Sr. Engineer, Database Reliability

Zapier; United States; Remote; USD 140,000 - 210,000; Full time

Job summary

Zapier is seeking a Senior Database Reliability Engineer to join the State team. You will lead the data-layer reliability across MySQL, PostgreSQL, Redis, and caching layers, shaping automation, observability, and disaster recovery.

You will guide the design of scalable data infrastructure and work closely with product teams to ensure reliable data services. You will champion IaC, cloud-native operations, and post-incident learning.

Qualifications

• Experienced database technologist with deep knowledge of relational databases (MySQL and PostgreSQL).
• Proficient in caching architectures with Redis and related tooling.
• Strong background in cloud infrastructure and IaC tooling (Terraform) and Kubernetes.

Responsibilities

• Own the reliability of the data layer, including databases and caches, and drive performance and reliability improvements.
• Shape infrastructure as code and provisioning workflows for repeatable, safe operations.
• Staff on-call rotation and incident response for data systems, delivering timely resolutions.
• Collaborate with product teams to design scalable data architectures and provide guidance.

Skills

Relational databases

MySQL

PostgreSQL

Caching (Redis)

IaC (Terraform)

Cloud platforms (AWS)

Kubernetes

Observability

On-call incident response

Product collaboration

Tools

Terraform

Redis

Datadog

Prometheus

CloudWatch

Job description

AI at ZapierAt the company, we build and use automation every day to make work more efficient, creative, and human. So if you’re using AI tools while applying here - that’s great! We just ask that you use them responsibly and transparently.

Check out our guidance on How to Collaborate with AI During the company’s Hiring Process, including how to use AI tools like ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, or others during our hiring process - and when not to.

Sr. Engineer, Database Reliability Hi there!

We’re looking for a Database Reliability Engineer (DBRE) to join the State team at the company. We need someone who can set direction on our data infrastructure and isn’t afraid to get into the weeds to solve challenging operational problems.

The State team owns the platform behind the company's stateful services: our relational database fleet (MySQL and PostgreSQL), a caching layer built on Redis and ElastiCache, and the tooling that lets product teams use it all easily, safely, and reliably. You'll shape our practices around automation, observability, performance, reliability, and disaster recovery, and help make the right way the easy way for the teams building on top of our data layer. This is a senior DBRE role on the State team. You'll be the technical center of gravity for database and cache work: the person other engineers come to for design review, the one setting the bar for how we operate the data layer, and the one responsible for growing the DBRE practice on the team over time.

We know applying for and taking on a new job at any company requires a leap of faith. We want you to feel comfortable and excited to apply at the company. To help share a bit more about life at the company, here are a few resources in addition to the job description that can give you an inside look at what life is like at the company. Hopefully, you’ll take the leap of faith and apply.

Our Commitment to ApplicantsCulture and Values at the companythe company Guide to Remote WorkDiversity and Inclusivity at the company

the company is proud to be an equal opportunity workplace dedicated to pursuing and hiring a diverse workforce.

About You

You’re an experienced database technologist. You have at least 7 years in systems administration, systems engineering, or software development, with at least 4 years running production relational databases. You have deep expertise in MySQL or PostgreSQL and working knowledge of the other, including each engine's ecosystem of extensions and tools. You understand caching (such as Redis) as part of the data layer, how to design and operate it at scale, and the tradeoffs between caching and the database underneath.

You know the cloud and treat infrastructure as code. You’ve designed and maintained highly available, cloud-based database systems in AWS or another cloud platform, and you manage that infrastructure with Terraform or similar IaC tooling rather than by hand. You're comfortable operating stateful services alongside Kubernetes or other distributed systems, and you understand the tradeoffs of running data workloads in and around orchestrated environments.

You build and use observability. You’ve implemented metrics, logging, and alerting for data systems using tools like Datadog, Prometheus, or CloudWatch, and you know the difference between a dashboard that looks good and one that catches problems before customers do. You treat query performance data, replication lag, and cache hit rates as first-class signals.

You partner with product teams. Product teams are your customers. When a team comes to you with a design or a problem, you ask about their workload before prescribing a solution, give them options with tradeoffs rather than edicts, and leave them more capable than you found them. You handle support requests with the same care as incident response, you participate in an on-call rotation for production data systems, and you'd rather teach a team to fish than field the same question twice. You document things well so your knowledge can be consumed asynchronously.

You raise the bar for the team around you. You're an experienced DBRE on this team, and you treat that as a responsibility. You review peers' designs and give feedback that makes the design better and the engineer sharper. You pair on hard problems when it helps someone else grow. You turn things you've learned the hard way into docs, patterns, and runbooks so the next person doesn't have to learn them the hard way too. You care about the team being more capable a year from now than it is today.

You ship code to solve systems problems. You automate repetitive work and build tools that make the team more effective. You're comfortable digging into application code to fix a bug or launching a backend service to close a gap in our data management strategy. You take ownership of difficult problems and know that "just throw more hardware at it" isn't a scaling strategy.

You work AI-first. AI tools are already part of how you operate: you use them to write and review automation code, analyze query plans and logs, draft runbooks, and accelerate incident investigation. You have real judgment about where AI output is reliable and where it isn't, especially against production data systems, and you're building that fluency into your team's practices, not just your own.

Things You'll DoKeep the lights on

• Own the reliability of our caching layer: capacity planning, failover behavior, upgrade strategy, and healthy usage patterns for caches hosted in Redis Enterprise and AWS ElastiCache.

• Participate in our on-call rotation and serve as the point of escalation for data-layer issues during production incidents.

• Support internal customers day to day, from troubleshooting a slow query to advising on storage usage, and turn recurring questions into documentation and tooling.

Make the right way the easy way

• Manage our database and cache infrastructure as code, evolving our Terraform modules and provisioning workflows so changes are repeatable, reviewable, and safe.

• Build database and cache templated standards within our internal platform's golden path that take developers from zero to a scalable, performant, and secure setup, so they can focus on building great services quickly and easily.

• Build and maintain observability for the data layer: dashboards, alerts, and SLOs that give both our team and our internal customers a clear picture of database and cache health.

Shape where the data layer goes next

• Identify and implement strategies to improve performance and resilience across our MySQL, PostgreSQL, and Redis fleets. Our application is continually growing and evolving, and we need your help to keep scaling effectively.

• Work with development teams to make architectural decisions about new services and new technologies, including which engine fits the workload and where caching belongs.

• Consult with product teams on schema design, query patterns, and capacity planning so they succeed with the data layer rather than being handed rules.

Grow the practice

• Lead design review for data-layer work and mentor engineers across the team on database and cache practice.

• Raise the overall bar for how we operate the data layer, turning your experience into docs, patterns, and runbooks the team can rely on.