Database Infrastructure Engineer - Engine by Starling

Starling Bank; London; Hybrid; GBP 40,000 - 80,000; Full time

Job summary

Join a forward-thinking company on a mission to reshape banking technology! As part of a dynamic team, you will play a crucial role in managing and optimizing database infrastructure, ensuring reliability and performance across our innovative platform. This role offers the opportunity to work closely with talented engineers, contribute to groundbreaking solutions, and embrace automation in a collaborative environment. If you are passionate about technology and eager to make a significant impact in the banking sector, this is the perfect opportunity for you!

Benefits

33 days holiday

Extra day off for birthday

Annual leave increase with service

Paid volunteering time

Company enhanced pension scheme

Life insurance at 4x salary

Private Medical Insurance

Generous family-friendly policies

Refer a friend scheme

Perkbox membership

Qualifications

• Inquisitive Engineer with a focus on database infrastructure.
• Proven experience in performance tuning and database management.

Responsibilities

• Monitor and optimize PostgreSQL database performance.
• Lead disaster recovery testing and improve documentation.

Skills

Database design and architecture

Performance tuning

Backup and recovery

Security

Cloud database infrastructure management

Monitoring and alerting

Collaboration with software engineers

Problem-solving

Education

Experience as a DBA

Experience with AWS/GCP

Tools

PostgreSQL

AWS RDS

GCP Cloud SQL

Job description

At Engine by Starling, we are on a mission to find and work with leading banks all around the world who have the ambition to build rapid growth businesses, on our technology.

Engine is Starling's software-as-a-service (SaaS) business, the technology that was built to power Starling Bank, and two years ago we split out as a separate business.

Starling Bank has seen exceptional growth and success, and a large part of that is down to the fact that we have built our own modern technology from the ground up. This SaaS technology platform is now available to banks and financial institutions all around the world, enabling them to benefit from the innovative digital features, and efficient back-office processes that has helped achieve Starling's success.

We draw upon our experience as knowledgeable bankers, and best in class technologists to become the chosen option for these banks, and preferred partners for leading consultancies.

As a company, everyone is expected to roll up their sleeves to help deliver great outcomes for our clients. We are an engineering led company and we’re looking for someone who will be excited by the potential for Engine’s technology to transform banking in different markets around the world.

Hybrid Working

We have a Hybrid approach to working here at Engine - our preference is that you're located within a commutable distance of one of our offices so that we're able to interact and collaborate in person.

Our Engineering Environment

Engine Engineers are excited about helping us deliver new features, regardless of what their primary tech stack may be. We are looking for engineers at all levels to join the team. We value people being engaged and caring about customers, caring about the code they write and the contribution they make to Engine. People with a broad ability to apply themselves to a multitude of problems and challenges, who can work across teams do great things here at Engine, to continue changing banking for good.

We have built our entire banking platform in house and mostly in Java. We are looking for people who want to work on building the tooling that is used by our engineers on a daily basis.

We are looking for

Ideally, you will be an inquisitive Engineer, with an aptitude for finding clean and simple solutions to technical problems. You will be passionate about running observable and reliable database infrastructure that underpins the entire Engine technology platform. We are also on the lookout for Data Engineers.

The ideal candidate will have experience with:

• Database design and architecture
• Performance tuning
• Backup and recovery
• Security
• Cloud database infrastructure management on AWS/GCP using Infrastructure as Code
• Managing large database environments, preferably with Postgres
• Monitoring and alerting
• A proven track record of working closely with software engineers

You will

• Monitor and optimise the performance of our ever growing PostgreSQL database estate by working closely with our technology teams to understand the workloads
• Keep our database estate up to date - both from a vulnerability management and supported Postgres version point of view
• Managing and monitoring data replication
• Lead regular disaster recovery testing initiatives
• Own and improve technical documentation and processes for database tasks - enabling teams to self help with e.g. allocating system storage and planning storage needs; performing upgrades; optimising database queries
• Own and improve monitoring dashboards and alerts
• Contribute to the development of our in-house developed database manager tooling that’s responsible for performing all DBA related tasks without ever having to log into a database via the command line in production
• Own cost optimisation - reviewing and proposing recommendations for optimising database footprint, including reserved instance lifecycle management
• Embrace automation and be reluctant for manual implementation
• Implement security best practices
• Demonstrate knowledge of new technologies and changes in the industry
• Ensure platform compliance with ISO27001, SOC2 and PCI-DSS

Additional qualifications:

• An aptitude for thinking out of the box
• Experience with AWS, GCP or other cloud environments
• Understanding of database monitoring, analysis, disaster recovery and performance tuning
• Proven experience working as a DBA from a performance tuning and optimisation perspective
• Built and deployed PostgreSQL clusters into production (would consider Oracle/MySQL and similar technologies)
• Experience working with AWS RDS Postgres or GCP Cloud SQL databases
• Knowledge of Postgres configuration settings
• An understanding of Postgres’ vacuum/MVCC process
• Worked within high availability, scalable environments
• Ability to engage with all levels of the business to understand user needs
• Strong ability to solve complex technical issues

Interview process

Interviewing is a two way process and we want you to have the time and opportunity to get to know us, as much as we are getting to know you! Our interviews are conversational and we want to get the best from you, so come with questions and be curious. In general you can expect the below, following a chat with one of our Talent Team:

• Stage 1 - 30 mins with an Engineer
• Stage 2 - 120 mins technical interview in person with three team members
• Stage 3 - 45 min final with an executive

Benefits

• 33 days holiday (including public holidays, which you can take when it works best for you)
• An extra day’s holiday for your birthday
• Annual leave is increased with length of service, and you can choose to buy or sell up to five extra days off
• 16 hours paid volunteering time a year
• Salary sacrifice, company enhanced pension scheme
• Life insurance at 4x your salary & group income protection
• Private Medical Insurance with VitalityHealth including mental health support and cancer care. Partner benefits include discounts with Waitrose, Mr&Mrs Smith and Peloton
• Generous family-friendly policies
• Incentives refer a friend scheme
• Perkbox membership giving access to retail discounts, a wellness platform for physical and mental health, and weekly free and boosted perks
• Access to initiatives like Cycle to Work, Salary Sacrificed Gym partnerships and Electric Vehicle (EV) leasing

About us

You may be put off applying for a role because you don't tick every box. Forget that! While we can’t accommodate every flexible working request, we're always open to discussion. So, if you're excited about working with us, but aren’t sure if you're 100% there yet, get in touch anyway. We’re on a mission to radically reshape banking – and that starts with our brilliant team. Whatever came before, we’re proud to bring together people of all backgrounds and experiences who love working together to solve problems.

Engine by Starling is an equal opportunity employer, and we’re proud of our ongoing efforts to foster diversity & inclusion in the workplace. Individuals seeking employment at Engine by Starling are considered without regard to race, religion, national origin, age, sex, gender, gender identity, gender expression, sexual orientation, marital status, medical condition, ancestry, physical or mental disability, military or veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by applicable law.