Senior lead database reliability engineer

This position is listed on behalf of a partner company, who manages all applications and next steps. Our partner is looking for a Senior Lead Database Reliability Engineer based in United States.

This role is designed for an experienced database reliability leader who can drive the evolution of large-scale, mission-critical data platforms. You will own the reliability, scalability, and operational excellence of complex database environments supporting high-volume, real-time applications. The position combines deep database expertise, software engineering, and infrastructure automation to build resilient, self-healing systems. You will shape technical strategy, improve platform performance, and establish best practices across cloud and on-premises environments. Working closely with engineering teams, you will influence architecture, automation, and operational maturity at scale. This is an opportunity to lead through innovation, mentorship, and the adoption of modern technologies, including AI-enabled engineering workflows.

Accountabilities:

The Senior Lead Database Reliability Engineer will be responsible for advancing database platform reliability, automation, and operational excellence across a highly scalable technology environment. The role requires strong technical leadership, cross-functional collaboration, and the ability to design solutions that improve performance, resilience, and engineering efficiency.

• Define and execute the technical roadmap for database reliability across relational, NoSQL, and managed cloud database technologies, including architecture improvements for availability, replication, partitioning, storage, and connection management.
• Build automation-first database platforms using infrastructure as code, Kubernetes-based solutions, GitOps workflows, and custom tooling to automate provisioning, failover, backups, migrations, and lifecycle management.
• Establish and improve reliability practices through service level objectives, monitoring strategies, capacity planning, performance optimization, and proactive identification of operational risks.
• Lead incident response efforts for critical database issues, driving root cause analysis, remediation, and continuous improvement initiatives.
• Optimize database performance and cost across cloud and hybrid environments through workload analysis, resource optimization, storage improvements, and tuning strategies.
• Partner with application engineering teams to implement secure and scalable database practices, including schema reviews, migration approaches, query optimization, and deployment strategies.
• Leverage AI-powered tools and modern engineering approaches to enhance observability, troubleshooting, documentation, automation, and developer productivity.
• Mentor engineers, provide technical guidance, contribute to architecture decisions, support hiring initiatives, and promote database reliability best practices across teams.

Requirements:

The ideal candidate brings extensive experience in database reliability engineering, infrastructure automation, and technical leadership, with the ability to operate effectively in complex, high-availability production environments.

• 6+ years of experience in Database Reliability Engineering, Database Platform Engineering, Site Reliability Engineering, or a related discipline with significant database infrastructure ownership.
• Proven experience leading complex database infrastructure initiatives and delivering scalable, reliable solutions in production environments.
• Deep expertise with at least one major relational database technology, preferably PostgreSQL, along with operational experience supporting platforms such as MySQL, MongoDB, Redis, ScyllaDB, Aerospike, and managed cloud database services.
• Strong experience operating stateful workloads on Kubernetes, including technologies such as StatefulSets, Persistent Volumes, database operators, Terraform, Pulumi, FluxCD, ArgoCD, GKE, or EKS.
• Hands-on software development experience using Go, Python, or similar languages to build automation tools, APIs, controllers, and infrastructure solutions.
• Strong understanding of observability, monitoring, service reliability practices, capacity planning, and performance optimization.
• Experience using AI-assisted engineering tools such as Claude, GitHub Copilot, Cursor, MCP, or similar platforms to improve development and operational workflows.
• Ability to evaluate AI-generated outputs with strong engineering judgment to ensure reliability, security, and quality standards.
• Excellent communication and leadership skills, with experience mentoring engineers, influencing technical strategy, and collaborating across multiple engineering teams.

Benefits:

Competitive annual salary range of approximately $168,000 to $210,000 USD, depending on location, experience, skills, and qualifications. Eligibility for additional compensation opportunities, including bonus and equity programs. Comprehensive benefits package designed to support employee well-being and long-term growth. Medical, dental, and vision coverage options. Retirement savings programs and additional employee benefits. Remote work flexibility within the United States. Opportunity to work on large-scale, innovative technology platforms with modern infrastructure and AI-enabled engineering practices. Career development opportunities through technical leadership, mentorship, and collaboration with experienced engineering teams.

How Jobgether works:

We use an AI-powered matching process to ensure your application is reviewed quickly, objectively, and fairly against the role's core requirements. Our system identifies the top-fitting candidates, and this shortlist is then shared directly with the hiring company. The final decision and next steps (interviews, assessments) are managed by their internal team. We appreciate your interest and wish you the best!

Why Apply Through Jobgether?

Data Privacy Notice: By submitting your application, you acknowledge that Jobgether will process your personal data to evaluate your candidacy and share relevant information with the hiring employer. This processing is based on legitimate interest and pre-contractual measures under applicable data protection laws (including GDPR). You may exercise your rights (access, rectification, erasure, objection) at any time.

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