Senior Backend Engineer - Databases - Analytics | Ireland | Remote

grafanalabs; United States; Remote; USD 138,000 - 207,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

100% remote

30 days annual leave

In-person onboarding

Job summary

Grafana Labs is seeking a Senior Backend Engineer to help build the storage layer of a general-purpose data platform that blends analytical and time-series workloads. The role is fully remote within a small autonomous skunkworks team extending observability tooling into enterprise data intelligence for humans and AI agents.

Candidates must be based in Ireland. You will design, implement, test, and operate parts of a distributed database, shape multi-tenant SaaS architecture, build APIs, and own

Qualifications

• Significant professional experience as a backend or database engineer working on distributed systems.
• Deep familiarity with database internals such as query planning, storage layouts, ingestion pipelines, and execution engines.
• Comfort working with OLAP and streaming/OTLP-style data paths, including separation of compute and storage.
• Ability to navigate ambiguity, make pragmatic architectural calls, and evolve prototypes into production-grade services.
• Strong collaboration and communication skills in a remote, cross-functional environment.

Responsibilities

• Design, implement, test, and operate parts of a distributed database, including ingestion, query planning, distributed execution, and storage and data formats.
• Shape the multi-tenant SaaS architecture, covering tenant isolation, usage tracking, quotas, audit logs, background jobs, and service boundaries.
• Build APIs and database interfaces that let AI agents, MCP tools, CLIs, and internal apps retrieve data quickly.
• Collaborate with product and infrastructure teammates to balance rapid prototyping against long-term reliability as the system moves from internal dogfooding to production.
• Operate the systems you build, taking ownership of reliability, performance, and on-call responsibilities.

Skills

Backend engineering

Distributed systems

Database internals

OLAP/streaming data

Ambiguity navigation

Remote collaboration

Job description

Role overview

A fully remote position for a Senior Backend Engineer to help build the storage layer of a new general-purpose data platform that blends analytical and time-series workloads. The role sits inside a small, high-autonomy skunkworks team extending observability tooling into broader enterprise data intelligence for both humans and AI agents. Candidates must be based in Ireland.

Responsibilities

• Design, implement, test, and operate parts of a distributed database, including ingestion, query planning, distributed execution, and storage and data formats.
• Shape the multi-tenant SaaS architecture, covering tenant isolation, usage tracking, quotas, audit logs, background jobs, and service boundaries.
• Build APIs and database interfaces that let AI agents, MCP tools, CLIs, and internal apps retrieve data quickly.
• Collaborate with product and infrastructure teammates to balance rapid prototyping against long-term reliability as the system moves from internal dogfooding to production.
• Operate the systems you build, taking ownership of reliability, performance, and on-call responsibilities.

Requirements

• Significant professional experience as a backend or database engineer working on distributed systems.
• Deep familiarity with database internals such as query planning, storage layouts, ingestion pipelines, and execution engines.
• Comfort working with OLAP and streaming/OTLP-style data paths, including separation of compute and storage.
• Ability to navigate ambiguity, make pragmatic architectural calls, and evolve prototypes into production-grade services.
• Strong collaboration and communication skills in a remote, cross-functional environment.

Nice to have

• Experience building multi-tenant SaaS database services.
• Background running systems across multiple cloud providers.
• Familiarity with agentic or AI-driven retrieval workflows and metadata systems.

Benefits and work setup

• 100% remote role with a globally distributed team.
• 30 days of annual leave, with three reserved as company-wide shutdown days.
• In-person onboarding to ramp up alongside new teammates.
• Country-specific compensation and benefits discussed at the start of the process.