Principal Database Engineer

DAT•Seattle, WA

4d•Hybrid

About The Position

At DAT, our leaders optimistically share future possibilities to inspire and motivate others toward their full potential. We expect our employees to find ways to embrace positive change, be curious and challenge the status quo, and provide solutions to unmet problems. Joining DAT means joining a culture focused on fostering development, building genuine connections, recognizing each other's strengths and sharing in successes. As a Principal Database Engineer , you will be responsible for establishing database administration patterns, practices, and standards within the organization and team. You will support us in designing, building, and maintaining our database and data platform infrastructure, with special focus on reliability, availability, scalability, security, and governance in AWS. You will have the opportunity to work on challenging database platforms and data-related problems and to have a measurable impact on the organization. Leading the evolution of our data platform including database architecture, performance optimization, security hardening, disaster recovery, and observability while introducing new ideas, patterns and technologies in support of our customers and internal stakeholders.

Requirements

Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Computer Engineering or related technical discipline
8+ years of relevant database and platform engineering experience with at least 3+ years in a lead or principal capacity
Ability to lead, teach, mentor and execute at the highest level
You are a strong database platform engineer with deep expertise in PostgreSQL, DocumentDB (or MongoDB), and AWS database services (RDS, Aurora, DynamoDB, Redshift)
Expert-level knowledge of database administration including performance tuning, high availability architectures, disaster recovery, backup/restore strategies, and capacity planning
Proven experience implementing comprehensive observability and monitoring solutions (CloudWatch, DataDog, or similar)
Strong knowledge of database security including encryption at rest/in transit, access controls, audit logging, and compliance requirements
Experience with infrastructure as code (Terraform and/or Pulumi) and CI/CD pipelines for database deployments
Hands-on experience with cloud-based services (AWS S3, EMR, Glue) and containerization technologies (Docker, Kubernetes, ECS, EKS)
Strong Shell, Python and SQL skills with emphasis on scripting, query optimization and automation
Experience with data integration tools such as Kafka, DBT, and orchestration frameworks
Knowledge of data governance frameworks, data cataloging, and metadata management
Leverage data and metrics to prioritize your work and to influence others
Passionate about implementing change and improvements when seeing an opportunity
Experience building and operating large-scale, distributed database systems in production environments
Knowledge of professional software engineering practices and best practices for the full software development and technology management life cycle, including coding standards, code reviews, source control management, build processes, testing, monitoring, alerting and operations; Agile a plus
Excellent verbal and written communication skills with ability to collaborate across technical and business teams
Ability to drive continuous learning and improvement for yourself, and others in the organization. Fostering a community of continuous growth in our knowledge and skills

Responsibilities

Lead the evolution of our data platform architecture with focus on PostgreSQL, DocumentDB, and AWS-native database services
Establish and enforce database administration best practices including performance tuning, capacity planning, backup/recovery strategies, and high availability configurations
Implement comprehensive observability solutions for database monitoring, alerting, and performance analytics
Design and enforce data security policies, access controls, encryption strategies, and compliance frameworks
Establish data governance standards including data quality, lineage, cataloging, and discoverability
Optimize database performance through query optimization, indexing strategies, and resource management
Knowledge of implementing known patterns and their impact to a microservices architecture-based data platform, such as Event Driven, CQRS, event sourcing, Saga pattern, etc
Database modeling expertise (relational, document-based, and distributed database design patterns)
Provide solutions for complex business problems, enabling insights that can empower better decision-making
Take an active role in fostering a culture of learning and excellence