Jobs / United States / Databricks
Staff Software Engineer, AI Search
Databricks · 🇺🇸 Mountain View, California
Sponsorship verdict
Sponsorship possible
One solid signal, not two — worth applying, and worth asking about sponsorship early.
- Employer is on a government sponsor recordThe US Department of Labor certified 445 H-1B/E-3 labor condition applications for this employer between Oct 2025 and Jun 2026 (latest Jun 2026) — the step every H-1B hire needs first. USCIS also records 78 H-1B approvals in FY2023. Source: LCA disclosure data (US Department of Labor (OFLC)).
- The posting doesn’t mention sponsorshipSilence isn’t a refusal — ask the recruiter before investing much time.
- No salary bar for this routeH-1B has no fixed salary bar: the employer must pay at least the prevailing wage for the role and area. Cap-subject employers enter a lottery weighted by wage level. Source: https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2025/12/29/2025-23853/weighted-selection-process-for-registrants-and-petitioners-seeking-to-file-cap-subject-h-1b, rules effective 2026-02-27.
- What Databricks paid sponsored hires in similar roles103 certified filings for “Software Engineer” (Software Developers) in CA: $158k–$191k, median $188k. Most were filed at wage level II (47%) — 2 lottery entries, ≈31% projected selection odds for cap-subject employers. Source: US Department of Labor LCA disclosure data (Oct 2025 – Jun 2026).
- Confirmed live todayWhen a source last listed this job as open.
US H-1B: cap-subject employers enter a lottery weighted by wage level — Level I gets 1 entry, Level IV gets 4 (DHS projected selection odds ≈15% at Level I to ≈61% at Level IV). Universities and non-profit research employers are cap-exempt. The $100,000 fee for new petitions from abroad is currently blocked by a court order (appeal pending).
A verdict summarises public evidence; it is not legal advice and never a guarantee — the employer and the immigration authority decide. Sign in to factor in where you can already work.
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Sponsor Radar — Databricks
The US Department of Labor certified 445 H-1B/E-3 labor condition applications for this employer between Oct 2025 and Jun 2026 (latest Jun 2026) — the step every H-1B hire needs first. USCIS also records 78 H-1B approvals in FY2023. Source: LCA disclosure data (US Department of Labor (OFLC)).
Past sponsorship or register membership never guarantees sponsorship for this vacancy or for you. Full Sponsor Radar for Databricks →
About the role
RDQ427R351 At Databricks, we are passionate about enabling data teams to solve the world's toughest problems — from making the next mode of transportation a reality to accelerating the development of medical breakthroughs. We do this by building and running the world's best data and AI infrastructure platform so our customers can use deep data insights to improve their business. Search plays a foundational role in this mission. Whether through keyword-based retrieval, semantic similarity via vector embeddings, or hybrid approaches that combine both, our Search technologies help customers find, discover, and understand information across massive, complex datasets. These capabilities power everything from Retrieval Augmented Generation (RAG), AI assistants, and recommendation systems to enterprise knowledge management, in-product search, and data exploration. As a Staff Engineer for Search, you’ll play a critical role in building and scaling our next-generation Search product — spanning Vector Search, Keyword Search, and Search Quality. You’ll drive the design and evolution of a highly-performant, cost-efficient, and developer-friendly Search stack that enables customers to build AI applications with accuracy, speed, and scale. Beyond hands-on contributions, you’ll help define the long-term vision, mentor senior engineers, collaborate across teams, and lead strategic efforts that expand the technical and business impact of Search at Databricks. The impact you will have: • Drive the architecture and evolution of the Search product, delivering scalable, low-latency, and high-quality retrieval across massive multimodal datasets. • Identify and solve challenges in indexing, storage, query execution, and ranking — blending innovations in vector search, keyword search, and hybrid retrieval techniques. • Partner with infrastructure, product, and research teams to shape APIs and developer experiences that make it easy to build production-grade, AI-powered and search-driven applications. • Lead end-to-end engineering efforts — from design to production rollout — ensuring high standards for performance, correctness, and reliability. • Make direct, high-impact contributions to core systems powering search, discovery, and recommendation experiences. • Champion software engineering excellence and mentor other engineers through design reviews, technical discussions, and collaborative development. • Contribute to long-term planning and influence Databricks’ technical direction in search, AI infrastructure, and data systems. What we look for: • 10+ years of experience building and operating large-scale distributed systems. • Deep expertise in Search technologies (vector, keyword, hybrid) and related domains such as indexing, ranking, retrieval infrastructure, and relevance optimization. • Familiarity with storage systems, recommendation engines, and database internals. • Strong foundation in algorithms, data structures, and system design as applied to large-scale retrieval and data systems. • Proven ability to deliver technically complex, high-impact initiatives that create customer or business value. • Experience leading architecture for performance-sensitive, large-scale systems. • Strong communication skills and ability to collaborate across teams in fast-moving environments. • Strategic and product-oriented mindset with the ability to align technical execution with long-term vision. • Passion for mentoring, growing engineers, and fostering technical excellence. Pay Range Transparency Databricks is committed to fair and equitable compensation practices. The pay range(s) for this role is listed below and represents the expected salary range for non-commissionable roles or on-target earnings for commissionable roles. Actual