Senior Database Reliability Engineer

This is a fully remote position, open to applicants in Germany, +2 more countries.

📋 Description

• Take charge of the reliability, performance, scalability, and cost-effectiveness of Storyblok's PostgreSQL data platform, focusing primarily on Amazon Aurora PostgreSQL.

• Create query and index strategies, evaluate execution plans, optimize configurations, and plan capacity for high-demand multi-tenant read paths.

• Direct zero-downtime upgrades of Aurora versions and manage large-scale schema migrations.

• Oversee vacuum strategy, bloat management, long-running transactions, wraparound risk, connection pooling, lock contention, logical replication, and replication slot maintenance.

• Assess backend schema modifications and DDL for locking behavior, migration safety, and performance implications.

• Develop guidelines and tools for secure database modifications.

• Manage backup processes, restoration, disaster recovery, access controls, encryption, and auditing measures.

• Model database capacity and costs while promoting cost efficiency.

• Implement AWS infrastructure and automation utilizing Terraform and cloud-native tools.

• Contribute to CI/CD pipelines, including the automated management of database alterations.

• Establish and maintain monitoring, alerting, and observability using tools like pg_stat_statements, Prometheus exporters, Grafana, Datadog, and OpenTelemetry.

• Leverage cloud security and vulnerability management tools such as Aikido.

• Engage in on-call rotations, incident response, postmortems, root cause analysis, and remediation efforts.

• Enhance organization-wide database knowledge through design reviews, documentation, runbooks, and mentoring initiatives.

• Utilize AI tools to boost productivity, enhance decision-making, and improve work quality.

⛳️ Requirements

• Over 7 years of experience in database engineering, database reliability, infrastructure, or SRE roles, with substantial hands-on responsibility for production PostgreSQL.

• In-depth knowledge of PostgreSQL, including internals and MVCC, EXPLAIN (ANALYZE, BUFFERS), indexing strategies, vacuum behavior, locking mechanisms, connection pooling, and configuration tuning.

• Strong background with Amazon Aurora PostgreSQL and AWS-managed database services.

• Demonstrated experience with zero-downtime upgrades and intricate schema migrations on large, high-traffic tables.

• Practical experience with both physical and logical replication, partitioning, read scaling, and backup and disaster recovery strategies.

• Solid experience with Infrastructure-as-Code, primarily using Terraform on AWS.

• Strong Linux fundamentals and proficiency in at least one programming language such as Bash, Python, Ruby, or Go.

• Familiarity with monitoring and observability tools.

• Comprehensive understanding of IAM, secrets management, and network segmentation.

• Experience in change, incident, and problem management within a production environment.

• Proficient in Git and modern CI/CD workflows related to database changes.

• Excellent written and verbal communication skills in a remote work setting.

• Willingness and readiness to participate in an on-call rotation.

• Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in Computer Science or a related field, or equivalent practical experience.

• Familiarity with backend frameworks interacting with PostgreSQL is a plus, with Ruby on Rails preferred, and Python, Rust, or Elixir valued.

• Experience with Redis or Memcached is advantageous.

• Exposure to Redshift, Snowflake, ClickHouse, or CDC-based data flows is beneficial.

• Experience with ECS, EKS, Fargate, NoSQL or vector databases, or AWS certification is a plus.

🏝️ Benefits

• Monthly stipend for remote work-related internet and electricity expenses.

• Initial home office equipment package, including a laptop, keyboard, and monitor.

• Opportunity for home office equipment upgrades for furniture and earplugs, or a membership to a local co-working space post-onboarding.

• Sick leave benefits.

• Parental leave provisions.

• 25 days of annual leave plus recognition of local national holidays.

• Personal development fund designated for courses, books, conferences, and materials.

• Annual international team-building trip.

• Regular online gatherings on a quarterly and monthly basis.

• Flexible work schedules.

• Options for remote work or a Storyblok-funded co-working space.