Staff Database Platform Engineer

Staff Database Platform Engineer Demandbase is hiring a Staff Database Platform Engineer to lead the evolution of how we manage databases in the cloud. In addition to operating monolithic databases, you'll build the platforms, automation, and guardrails that empower product teams to provision, run, and monitor their own databases across AWS accounts. This role is about designing the future of database reliability at scale with automation, observability, and compliance baked in while still being able to'speak DBA' when it comes to tuning and schema design. You'll provide technical leadership to a global DBRE team, drive automation and best practices, and partner with engineering teams to move faster without compromising on stability. Responsibilities include: Build the Database Platform of the Future: Design automation and self-service frameworks for provisioning, scaling, and securing databases across AWS (RDS, Aurora, DynamoDB) and other cloud-native stores. Develop Infrastructure-as-Code modules (Terraform, Helm, Gitlab CI/CD) to eliminate manual operations. Establish best practices for service-level databases in a microservices architecture (Postgres, MySQL, DynamoDB, etc.). Evaluate and guide architectural decisions for large-scale analytical and ETL workloads helping the company choose the right data technologies (e.g., RDS/Aurora, BigQuery, Iceberg or other cloud-native solutions) to balance performance, cost, and scalability. Implement observability solutions (Prometheus, Grafana, Datadog, OpenSearch) for database health at scale. Ensure availability, performance, and security of existing large-scale monolithic databases powering critical platform functions. Lead efforts to reduce risk, cost, and complexity in these systems while preparing them for migration or replacement. Guide safe transition of workloads from shared monolithic environments toward decentralized, service-owned models. Collaborate with product/platform teams on schema design, query optimization, and database best practices. Provide tools, documentation, and onboarding support that empower teams to safely own and manage their databases. Mentor DBREs to evolve from traditional DBA skillsets toward platform engineering and automation-first practices. Influence organizational culture toward shift-left ownership of databases. Participate in incident response/postmortems across both monolithic and service-owned systems. What we're looking for includes: 10 years of experience in database reliability, platform engineering, or cloud infrastructure roles. Strong experience with Infrastructure-as-Code and automation (Terraform, Helm, GitLab CI/CD, Kubernetes Operators, etc.). Proficiency with cloud-managed relational databases (PostgreSQL/MySQL on RDS/Aurora) and cloud-native databases (DynamoDB). Proficiency with performance tuning, query optimization, and schema design. Experience modernizing and migrating legacy databases (including those used as ETL sources) into more scalable or fit-for-purpose systems, in partnership with data engineering/warehouse teams. Solid Linux skills and scripting (Python, Shell) Hands-on experience with observability stacks (Prometheus, Grafana, Datadog, OpenSearch, or similar) and passionate about building reliable monitoring/alerting frameworks. Demonstrated ability to mentor DBREs/DBAs into platform engineers, and to influence engineering culture toward shift-left ownership of databases. Excellent communicator and collaborator able to bridge product, platform, DBRE, and data teams. Preferred qualifications include: Experience guiding organizations through monolithic-to-microservices or shared-to-service-owned database transitions Familiarity with big data/streaming systems (Kafka, Spark, etc.) and their intersection with service-level databases. Our benefits include options for up to 100% paid Medical and Vision premiums for employees, a flexible PTO policy, paid holidays, and access to mental health and wellness resources. We also provide a 401(k) with pre-tax, after tax, and roth options, as well as short-term/long-term disability, life insurance, and other great benefits. Our commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion at Demandbase is to create a workplace culture that values and celebrates diversity in all its forms. Discrimination of any kind is not tolerated, and we strive to ensure that every individual has an equal opportunity to succeed and grow, regardless of their gender identity, sexual orientation, disability, race, ethnicity, background, marital status, genetic information, education level, veteran status, national origin, or any other protected status. We do not automatically disqualify applicants with criminal records and will consider each applicant on a case-by-case basis. We acknowledge that not all candidates will have every skill or qualification listed in this job description. If you feel you have the level of experience to be successful in the role, we encourage you to apply! We recognize that true diversity and inclusion requires ongoing effort, and we are committed to doing the work required to make our workplace a safe and equitable space for all. Join us in building a community where we can learn from each other, celebrate our differences, and work together. At Demandbase, we value thoughtful partnerships and direct connections with candidates. We're not accepting unsolicited resumes or outreach from third-party recruiting agencies. Any unsolicited submissions will not be reviewed, and no fees will be paid.

Created: 2026-03-04