Systems and Database Engineer | Database Services | Experienced Hire

SIG Susquehanna; Pennsylvania; On-site; USD 80,000 - 120,000; Full time

Job summary

SIG Susquehanna in Pennsylvania is seeking a skilled engineer for their Production Services Team with expertise in database technologies and systems engineering. This role focuses on application database engineering for trading platforms, ensuring performance and reliability in a high-performance environment.

Candidates should have a strong foundation in SQL, Python, and Kubernetes, alongside a Bachelor's degree in Computer Science or a related field. This position offers an opportunity to collaborate closely with traders, applying advanced database solutions in a trading context.

Qualifications

• 1-5 years of experience in database engineering or related field.
• Strong proficiency in SQL, relational databases, and complex queries.
• Solid Python skills with the ability to write production-quality scripts.

Responsibilities

• Design, deploy, and maintain relational and non-relational database systems.
• Optimize query performance and develop Python tooling for database operations.
• Ensure high availability and reliability through replication and disaster recovery planning.

Skills

SQL

Python

Kubernetes

Linux

Education

Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science or related field

Tools

MariaDB

MongoDB

InfluxDB

ClickHouse

Job description

Overview

Our Production Services Team is looking for a skilled engineer with a strong foundation in database technologies and systems engineering — not a traditional DBA, but someone who understands how databases fit into broader system architecture and can collaborate across disciplines to drive performance, reliability, and scalability.

This role is part of a front office support team, focused on application database engineering for trading platforms and directly supporting traders in a high-performance, low-latency environment.

Key Responsibilities

• Design, deploy, and maintain relational and non-relational database systems at scale (hundreds of millions to billions of records, TB-scale datasets), including MariaDB, MongoDB, InfluxDB, and ClickHouse.
• Optimize query performance through advanced indexing strategies, execution plan analysis, and schema design.
• Develop Python tooling and automation to support database operations, maintenance workflows, and system health.
• Ensure high availability and reliability through replication, failover design, and disaster recovery planning.
• Operate confidently in production environments — diagnosing and resolving time-sensitive issues with composure and precision.
• Manage and scale containerized database workloads using Kubernetes, including ClickHouse deployments.
• Monitor system health using observability tooling and proactively address performance degradation.
• Collaborate with developers, researchers, and platform engineers to support data-intensive applications.
• Apply AI tooling and best practices to accelerate engineering workflows.

Core Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Information Systems, or a related field — or equivalent practical experience.
• 1-5 years of experience in database engineering, systems engineering, or a related discipline.
• Strong proficiency in SQL and deep working knowledge of relational databases — complex query manipulation, indexing, partitioning, replication, and high availability.
• Solid Python development skills — able to write production-quality scripts and tooling, not just one-off automation.
• Good understanding of Kubernetes — deploying, managing, and debugging containerized workloads.
• Strong Linux fundamentals — shell scripting, process management, system monitoring, and core command-line fluency.
• Comfort operating in a production environment — you handle pressure well and take ownership of reliability.
• Working knowledge of AI tools and best practices for engineering workflows.

Nice to Have

• Graph database experience (e.g., Neo4j or similar).
• Oracle database experience.
• ProxySQL configuration and routing experience.
• Infrastructure-as-code experience with Terraform.
• Familiarity with Prometheus and Grafana for observability and alerting.
• Prior experience in a production or trading environment.

About Susquehanna

Susquehanna is a global quantitative trading firm powered by scientific rigor, curiosity, and innovation. Our culture is intellectually driven and highly collaborative, bringing together researchers, engineers, and traders to design and deploy impactful strategies in our systematic trading environment. To meet the unique challenges of global markets, Susquehanna applies machine learning and advanced quantitative research to vast datasets in order to uncover actionable insights and build effective strategies. By uniting deep market expertise with cutting-edge technology, we excel in solving complex problems and pushing boundaries together.