Backend Engineer (Python) with MySQL + AWS RDS

Odesa.co; Town of Florida, Northern (NY, KY); Hybrid; USD 120,000 - 160,000; Full time

Job summary

Odesa.co is seeking a Backend Engineer (Python) skilled in MySQL performance and AWS RDS operations. You’ll write and optimize SQL for high-traffic workloads, diagnose slow queries, and implement guardrails to reduce latency.

You’ll partner with product teams to design efficient data access patterns and build tooling for database operations. Responsibilities include monitoring, alerting, and supporting incident response for database performance, with a focus on production reliability and

Qualifications

• Strong backend experience with Python in production systems.
• Deep hands-on MySQL query optimization and indexing in real-world workloads.
• Production experience operating AWS RDS for MySQL (parameter groups, storage/IO considerations, backups).
• Proven ability to troubleshoot performance issues (locks, long-running transactions, connection saturation, IO bottlenecks).
• Experience implementing monitoring and alerting (CloudWatch, Performance Insights, or equivalent).
• Ability to communicate clearly with product engineers and propose practical, measurable improvements.
• Comfortable shipping operational tooling with safe rollout practices and documentation.

Responsibilities

• Write, review, and optimize complex SQL queries (MySQL) for high-traffic production workloads.
• Diagnose slow queries using EXPLAIN/ANALYZE, index strategies, query rewrites, and schema adjustments.
• Implement preventative solutions to reduce latency and load.
• Partner with product engineering teams to design efficient data access patterns and avoid N+1 and other performance anti-patterns.
• Build internal tools for database operations (migrations support, safe query tooling, job automation, runbooks).
• Set up and improve database monitoring and alerting for AWS RDS (performance, replication/IO, connections, locks, storage).
• Support incident response related to database performance and reliability, including postmortems and remediation plans.

Skills

Python

MySQL

AWS RDS

Performance tuning

Monitoring

Communication

CI/CD

Job description

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Backend Engineer (Python) with MySQL + AWS RDS

**Full-time availability required: 9am to 5pm PST**

We need a backend engineer who is strong in MySQL performance and operational excellence on AWS RDS. This role is focused on writing and optimizing SQL, preventing slow queries before they impact customers, and building reliable tooling and monitoring for database operations.

This is for someone who has owned database performance in production and can partner closely with product engineering teams on efficient data access patterns.

Responsibilities

• Write, review, and optimize complex SQL queries (MySQL) for high-traffic production workloads
• Diagnose slow queries using EXPLAIN/ANALYZE, index strategies, query rewrites, and schema adjustments
• Implement preventative solutions (query patterns, guardrails, limits, caching strategies where appropriate) to reduce latency and load
• Partner with product engineering teams to design efficient data access patterns and avoid N+1 and other performance anti-patterns
• Build internal tools for database operations (migrations support, safe query tooling, job automation, runbooks)
• Set up and improve database monitoring and alerting for AWS RDS (performance, replication/IO, connections, locks, storage)
• Support incident response related to database performance and reliability, including postmortems and remediation plans

Qualifications

• Strong backend experience with Python in production systems
• Deep hands‑on experience with MySQL query optimization and indexing in real‑world workloads
• Production experience operating AWS RDS for MySQL (parameter groups, storage/IO considerations, backups, read replicas)
• Proven ability to troubleshoot performance issues (locks, long‑running transactions, connection saturation, IO bottlenecks)
• Experience implementing monitoring and alerting (CloudWatch, Performance Insights, or equivalent)
• Ability to communicate clearly with product engineers and propose practical, measurable improvements
• Comfortable shipping operational tooling with safe rollout practices and documentation

Nice to have

• Experience with ORM performance tuning (e.g., SQLAlchemy, Django ORM) and query profiling
• Familiarity with caching and data access strategies (Redis, request‑level caching, batching)
• Experience with migration tooling and online schema change approaches
• Familiarity with load testing and query benchmarking

Additional Notes

To be considered, you must complete a live coding interview.

**All answers must be in English.**

FAQs:

What's the next step? If successful, you'll have one more interview before receiving a job offer if you're a good fit.

What happens after submission? We'll review your application within 2-3 business days and contact you if you qualify for the next stage.

When would I start? As soon as possible, with flexibility to accommodate your circumstances.

How long does it take? About 5-10 minutes to complete.