Remote Senior Backend Engineer - Distributed SQL Systems

Affirm; Halifax; Remote; CAD 153,000 - 213,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Health coverage

Stipends

Time off

ESPP

Job summary

Affim is seeking a Senior Software Engineer to design and scale distributed SQL databases across MySQL, TiDB, and related tech. You will own the control plane, automate provisioning and failover, and drive zero-downtime migrations on Kubernetes.

You will partner with product, design and analytics to deliver robust data platforms, while mentoring teammates and shaping the roadmap. This is a remote-first role with Canada-based eligibility and competitive compensation.

Qualifications

• This position requires 5+ years of software engineering experience.
• Experience designing and launching backend systems at scale with Python, Kotlin, AWS, MySQL, Terraform and Kubernetes.
• Hands-on experience with large-scale database deployments in production.
• Expertise in distributed databases such as MySQL, TiDB, Postgres, and related tech.
• Strong SQL tuning, performance optimization and benchmarking skills.

Responsibilities

• Build and operate the control plane for large-scale distributed SQL databases.
• Design zero-downtime migrations across multi-tenant clusters.
• Own networking between services and storage on Kubernetes, including ProxySQL.
• Deliver quarterly team goals and mentor engineers through ambiguity.
• Collaborate with product, design, and analytics in the lifecycle of features.
• Identify and solve project, process, or technology issues; lead efforts.
• Maintain metrics and on-call readiness to keep services healthy.
• Promote code quality, review standards, and knowledge sharing.

Skills

Python

Kotlin

AWS

MySQL

TiDB

Terraform

Kubernetes

SQL tuning

Education

Bachelor's degree or equivalent

Tools

ProxySQL

RDS Proxy

PgBouncer

PgDog

CLI tooling

Job description

Affim is seeking a Senior Software Engineer to design and scale distributed SQL databases across MySQL, TiDB, and related tech. You will own the control plane, automate provisioning and failover, and drive zero-downtime migrations on Kubernetes.

You will partner with product, design and analytics to deliver robust data platforms, while mentoring teammates and shaping the roadmap. This is a remote-first role with Canada-based eligibility and competitive compensation.