Senior Database Engineer

Payscale; United States; On-site; USD 100,000 - 130,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Flexible paid time off

401(k) retirement program with company match

Access to continued learning & development opportunities

Job summary

Payscale is seeking a Senior Database Engineer to enhance database performance and stability. You will work closely with software teams to implement effective solutions and improve application resilience.

The ideal candidate will have extensive experience with PostgreSQL and MariaDB, with a strong focus on performance tuning, collaboration, and using innovative technologies.

This position offers the flexibility to work remotely within the U.S., fostering a supportive work environment.

Qualifications

• Minimum of 7+ years of hands-on experience administering PostgreSQL databases.
• Advanced experience with MariaDB administration and optimization.
• Extensive knowledge of Pgpool-II for query load balancing and failover management.

Responsibilities

• Collaborate with stakeholders to drive implementation.
• Ensure database systems meet performance and security standards.
• Research innovative technologies for application improvements.

Skills

PostgreSQL administration

MariaDB optimization

SQL coding

Performance tuning

Microservices architecture

Tools

Pgpool-II

Git

Elasticsearch

Job description

About Payscale

Payscale is the original compensation innovator for organizations who want to scale their business with pay and transform their largest investment into their greatest advantage. With decades of innovation in sourcing reputable data and developing AI-powered tools, Payscale delivers actionable insights that turn pay from a cost to a catalyst. Its suite of solutions — Payfactors, Marketpay, and Paycycle — empower top companies in the U.S. and businesses like Cintas, Leidos, Chipotle, Brookdale Senior Living, Ohio State University, American Airlines, and TJX Companies.

To learn more, visit www.payscale.com.

Job Summary

The Senior Database Engineer will work directly with the database, software architecture, development, and product teams to design and implement product, process solutions, and improve application performance and stability.

This role reports to our Manager, Database Engineering.

What You'll Do

• Collaborate with stakeholders from across the organization to set priorities and drive toward implementation.
• Ensure database systems meet all requirements of performance, availability, scalability, quality, and security to produce world class products.
• Deliver high‑quality work‑products; champion quality standards, performance, and scalability.
• Research innovative technologies and stay ahead of the industry.
• Design and implement resilient and performant database processes and solutions.
• Develop custom stored procedures, views, or user‑defined functions.
• Collaborate with cross‑functional teams.
• Debug and tune/optimize SQL code either directly or indirectly from the application.
• Support Tier 2 development team with database requests as needed (including bug fixes, production data manipulation and feature testing).
• On‑call duty may be required, responding to critical DB alerts, and escalating if needed.

What We're Looking For

• Minimum of 7 + years of hands‑on experience administering PostgreSQL databases.
• Advanced experience with MariaDB administration and optimization.
• Extensive knowledge of Pgpool‑II for query load balancing, failover management, and connection routing between primary and standby nodes.
• Hands‑on experience with PostgreSQL replication, performance tuning, and maintenance operations.
• Develop and maintain operational runbooks for PostgreSQL replication setup, failover recovery, and pooler troubleshooting.
• Automate database deployment and maintenance tasks using shell scripts and infrastructure automation tools.
• Experience with performance tuning and a broad knowledge base of indexing strategies, In‑Memory OLTP technologies, and best‑practice SQL standards.
• Hands‑on experience building processes for OLTP and OLAP processing.
• Support and encourage data engineering practices supporting a multi‑source data ecosystem.
• Ability to collaborate with SQL developers and solve problems.
• Experience working in a microservice architecture with separate data sources per microservice.
• Familiarity with one or more industry standard source control solutions (Git preferred – experience with DACPAC a plus).
• Intrinsic self‑starter and problem solver.
• Agile experience.

Nice to Have

• Experience with designing and implementing large scale database systems at enterprise and/or Internet scale.
• Experience designing and building Distributed Database ecosystems.
• Understanding of data analytics and reporting solution concepts and strategies.
• Experience with SQL Server 2012 and above.
• PostgreSQL v9 and above (advanced versions).
• Understanding and experience with NoSQL databases.
• Understanding Event Streaming Platforms such as Apache Kafka.
• Experience with administration and configuration of sharded, multi‑tenant databases.
• Experience with Database Encryption Strategies (Encryption per Client, PIP encryption).
• Experience scaling databases on Cloud platforms (preferably Azure).
• AWS, Azure, Azure SQL.
• Elasticsearch.
• Data visualization and analytic software tools such as Tableau.

Location

Payscale has an employee‑centric remote‑first model that provides the flexibility to work from the location that best supports your needs. In our remote‑first model, employees can work from home, in company‑paid co‑working spaces, or any combination that best suits their unique needs.

If you work from home, we recommend ensuring that you can meet the following technology, equipment, and workspace requirements:

• High‑speed Internet – a stable broadband or fiber connection (satellite is highly discouraged) with a minimum speed of 100 Mbps in a dedicated workspace that has a reliable Wi‑Fi signal.
• Device for multifactor authentication (MFA/2FA) – smartphone, tablet, etc.

When it matters (usually no more than a few times a year) we gather for in‑person events.

Payscale has employees across the US, Canada, UK, The Philippines and Romania; however we are currently unable to hire in the Quebec Province, Northern Ireland, and Hawaii.

Benefits and Perks

• Data‑informed decision making.
• Customer first. Always.
• Succeed together.
• Relentless about results. Obsessed with excellence.
• Lead the change. Shape the standard.

An open and inclusive environment where you’ll learn and grow through programs and resources such are:

• Monthly company All Hands meetings.
• Regular opportunities for executive leadership exposure through AMAs.
• Access to continued learning & development opportunities.
• Our commitment to a continuous feedback culture which allows us to drive performance and career growth.
• A growing network of Employee Resource Groups.
• Company‑sponsored volunteer hours.
• And more!

Our More Standard Benefits

• Flexible paid time off, giving you the opportunity to rest, relax and recharge away from work.
• 14 paid company holidays, including 2 floating holidays (you choose!).
• A comprehensive benefits plan including medical, dental, life, vision, disability, and life insurance covered up to 100% by Payscale.
• Unlimited infertility coverage benefits through our medical plans.
• Additional supplemental health benefits offered to you and your family.
• 401(k) retirement program with a fully vested immediate company match.
• 16 weeks of paid parental leave for birthing and non‑birthing parents.
• Health Savings Account (HSA) options and company contributions each pay period.
• Flexible Spending Account (FSA) options for pre‑tax employee allocations.
• Annual remote work stipend to be used on wellness or home office equipment.

Equal Opportunity Employer

We embrace equal employment opportunity. Payscale is committed to a policy of equal employment opportunity for all applicants and employees. It is our policy that employees will not be subjected to unlawful discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, age, national origin, or ancestry, physical or mental disability, veteran or military status, marital status, sexual orientation, political ideology, and any other basis protected by federal, state, or local laws. This policy applies to all terms and conditions of employment, including but not limited to: recruitment, hiring, transfers, promotions, training, discipline, termination, compensation and benefits, performance appraisals, education, and social and recreational programs.

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