Principal Data Platform Software Engineer (Database Operations)

Description

The company runs RaptorDB Operations, the team that builds the tooling and practices that deploy, manage, and run RaptorDB databases across its global data centers and public cloud providers, serving millions of customers at large scale.

The team works closely with the RaptorDB development team, infrastructure automation, systems engineering, security, and customer support to design database operations that meet strict standards for uptime, performance, and resilience.

This principal role is about shaping how RaptorDB runs at scale. You will help set technical direction for deployment strategy, lead cross-functional design sessions, and define practices other teams follow. It blends hands-on engineering with technical leadership across on-premise systems, cloud-native design, automation, and operational resilience.

Responsibilities

• Help design and architect RaptorDB deployment, operations, and resilience across the company's hybrid estate of data centers and public cloud providers.
• Work across teams to improve backup, restore, replication, and failover systems so they fit the wider effort to make databases reliable and scalable.
• Promote cloud-native tools such as Kubernetes and Cloud-Native PostgreSQL, and set reference architectures that keep operations simple while meeting business needs.
• Write clean, maintainable code that follows strong practices for architecture, automated testing, code review, and deployment pipelines.
• Work with architects and the development, automation, systems, and security teams to keep database operations secure, fast, and resilient in every environment.
• Lead analysis and tuning of backup and restore times, recovery time objectives (RTO), and resource use across the fleet.
• Respond to urgent production incidents and advise customer-facing and internal teams on database operations problems.
• Write documentation, runbooks, and architecture decision records so the team keeps its knowledge and can grow.

Requirements

• Use AI tools in your work, or reason critically about how AI could change decisions, problem solving, and how infrastructure is built and run. This covers AI-powered tools, automated workflows, AI-driven insights, and governance of their use.
• Skilled at applying AI-assisted tools across design, analytics, and software development, following governance and best practices.
• 12+ years of software engineering experience, including 8+ years on database systems, infrastructure, or cloud platforms.
• Proficiency in several programming languages, such as Go or Python, and a strong grasp of software engineering best practices.
• Experience with Kubernetes and database operators.
• Experience running databases in cloud environments.
• Deep Linux knowledge.
• Strong technical problem-solving skills.
• Experience with open-source databases is a plus.
• Deep database expertise, including operations, management, and backup and restore strategies.
• Experience designing and building distributed systems, with a firm understanding of high availability, failover, and disaster recovery.
• Experience working across organizations to co-architect and co-design full solutions.
• A record of helping set technical direction and making architecture decisions under uncertainty in a highly collaborative setting.
• Excellent communication skills, able to explain complex technical ideas to engineers and non-technical audiences alike.

Conditions

Base pay for this location is $240,100 to $420,200, plus equity where applicable, variable or incentive pay, and benefits. Sales roles generally offer a competitive On Target Earnings (OTE) structure. The base pay shown is a guideline; actual total pay varies with qualifications, skill level, competencies, and work location. Pay depends on the geographic location of the role and may change with work location.

Work persona (flexible, remote, or required in office) is assigned according to the nature of the work and the assigned location. The company may use a third-party service to check the distance between your primary residence and the nearest office to confirm eligibility.

The company provides equal opportunity to all applicants.

Benefits

• Health plans, including flexible spending accounts.
• 401(k) plan with company match.
• ESPP.
• Matching donations.
• Flexible time away and family leave programs.