Senior Database Engineer II

SurveyMonkey•Ottawa, ON

7d•CA$95,200 - CA$119,000•Hybrid

About The Position

SurveyMonkey is seeking an experienced database engineer to contribute to the evolution of its data stores towards a cloud-native, globally distributed architecture. The ideal candidate is passionate about data, possesses strong hands-on expertise in SQL Server and MySQL, and thrives in a collaborative engineering environment. This role requires deep knowledge of relational and NoSQL databases, cloud-based database solutions, and the application of best practices to design, implement, and optimize reliable, scalable, and secure data systems.

Requirements

7+ years of experience managing high-performing databases in production environments
5+ years of hands-on experience with strong SQL query skills, writing complex, highly optimized queries across large datasets for both administration and application data.
3+ years of hands-on experience designing, optimizing, and managing PostgreSQL databases in production environments.
Strong expertise in SQL Server (clustering, high availability groups, vertical and horizontal partitioning) and MySQL (replication, partitioning, indexing, stored procedures, and performance tuning)
3+ years of experience writing and maintaining Terraform configurations to provision and manage cloud infrastructure.
Hands-on experience with one or more vector databases such as Pinecone, Milvus, Qdrant, or pgvector.
2+ years of experience with cloud-based database solutions (AWS RDS, Aurora, DynamoDB, etc.)
Bachelor's or Master's degree in Computer Science or a related field; AWS certification is a plus
Solid understanding of relational and analytical database solutions, NoSQL data stores, and data warehouse concepts
Experience with ETL development and highly available database architectures in both on-prem and cloud environments
Experience with Windows and/or Unix systems administration
Experience writing Python, Bash, PowerShell, or other scripting languages
Experience with configuration management systems (Ansible is a plus)
Experience working with virtualized environments
Experience with repeatable automation at both the OS and database level
Self-motivated, collaborative, and able to work effectively as part of a geographically dispersed team
Strong communication skills with the ability to work across technical teams and present data modeling decisions clearly

Responsibilities

Partner with cross-functional engineering teams to design and implement scalable, reliable data store solutions for both online and analytical workloads
Manage and optimize SQL Server and MySQL databases, including schema design, query tuning, replication, backup/recovery, and performance monitoring
Implement and maintain data integration pipelines across heterogeneous data stores
Follow and promote best practices for relational and NoSQL database design within engineering teams
Collaborate with data engineering and data science teams to understand data challenges and deliver scalable, flexible solutions
Contribute to data governance and security initiatives for the data platform
Understand and troubleshoot issues across the full stack (hardware, software, and network)
Design and build automation and tooling across the software development lifecycle, including provisioning, version control, CI/CD, and deployment
Work with Software Engineering teams to implement solutions in support of product development; write stored procedures, scripts, etc. as needed
Participate in the on-call rotation as needed
Help shape future data strategy by researching emerging technologies and recommending solutions to support SurveyMonkey's evolving platform