Senior Database Reliability Engineer (PostgreSQL)

THE ROLE

This role combines classical DBA depth with a software engineering approach to operations. It enables product teams to move quickly without putting the ledger at risk. You will be the most senior database specialist, owning the reliability, performance, and evolution of the PostgreSQL fleet.

WHAT YOU'LL DO

• Operate roughly 35 PostgreSQL clusters on Kubernetes and Amazon RDS/Aurora, handling several thousand transactions per second at peak.
• Design and operate high-availability topologies using Patroni, streaming replication, and logical replication, with PgBouncer connection pooling.
• Define and enforce zero-downtime schema-change practices and review all production migrations from product teams.
• Build automation for provisioning, failover, backup verification, point-in-time recovery, and capacity planning.
• Lead query analysis, index design, partitioning, vacuum tuning, and lock-contention investigation.
• Establish database SLOs and observability using pg_stat_statements, Prometheus/Grafana, and OpenTelemetry to reduce incident frequency.
• Lead major version upgrades and migrate remaining self-managed clusters to Aurora where appropriate.
• Mentor engineers on data modeling and PostgreSQL internals, and act as the final escalation for database incidents.

WHAT YOU'LL BRING

Required

• 7+ years running PostgreSQL in production at meaningful scale, including at least 3 years as the primary owner of a critical database estate.
• Deep understanding of PostgreSQL internals, including MVCC, vacuum, WAL, replication, locking, and the query planner.
• Strong experience with HA tooling such as Patroni or equivalent, backup tooling using pgBackRest or WAL-G, and PgBouncer.
• Proficiency in at least one programming language for automation, plus comfort with Terraform and Kubernetes.
• Experience defining and meeting SLOs where data loss or extended downtime has direct financial consequences.
• Located in and authorized to work in the United States.

Nice to have

• Python or Go for automation.
• Experience with Amazon Aurora PostgreSQL and RDS operational nuances.
• Background in payments, banking, or another environment subject to PCI DSS or SOC 2 audits.
• Contributions to PostgreSQL or its ecosystem tooling.
• Experience with Debezium change-data-capture pipelines and Kafka.

COMPENSATION & BENEFITS

Base range: $145,000 – $175,000 per year

Actual pay depends on experience, skills, and location.

Bonus / commission: 15% bonus target.

• Medical, dental, and vision with 100% of employee premiums covered.
• RSU grant with quarterly vesting after a 12-month cliff.
• 401(k) with 5% match.
• 25 days of PTO plus 11 paid holidays, with mandatory disconnect after on-call weeks.
• $3,000 annual learning budget and support for conference speaking.

HOW WE WORK

• Join a 14-person infrastructure team spanning the US.
• Report to the Head of Infrastructure.
• Optional annual in-person team offsite.