Senior PostgreSQL Database Engineer

OpenTable; Toronto; On-site; CAD 150,000 - 190,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Generous parental leave

Generous vacation + birthday time off

Volunteer time

Learning and development opportunities

Work from (almost) anywhere

Mental health support

Job summary

OpenTable is seeking a Senior PostgreSQL Database Engineer based in Toronto. You will lead reliability, performance, and scalability of OpenTable’s PostgreSQL platform, owning end-to-end database initiatives and partnering across engineering teams.

You will design, implement, and operate high-availability PostgreSQL environments, automate provisioning and upgrades, and drive cloud strategy across multi-region deployments to support growth and resilience.

Qualifications

• 7+ years of experience administering, engineering, and operating PostgreSQL in production environments.
• Hands-on experience with database automation using infrastructure-as-code.
• Experience with high-availability, disaster-recovery, and failover for critical databases.

Responsibilities

• Provide technical leadership for reliability, performance, and security of OpenTable’s PostgreSQL platform.
• Own complex database initiatives end-to-end and partner with cross-functional teams.
• Automate provisioning, upgrades, monitoring, and credential rotation to reduce manual toil.
• Review designs with Product and Data teams and optimize schemas for performance.
• Lead cloud database strategy across multi-region environments balancing cost and reliability.
• Serve as escalation point during incidents and drive long-term reliability improvements.

Skills

PostgreSQL

SQL

Python

Go

Bash

High availability

Query optimization

Tools

Kubernetes

Terraform (Infrastructure as Code)

OpenTelemetry

Grafana

Prometheus

OpenSearch/MongoDB/Redis

Job description

• As a Senior PostgreSQL Database Engineer, you will provide technical leadership for the reliability, performance, scalability, security, and evolution of OpenTable’s PostgreSQL platform
• You will own complex database initiatives end-to-end, partner with cross-functional engineering teams to build an automated and cloud-native data platform, and serve as a senior escalation point for production systems
• In this hybrid role based in Toronto, you will establish modern database practices and ensure database infrastructure supports business growth while maintaining high availability
• Your work will directly empower engineering teams and ensure a seamless, reliable experience for millions of diners and restaurants worldwide
• Lead the design, architecture, and lifecycle management of PostgreSQL environments to ensure high availability, disaster recovery, and scalable performance
• Automate provisioning, major-version upgrades, monitoring, and credential rotation to reduce manual effort and operational toil across database infrastructure
• Partner with Product and Data Engineering teams to review database designs, optimize schemas, improve query performance, and establish safe migration practices
• Drive cloud database strategy across multi-region environments, balancing performance, security, cost efficiency, and operational excellence
• Serve as a senior technical escalation point during production incidents, conducting root-cause analysis and implementing long-term reliability improvements
• Mentor engineers, establish reusable operational patterns, and raise technical standards through clear documentation and cross-team collaboration

Benefits

• Generous parental leave
• Generous paid vacation + time off for your birthday
• Paid volunteer time
• Enriched learning and development opportunities - leadership development & access to thousands of on-demand e-learnings
• Work from (almost) anywhere - wherever you do your best work
• Mental health and well-being - company-paid therapy sessions through SpringHealth, company-paid subscription to HeadSpace, and company-wide weeks off a year so the whole team can recharge

Deep knowledge of PostgreSQL architecture and internals, including query planning, locking, write-ahead logging, replication, vacuuming, and connection managementProficiency in SQL and at least one programming or automation language such as Python, Go, or Bash7+ years of experience administering, engineering, and operating PostgreSQL or equivalent complex database systems in production environmentsHands-on experience building database automation using infrastructure-as-code or configurationProven experience designing, implementing, and operating high-availability, disaster-recovery, and failover solutions for critical database infrastructureExperience operating PostgreSQL in public cloud platforms, Kubernetes, or containerized environmentsFamiliarity with supplementary data platforms such as Redis, MongoDB, OpenSearch, or distributed databasesExperience with telemetry and observability platforms such as Grafana, Prometheus, or OpenTelemetryExperience improving developer productivity through self-service database provisioning and platform automation