Lead, Engineering Backup

Description

Engineering Manager, Atlas Infinite Backup

New York City

The company powers mission-critical workloads for customers who expect their data to be durable, recoverable, and fast to access. Atlas Infinite is our next-generation cloud-native architecture that decouples compute from storage, and its storage layer continuously backs every cluster up to cloud object storage. The Atlas Infinite Backup team builds the systems that turn that stream of data into something customers can trust: point-in-time recovery, retained snapshots, fast restores, disaster recovery, and backup storage that stays affordable as clusters grow to hundreds of terabytes.

We are hiring an Engineering Manager to lead this team. This is a hands-on leadership role for someone who takes the responsibility of durably storing and recovering customer data seriously, is comfortable with the economics of large-scale storage, and has strong empathy for both their team and our users.

About the Atlas Infinite Backup team

The team is part of the company's Backup and Object Storage Services organization and works hand in hand with Storage Layer Services, the disaggregated storage layer behind Atlas Infinite. We own the object storage tier: everything that happens to a cluster's data after it leaves the hot path and lands in cloud object storage. Because backup is a property of the storage layer rather than a separate agent copying files, the team works on the storage engine's write path, data layout, and lifecycle as much as on backup features.

The team's responsibilities include:

Continuous backup of log and page data to object storage, and the indexing that lets a cluster's full history be located and read efficiently

Point-in-time recovery, snapshot retention, and restore for clusters at the scale of 100+ TB per shard, including cluster-level and collection-level restore

Compaction and garbage collection of the object store so that retained history costs what it should and no more

Cold data: serving and tiering infrequently accessed collections and indexes directly from object storage

Metering and billing for backup storage, including the model that decides what customers pay for retained snapshots and point-in-time recovery

Disaster recovery and compliance capabilities for Atlas Infinite, such as cross-region protection, retention policies, and data lifecycle guarantees

Operating these services in production across many cells and regions: observability, on-call, capacity, and cost

Responsibilities

• Lead, grow, and manage a team of 6 engineers working in Rust and Java on distributed storage systems; set clear expectations, high standards, and healthy, sustainable execution
• Own the team's roadmap across durability, recoverability, cost efficiency, and compliance, in partnership with Backup and Object Storage Services leadership and Product Management
• Drive the Atlas Infinite backup roadmap to GA and beyond: define what done means for disaster recovery, compliance, and backup economics, and sequence the work to get there
• Manage customer escalations involving backup, restore, or backup cost; work with Support, Atlas, and server teams to reproduce, root-cause, and resolve issues
• Partner closely with the WiredTiger storage engine team, the Storage Layer Services teams that own the Log Service and Page Materializer, Atlas Backup, Atlas Billing, and Pricing & Packaging on cross-team features such as incremental billing, collection-level restore, and cold collections
• Raise the bar on engineering practice: design reviews, operational readiness, incident follow-through, and the tooling that lets a small team run a large production footprint
• Represent the team in planning, staffing, and calibration; make thoughtful tradeoffs between near-term GA deliverables, long-term architecture, and operational investments
• Candidate profile
• 8+ years building, debugging, and operating distributed storage, database, or large-scale data infrastructure systems (storage engines, object storage, backup and recovery systems, log-structured systems, or similar)
• 2+ years managing engineers directly, including hiring, performance management, and coaching across a range of levels
• Strong proficiency in at least one compiled, statically-typed language such as Rust, Java, C++, or Go; experience with both Rust and Java is a plus
• Deep understanding of durability, consistency, and recovery tradeoffs; experience with snapshots, point-in-time recovery, log-structured storage, compaction, or cloud object storage (S3, GCS, Azure Blob) is highly desirable
• An instinct for storage economics: you have reasoned about cost per GB, data lifecycle, and how physical layout translates into a customer's bill
• Demonstrated customer obsession: direct experience working with demanding customers or support teams on complex incidents and turning them into clear, outcome-oriented recommendations
• Proven ability to develop people: mentoring and promoting engineers, managing underperformance directly, and building high-engagement teams with low regretted attrition
• Comfortable leading multi-quarter initiatives with multiple stakeholders and using written documents to align teams on design, scope, and tradeoffs
• Curious, collaborative, and intellectually honest
• Success measures
• In three months, you have:
• Built strong relationships with your team and key partner teams across Storage Layer Services, Atlas Backup, and Product
• Taken over team ceremonies, short-term planning, and on-call ownership
• Co-led at least one active project and shipped one concrete process or operational improvement
• In six to twelve months, you have:
• Led at least one cross-team initiative in recoverability, disaster recovery, or backup cost efficiency through to production
• Delivered a multi-quarter project with clear impact on Atlas Infinite's GA readiness or on what backup costs customers
• Built a bench of engineers ready for increased scope and, over time, leadership roles
• About the company
• The company is built for change, empowering our customers and our people to innovate at the speed of the market. We have redefined the data platform for the AI era, enabling builders to create, transform, and disrupt industries with software. The company's unified data platform, the most widely available, globally distributed data platform on the market, helps organizations modernize legacy workloads, embrace innovation, and unleash AI. Our cloud-native platform, the company Atlas, is the only globally distributed, multi-cloud data platform and is available across AWS, Google Cloud, and Microsoft Azure.
• Our compass at the company is our Leadership Commitment , guiding how and why we make decisions, show up for each other, and win. It's what makes us the company.
• To drive the personal growth and business impact of our employees, we're committed to developing a supportive and enriching culture for everyone. From employee affinity groups, to fertility assistance and a generous parental leave policy, we value our employees' wellbeing and want to support them along every step of their professional and personal journeys. Learn more about what it's like to work at the company, and help us make an impact on the world!
• The company is committed to providing any necessary accommodations for individuals with disabilities within our application and interview process. To request an accommodation due to a disability, please inform your recruiter.
• REQ ID: 4273610427
• The company’s base salary range for this role is posted below. Compensation at the time of offer is unique to each candidate and based on a variety of factors such as skill set, experience, qualifications, and work location. Salary is one part of the company’s total compensation and benefits package. Other benefits for eligible employees may include: equity, participation in the employee stock purchase program, flexible paid time off, 20 weeks fully-paid gender-neutral parental leave, fertility and adoption assistance, 401(k) plan, mental health counseling, access to transgender-inclusive health insurance coverage, and health benefits offerings. Please note, the base salary range listed below and the benefits in this paragraph are only applicable to U.S.-based candidates.
• The company’s base salary range for this role in the U.S. is:
• $137,000 - $270,000 USD