Superhuman offers a dynamic hybrid working model for this role. This flexible approach gives team members the best of both worlds: plenty of focus time along with in-person collaboration that helps foster trust, innovation, and a strong team culture. About Superhuman Grammarly is now part of Superhuman, the AI productivity platform on a mission to unlock the superhuman potential in everyone. The Superhuman suite of apps and agents brings AI wherever people work, integrating with over 1 million applications and websites. The company's products include Grammarly's writing assistance, Superhuman Docs's collaborative workspaces, Mail's inbox management, and Go, the proactive AI assistant that understands context and delivers help automatically. Founded in 2009, Superhuman empowers over 40 million people, 50,000 organizations, and 3,000 educational institutions worldwide to eliminate busywork and focus on what matters. Learn more at superhuman.com and about our values here.
The Opportunity:
Superhuman Docs' tables started as a custom, in-memory database designed to run in a browser tab. Our customers have pushed it beyond its limits, and as a result we're making big changes to our storage and calc engine. This team owns the full vertical: the formula language and its grammar, the AST parser, the execution planner that determines what to compute and when, execution optimization that keeps millions of concurrent user applications responsive, and the performance infrastructure that makes it all work under real-world load. You'll lead the small team building it while staying hands-on in the code yourself. The hard part is building a database building block for non-technical users who are converting their rituals & processes into production software. This means we have to deliver a product that's cost-sensitive, enterprise-grade, and never predictably accessed. What You'll OwnInvalidation, execution, and query planning for the calc engine Architectural decisions to scale the infrastructure as usage and document complexity grow Technical direction alongside a small team (~5 engineers) — reviewing code and designs, giving fast feedback, and still writing code yourself Performance: profiling, benchmarking, and closing the gap between "correct" and "fast" at scale Coordination with the teams building on top of the calc engine
What We're Looking For:
You've worked on the internals of a database system — query optimization, query planning, SQL execution, storage-engine internals (B-Trees, LSM Trees, etc.), or HTAP (hybrid transactional/analytical processing) systems. You don't need to have built one from scratch; owning a piece of one (a query or storage engine inside a larger system) counts.2-3+ years as an EM or tech lead managing a small team (~5), staying close to the code. This is a player-coach role — roughly half management, half hands-on — not a step away from engineering. You want to build a real product, not just go deep on infrastructure for its own sake.
Nice-to-have:
TypeScript, SQLite, Operational Transforms, WebSockets, OPFS, and React. None of these are gates — strong engineers pick them up fast.
What Success Looks Like:
Six months in, you're not just leading the team — you're one of the people reviewing the hardest query-planning and execution tradeoffs, and the team has someone to turn to who's actually worked inside a database before.
Compensation and Benefits:- Superhuman offers all team members competitive pay along with a benefits package encompassing the following and more: Excellent health care (including a wide range of medical, dental, vision, mental health, and fertility benefits)
- Disability and life insurance options 401(k) and RRSP matching
- Paid parental leave20 days of paid time off per year, 12 days of paid holidays per year, two floating holidays per year, and flexible sick time
- Generous stipends (including those for caregiving, pet care, wellness, your home office, and more)
- Annual professional development budget and opportunities
Superhuman takes a market-based approach to compensation, so base pay may vary by location. Our US locations are categorized into two compensation zones based on proximity to our hub locations.
Base pay may vary considerably depending on job-related knowledge, skills, and experience. The expected salary ranges for this position are outlined by compensation zone and may be modified in the future.
We Encourage You to ApplyAt Superhuman, we value our differences, and we encourage all to apply—especially those whose identities are traditionally underrepresented in tech organizations. We do not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, color, gender expression or identity, sexual orientation, ancestry, national origin, citizenship, age, marital status, veteran status, disability status, political belief, or any other characteristic protected by law. Superhuman is an equal opportunity employer and a participant in the US federal E-Verify program (US). We also abide by the Employment Equity Act (Canada).Compensation
Range: $240K - $320KLocationHub - San Francisco
Employment TypeFull time
Location TypeHybridDepartmentEngineering, Product, Design, and Marketing
EngineeringCompensationZone 1Base Pay: $240K – $320K
