Principal Database Engineer (Contract)

QUESS SELECTION & SERVICES PTE. LTD.; Singapore; On-site; SGD 180,000 - 230,000; Full time

Job summary

QUESS SELECTION & SERVICES PTE. LTD. is seeking an experienced database architect/engineer to lead production database operations. The role focuses on MySQL and Redis expertise, distributed TiDB concepts, and cloud-based infrastructure on AWS.

Strong programming in Python or Go will drive automation and tooling. You will steer capacity planning, incident response, and high-availability strategy. The position requires 8+ years in large-scale environments, with a proven track record in performance

Qualifications

• 8+ years of hands-on database administration or engineering experience in large-scale production environments.
• Experience owning database operations within an organisation's internal engineering team.
• Deep expertise in MySQL and Redis, including architecture, performance tuning, replication, high availability, and recovery.
• Strong working knowledge of TiDB and distributed database concepts.
• Hands-on experience with AWS services such as VPC, Amazon Aurora, Amazon RDS, and Amazon ElastiCache for Valkey.
• Proficiency in Python or Go, with experience developing database management platforms or automation tools.
• Experience with capacity planning and maintaining database reliability during significant traffic spikes.
• Ability to define availability and recovery targets and implement tested procedures to meet them.
• Strong problem-solving, collaboration, and change management skills, including clear communication during production incidents.

Responsibilities

• Lead the operation and optimisation of database platforms, ensuring high availability, data integrity, and capacity for growth.
• Identify and resolve database performance and architecture risks, including slow queries and oversized Redis keys.
• Plan and execute database version upgrades and security patches with rollback testing and minimal disruption.
• Assess database software, infrastructure, and availability risks with cloud providers and engineering teams.
• Establish standards for configuration, monitoring, backup, disaster recovery, and cost management.
• Design and develop database management tools and automation using Go or Python.
• Provide technical guidance on database selection, architecture, and production incident resolution.

Skills

MySQL

Redis

TiDB

AWS (Aurora/RDS/ElastiCache)

Go

Python

Performance tuning

High availability

Incident response

Capacity planning

Job description

Responsibilities

• Lead the operation and optimisation of database platforms, ensuring high availability, data integrity, and sufficient capacity for business growth and peak workloads.
• Identify and resolve database performance and architecture risks, including slow queries, oversized Redis keys, and inappropriate dependencies on caching systems.
• Plan and execute database version upgrades and security patches, with tested rollback procedures and minimal service disruption.
• Assess database software, infrastructure, and availability risks, working with cloud providers and engineering teams to implement improvements.
• Establish standards for database configuration, monitoring, backup, disaster recovery, and cost management.
• Design and develop database management tools and automation using Go or Python.
• Provide technical guidance on database selection, architecture, and production incident resolution.

Requirements

• At least 8 years of hands‑on database administration or engineering experience supporting large‑scale production environments.
• Experience owning database operations within an organisation's internal engineering team.
• Deep expertise in MySQL and Redis, including architecture, performance tuning, replication, high availability, and recovery.
• Strong working knowledge of TiDB and distributed database concepts.
• Hands‑on experience with AWS services such as VPC, Amazon Aurora, Amazon RDS, and Amazon ElastiCache for Valkey.
• Proficiency in Python or Go, with experience developing database management platforms or operational automation tools.
• Experience with capacity planning and maintaining database reliability during significant traffic spikes.
• Ability to define availability and recovery targets and implement tested procedures to meet them.
• Strong problem‑solving, collaboration, and change management skills, including clear communication during production incidents.

Nice to Have

• Experience with Elasticsearch, Amazon OpenSearch Service, or Apache Doris.
• Experience with geographically separate backups, disaster recovery, data classification, and data masking.
• Experience supporting data security audits and compliance initiatives.