Technical Lead, Senior Database Engineer

Canopy; United States; Remote; USD 120,000 - 190,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Flexible PTO

Health benefits

401(k) match

Mental health support

Parental leave

Fully-stocked kitchen

Job summary

Canopy, a Draper, Utah-based SaaS company, is seeking a Senior Database Engineer to own a fleet of 100+ PostgreSQL databases. You will optimize performance, plan capacity, and mentor teammates while ensuring reliability in a fast-paced, microservices environment.

You will collaborate with backend developers, product managers, and QA engineers to shape data models and keep the platform fast and scalable. Remote-friendly, with strong on-site support in Utah.

Qualifications

• Oversee the maintenance of 100+ managed databases to ensure optimal performance, security, and reliability.
• Regularly monitor database health, identifying bottlenecks, and recommending actionable solutions.
• Own database cost and capacity planning across the fleet—right-sizing instances and forecasting spend.
• Plan for busy season using historical performance and growth trends.
• Refine and refactor database structures for performance and accessibility.

Responsibilities

• Own index and query health across the fleet: analysis, slow query review, and autovacuum tuning.
• Collaborate with teams to write and optimize complex database queries and migrations.
• Serve as database reviewer on squad design docs to shape data models for performance.
• Lead initiatives to minimize downtime during maintenance and ensure reliability.
• Provide mentoring and training on database insights and optimizations.
• Develop and communicate SQL best practices to engineering teams.

Skills

PostgreSQL

SQL

Database tuning

Performance optimization

RDS

Cloud databases

Data modeling

Mentoring

Tools

AWS RDS

PgAdmin

SQL tooling

Job description

Senior Database Engineer

Draper, UT - Remote

About Us

Canopy is a fast-growing SaaS company in Draper, Utah building simple, efficient software for accounting firms. We are looking to revolutionize the accounting space with modern, user-friendly software for a neglected industry. Our goal is to help our clients unlock the firm they’ve always wanted with our Practice Management Suite. We place strong emphasis on delighting our customers, spotting and solving problems, and being good people along the way.

Click here to see why our clients love Canopy.

Interested in learning more about Canopy & the industry? Check out our blog here where you can find great information on our product features, industry news, practice management, and more!

The Opportunity

We’re hiring a Senior Database Engineer who takes real pride in databases that run well and enjoys writing great SQL. If you’re eager to own a fleet of roughly 100 Postgres databases, obsessed with query performance, and opinionated about what good schema design looks like on a modern SaaS platform, you’re the person we’re looking for. You’ll be central to our backend engineering efforts, working alongside developers, product managers, and QA engineers to shape our data models and keep our platform fast and reliable. Our DevOps tooling and microservices architecture let teams ship to production hundreds of times a month—your job is to make sure the database layer keeps up.

What You’ll Do:

• Oversee the maintenance of 100+ managed databases to ensure optimal performance, security, and reliability.
• Regularly monitor database health, identifying bottlenecks, and recommending actionable solutions.
• Own database cost and capacity planning across the fleet—right-sizing instances, forecasting spend, and making the case for where we should invest versus trim.
• Use historical performance and growth trends to plan for busy season, so we scale up before the load arrives and scale back down when it doesn’t need to be there.
• Refine and refactor our database structures to align with best practices and enhance the ease of data access for backend developers.
• Own index and query health across the fleet: plan analysis, slow query review, index coverage and bloat, autovacuum tuning, and connection pooling.
• Advise on and implement modern database best practices to elevate our platform’s reliability and efficiency.
• Collaborate with teams to write and optimize complex database queries and migrations.
• Serve as the database reviewer on squad design docs. Every new feature’s data model, schema changes, and query patterns get your sign-off alongside the tech lead, and you’ll shape them for performance, scale, and reporting before any code gets written.
• Spearhead initiatives to minimize downtime during database maintenance, ensuring a seamless experience for our users.
• Provide mentoring and training to team members on database insights and optimizations.
• Develop and communicate SQL “best practices” to engineering teams.

Your Skills Include:

• Minimum of 5 years of experience as a Database Engineer, with a track record of managing and optimizing databases.
• 5+ years of experience writing SQL and experience with relational database systems - specifically PostgreSQL
• Acute ability to diagnose database performance issues and provide solutions.
• Proven experience in implementing database best practices and ensuring minimal downtime.
• Experience with managed cloud database infrastructure (RDS preferred).
• Excellent communication skills, fostering collaboration and understanding across teams, while showing mutual respect for others’ opinions.
• A relentless passion for ensuring data integrity and accessibility, combined with a drive to build innovative, scalable solutions that have a genuine impact on customers.

Bonus Skills:

• Experience with warehousing techniques, enabling better analytics and reporting functionalities.
• Proficiency with various programming languages (Python and/or Java/Kotlin are a plus).

We know many women do not apply for a job if they don’t perfectly fit the description. We want you to apply anyway.

Why You Want to Work Here:

• Flexible Paid Time Off - that you’re actually encouraged to use plus 10 company holidays!
• Health Benefits - including Medical, Dental, and Vision and an HSA Match. Canopy covers Medical premiums at 100% for Employees only.
• 401(k) - we match 100% up to 3% of your contribution. Eligibility is immediate with 100% vesting.
• Mental Health - all employees have access to Impact Suite & to our Employee Assistance Program (EAP).
• Paid New Parent Leave & Birthing Parent Leave - so you’re able to care for your little ones.
• Supplemental Benefits - including 100% company paid Basic Life & AD&D insurance and long & short-term disability coverage.
• Motivosity - our peer-to-peer recognition program to help our employees recognize the amazing work being done by other Canopians!
• Company Events - including monthly company-wide meetings, summer parties, and more.
• DEIB Committee - to plan initiatives around continuing education, community outreach, recruiting, onboarding, and more.
• Fully-stocked kitchen - Keto? Vegan? Flexitarian? Mandalorian? We’ve got you covered.

Our Values:

We approach our work every day with a few things in mind:

• Own - we own this place! We focus on outcomes, holding ourselves & each other accountable.
• Win - we win by delighting our customers with the very best products and services.
• Do Good - we work hard to be good people!
• Embrace Curiosity & Candor - we approach everything with curiosity & we understand that candor is kindness and give the gift of feedback.

To learn more about us & our values, click here.

Interviewing @ Canopy:

We know application processes can be a little stressful. Here’s are the stages of a typical interview process:

• Once your application is received, we will review it and get back to you if we feel like it’s a mutual fit!
• 20 minute phone call with the People Team
• 60 minute video technical interview with the Hiring Manager
  • Note: you will be writing SQL in real time with the Manager
• 1-3 rounds of interviews with the Engineering Team.

Interview processes can vary depending on the role. The People Team will give you a role specific overview of the process during your first phone call.

Remember: This is your interview too! We know candidates are evaluating us just as much as we are them. We encourage you to bring questions to each of your interviews—our hiring teams will always make sure to save time for questions at the end!

Canopy is an equal opportunity employer. Canopy provides equal employment opportunities (EEO) to all employees and applicants for employment without regard to race, color, religion, gender, national origin, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, age, disability, genetic information, marital status or veteran status.