Database Reliability Engineer

Workday; Auckland; On-site; NZD 120,000 - 170,000; Full time

Job summary

Workday is seeking a Database Site Reliability Engineer to join our Environments Data Services team. You will manage enterprise-scale MySQL and open-source databases, ensuring high availability, security, and performance across production and development systems.

Join a distributed team that values automation, on-call responsiveness, and scalable architectures. You’ll collaborate with engineers across platforms to deliver reliable database services at scale.

Qualifications

• 5+ years of experience in database engineering or reliability roles.
• Experience with MySQL and PostgreSQL.
• Experience with managed cloud databases (AWS Aurora, Google Cloud SQL).
• Proficient in Linux, Kubernetes, Docker.
• Strong scripting: Shell, Python, Ruby.
• Experience with automation and configuration tools.
• Excellent communication and cross-functional collaboration.

Responsibilities

• Support large-scale MySQL and open-source databases across prod and dev.
• Participate in on‑call rotation for critical production issues.
• Drive automation to improve availability and scalability.
• Help architect existing and new database services in production.

Skills

Database engineering

MySQL

PostgreSQL

Cloud databases

Linux

Kubernetes

Docker

Automation scripting

Education

BS in Computer Science

MS in Computer Science

Tools

Chef

Ansible

Terraform

GitHub

JIRA

Confluence

Ceph

Job description

Your work days are brighter here. We’re obsessed with making hard work pay off, for our people, our customers, and the world around us. As a Fortune 500 company and a leading AI platform for managing people, money, and agents, we’re shaping the future of work so teams can reach their potential and focus on what matters most. The minute you join, you’ll feel it. Not just in the products we build, but in how we show up for each other. Our culture is rooted in integrity, empathy, and shared enthusiasm. We’re in this together, tackling big challenges with bold ideas and genuine care. We look for curious minds and courageous collaborators who bring sun‑drenched optimism and drive. Whether you’re building smarter solutions, supporting customers, or creating a space where everyone belongs, you’ll do meaningful work with Workmates who’ve got your back. In return, we’ll give you the trust to take risks, the tools to grow, the skills to develop and the support of a company invested in you for the long haul. So, if you want to inspire a brighter work day for everyone, including yourself, you’ve found a match in Workday, and we hope to be a match for you too.

About the Team

At Workday, we help some of the world’s largest organizations prepare for what’s next by bringing finance, HR, and planning together in a single enterprise cloud platform. We work hard and take our mission seriously, but we also believe in having fun along the way. We put people first, celebrate diversity, drive innovation, and make a positive impact in the communities where we live and work.

Are you passionate about database technologies? Do you enjoy solving complex, large‑scale database challenges? If so, read on.

Workday is looking for a SRE Database Engineer with experience in open‑source database technologies such as PostgreSQL and MySQL, as well as cloud‑native database technologies. The ideal candidate will have hands‑on experience designing, developing, and managing enterprise‑scale database systems with complex interdependencies. This role requires a strong focus on high availability, clustering, security, performance, scalability, and operational excellence.

About the Role

Do you want to work for a company that works hard, has fun, and continues to experience significant growth? Do you want to be part of an organization where your contributions directly help scale and sustain that growth? At Workday, we are looking for a Database Site Reliability Engineer who thrives in a fast‑paced, challenging environment and enjoys solving complex technical problems at scale.

The Environments Data Services team is a distributed team responsible for providing 24/7 operational support for customer environments. The team also evaluates, adopts, and deploys new technologies and services into live production environments, ensuring they are reliable, scalable, secure, and production‑ready.

In this role, you will support large‑scale MySQL and open‑source database environments across production and development systems, participate in an on‑call rotation for critical production issues, drive automation to improve availability and scalability, and help architect both existing and new database services in our production environment.

About You

Basic Qualifications:

• Strong hands‑on experience as a database engineer, database reliability engineer, or database architect working with multiple database technologies, such as MySQL, PostgreSQL, MongoDB or similar platforms.
• Hands‑on experience with at least one managed cloud database platform, such as AWS Aurora or Google Cloud SQL.
• Experience running clustered, highly available database services on Linux‑based environments.
• Strong scripting experience in one or more languages such as Shell, Python, Ruby, or similar.
• Proven experience working with Linux, Kubernetes, Docker, and containerised environments.
• Hands‑on experience supporting mission‑critical production workloads on MySQL or other open‑source databases.
• Experience with database architecture, design, replication, clustering, high availability, disaster recovery, backup, and restore strategies.
• BS in Computer Science or related fields with 5+ years of experience (or) MS in Computer Science with 3+ years of experience.

Other Qualifications:

• Recognized as an authority or subject matter expert in database technologies and database operations.
• Strong experience with automation and configuration management tools such as Chef, Ansible, Terraform, or similar.
• Good working knowledge of GitHub, JIRA, and Confluence.
• Excellent communication skills, including formal presentations, whiteboarding, technical documentation, and cross‑functional collaboration.
• Strong analytical, troubleshooting, verbal, and written communication skills.
• Experience with database reliability engineering practices, including observability, incident response, performance tuning, capacity planning, and operational automation.
• Familiarity with tools and technologies such as Ceph