Chief Database Architect

About Huawei Research and Development UK Limited

Founded in 1987, Huawei is a leading global provider of information and communications technology (ICT) infrastructure and smart devices. We have 207,000 employees and operate in over 170 countries and regions, serving more than three billion people around the world.

Our vision and mission is to bring digital to every person, home and organization for a fully connected, intelligent world. To this end, we will drive ubiquitous connectivity and promote equal access to networks; bring cloud and artificial intelligence to all four corners of the earth to provide superior computing power where you need it, when you need it; build digital platforms to help all industries and organizations become more agile, efficient, and dynamic; redefine user experience with AI, making it more personalized for people in all aspects of their life, whether they’re at home, in the office, or on the go.

This spirit of innovation has led Huawei to work in close partnership with leading academic institutions in the UK to develop and refine the latest technologies. With a shared commitment to innovation and progress, both parties have worked together to achieve common goals and establish a strong partnership. The partnership between UK and Huawei help to develop the technologies of the future that will transform the way we all communicate, work and live. 

For the past 30 years we have maintained an unwavering focus, rejecting shortcuts and easy opportunities that don't align with our core business. With a practical approach to everything we do, we concentrate our efforts and invest patiently to drive technological breakthroughs.

This strategic focus is a reflection of our core values:

• staying customer-centric,
• inspiring dedication,
• persevering,
• Growing by reflection

Huawei Research and Development UK Limited Overview

Huawei’s vision is to enhance the lives of humanity and improve the environment by building a fully connected and intelligent world. Huawei has the largest Research and Development organisation in the world, with 96,000+ employees in research centres around the globe, driving innovations in key ICT domains including enterprise databases. A cornerstone of our database innovation is GaussDB—Huawei’s self-developed enterprise-grade distributed database, designed to support multi-modal data management, cloud-native elasticity, AI-augmented optimization, and hardware-affinity computing. Trusted by global customers in finance, government, and enterprise sectors, GaussDB delivers high performance, reliability, and scalability for both transactional and analytical workloads, while leading the industry in integrating incremental AI capabilities and heterogeneous computing support.

In the UK, we already have design centres in Cambridge, Edinburgh, London and Ipswich, where our teams play a pivotal role in advancing GaussDB’s core technologies—including execution engine optimization, multi-modal data processing, and AI-native database innovations. We invite you to join our world-class team in Edinburgh, contributing to GaussDB’s evolution and driving your career forward at the forefront of database technology.

Job Summary

We are seeking a Chief Database Architect to join our database team which is focused on making significant progress in database construction. The successful candidate is expected to be an expert in research areas such as database theory, database system architecture, distributed databases, cloud native databases, execution engine architecture, and multi-modal databases. The candidate will also have a keen insight into technology trends and a strong passion for technological breakthroughs, and the ability to lead global teams in delivering innovative database solutions that redefine product competitiveness.
 

Key Responsibilities:

1. Lead end-to-end technology planning and breakthroughs in database system architecture, with a focus on execution engines (e.g., vectorized execution, SIMD acceleration, operator optimization, heterogeneous computing collaboration), multi-modal engines (e.g., structured/semi-structured/unstructured data fusion, AI-powered cross-modal semantic matching, unified storage & execution, AI-augmented incremental vector embedding updates), and AI-augmented core engines (e.g., LLM-assisted query plan generation & pruning, AI-driven adaptive execution plan optimization, self-tuning of performance parameters/indexes, intelligent root-cause diagnosis for query latency, AI-enhanced cardinality estimation). Identify core technical bottlenecks in execution engines, multi-modal processing, and AI-engine integration; lead cross-functional collaboration, technology acquisition, or open-source initiatives to address key challenges, fully embracing the "multi-modal" technology trend.
2. Drive innovation for heterogeneous-distributed (CPU+GPU+FPGA+DPU co-processing), cloud-native & elastic (Serverless deployment, on-demand scaling, pay-as-you-go resource scheduling) database systems, and hardware-affinity optimized architectures (e.g., CXL memory extension, storage-compute separation, NVMe-oF acceleration). Align technical roadmaps with business/industry needs and key trends (cloud elasticity, hardware affinity); support for incremental AI workloads (e.g., incremental feature extraction from real-time streaming data, incremental fine-tuning of database-integrated AI models, low-latency incremental inference for AI-native queries, incremental update of vector embeddings without full re-computation) to enhance product competitiveness.
3. Lead and collaborate with global cross-regional, cross-disciplinary R&D teams to deliver high-impact projects (e.g., AI-native database capability development, heterogeneous multi-modal system iteration, incremental AI workload adaptation); mentor technical talents in AI+database, heterogeneous computing, and cloud-native fields, and build a world-class, future-oriented database technology team.
4. Represent Huawei’s database technology expertise in academic and industry forums, focusing on promoting trend-setting technologies such as AI-augmented databases, heterogeneous computing, multi-modal data management, and incremental AI workload support; foster long-term partnerships with leading institutions to advance cutting-edge research and innovation in core database areas.

This job description is only an outline of the tasks, responsibilities and outcomes required of the role. The jobholder will carry out any other duties as may be reasonably required by his/her line manager. The job description and personal specification may be reviewed on an ongoing basis in accordance with the changing needs of Huawei Research and Development UK Limited.

Person Specification:

• Required:

• Desired:

• PhD degree in Computer Science or equivalent experience.
• Publications in leading conferences and journals within the database field.
• Experience in leading technology and/or product success in database development or system innovation.

What we offer 

• 33 days annual leave entitlement per year (including UK public holidays)
• Group Personal Pension
• Life insurance
• Private medical insurance
• Medical expense claim scheme
• Employee Assistance Program
• Cycle to work scheme
• Company sports club and social events
• Additional time off for learning and development