingleStore database. You will work on well-scoped projects, participate in technical discussions and code reviews, and gain hands-on experience solving challenging problems in large-scale software systems.

Your work may include:

• Developing new features and improvements across the SingleStore database
• Working on SQL query processing and query optimization
• Improving storage engines, indexing, and data management
• Building reliable distributed-system components
• Working with concurrency, multithreading, and fault tolerance
• Investigating performance, scalability, and correctness issues
• Writing production code, tests, documentation, and technical designs
• Collaborating with engineers, product managers, and cross-functional partners

Depending on the team and project, you may also work with performance engineering, SIMD, LLVM-based code generation, search, vector search, cloud infrastructure, or AI data workloads.

Required Qualifications

• Currently pursuing a bachelor’s or master’s degree in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, Electrical Engineering, or a related field
• Strong foundation in data structures, algorithms, operating systems, and computer architecture
• Understanding of concurrency, multithreading, and server-based systems
• Programming experience in C++ or C
• Strong analytical and problem-solving skills
• Ability to communicate clearly and collaborate effectively with teammates
• Curiosity, ownership, and willingness to learn

Prior professional experience is not required. We welcome candidates who have developed their skills through coursework, research, projects, internships, or open-source contributions.

Preferred Qualifications

• Coursework or project experience in databases, distributed systems, operating systems, compilers, networking, or storage systems
• Experience debugging or optimizing systems-level software
• Familiarity with Linux or Unix-based systems
• Experience with performance profiling, memory management, or low-level programming
• Experience contributing to production software or substantial technical projects

What You’ll Gain

• Hands-on experience building software for a production distributed database
• Mentorship from experienced database and systems engineers
• Exposure to database internals, query processing, storage, reliability, and performance engineering
• Opportunities to collaborate across engineering and product teams
• A supportive environment focused on technical growth and meaningful ownership
• A deeper understanding of how software is designed, tested, released, and operated