Database Systems Researcher (Research Coding Tasks)

What you'll do

You choose a database systems paper with released code, ideally your own, and remove the implementation of its main idea. What is left becomes a task: an AI agent must rebuild the component and beat the paper's results on its own benchmarks. You write the task statement, set held-out workloads and per-metric pass thresholds, and provide a hidden reference solution plus a second solution that beats the bar. Reviewing agent attempts follows.

The ad lists query optimization, storage engines, indexing and learned database components. Workloads in this area (query sets, key distributions, read/write mixes) are what you would hold out, so the quality of the task depends on how well you choose them. The ad does not say which database engine or harness the agent builds on.

What you need

• Published database systems research with released code; the ad names SIGMOD, VLDB, ICDE or CIDR, or comparable venues
• A PhD in computer science or a related field, completed or in progress
• A link to a paper you authored and its code, plus its headline result, both required on the application form

Nice to have

• First-author papers reporting measured improvements over a baseline
• Comfort with Docker and reproducible benchmark setups
• Depth in query optimization, storage engines, indexing and learned database components

What it pays

The AfterQuery board headlines $80/hour for this role. The ad text itself gives a per-task figure instead: $200 per approved task, with each task taking a few hours. Payment only follows approval, so a task that is rejected earns nothing for the time spent. The listing does not publish payment frequency, minimum weekly hours or monitoring terms; the AfterQuery company page covers what is known about how contractors are paid.

Worth knowing

Good:

• You work from your own paper and code, so the domain knowledge is already in your head
• Fully remote and asynchronous, with no shifts
• Database papers usually ship benchmark harnesses already, which shortens the setup of a task

Less good:

• Pay is per approved task, so the hourly figure depends on how quickly you build and validate a task
• The bar for a task is high: you must supply a hidden reference solution and a second solution that beats the authors' results, which takes real engineering time
• The ad says candidates go through background checks, and the application needs a paper link, its code and a headline result up front
• The ad warns that candidates who do not meet the stated requirements are deprioritised, so apply only if you fit

About this listing

Read from the AfterQuery Experts board on 29 October 2026. This is one of twelve Research Coding Tasks roles that share a template across different research fields; this write-up covers the specifics of this field. The listing does not give an application deadline or a number of openings. See AfterQuery.