Senior Database Engineer
About The Position
The Senior Database Engineer is part of ServiceNow’s SWAT (Software Action Team), which is responsible for production stability of customer applications and infrastructure services. The team provides operational support and serves as the final support level for internal and external customers. The role suits a software engineer with strong database technology, performance analysis, and troubleshooting skills who is motivated to investigate complex systems under dynamic, real-world workloads. The engineer will learn the platform end to end and work in a fast-paced environment with the opportunity to influence the organization and its customers. The position includes on-call rotation responsibilities. The engineer will troubleshoot production databases, ServiceNow instance performance, and Linux performance on premises and on hyperscalers; lead root-cause analysis of complex incidents across large, multi-tenant PostgreSQL and MariaDB fleets; develop observability and automation to prevent recurring issues; influence infrastructure decisions for the multi-tenant cloud platform; and mentor and collaborate with engineers across operations, support, and development.
Requirements
- Experience leveraging or critically considering how to integrate AI into work processes, decision-making, or problem-solving, such as using AI-powered tools, automating workflows, analyzing AI-driven insights, or exploring AI’s potential impact.
- Five years of related experience with a bachelor’s degree, or three years with a master’s degree, or a PhD with no experience required, or equivalent work experience.
- At least five years of experience supporting or testing large-scale web-based distributed applications.
- At least five years of experience with multiple relational databases, especially PostgreSQL.
- Database experience including MVCC, transaction management, vacuum mechanics, database and query performance tuning, buffer management, WAL architecture, and backup and restore.
- At least five years of hands-on experience working on a SaaS, PaaS, or cloud infrastructure product or solution.
- Unix skills, including development, navigation, file manipulation, permissions, searching for files and text, and administrative actions.
- Strong problem-solving and analytical skills, with an aptitude for learning new technologies.
- Eagerness to learn the ServiceNow platform.
Nice To Haves
- Experience with the ServiceNow platform, scripting, tuning, and troubleshooting is highly preferred.
- Basic shell scripting, Python, JavaScript, and Ansible.
- Good understanding of schemas, table spaces, indexing, and database performance optimization.
- Familiarity or knowledge of CentOS or Red Hat operating systems.
- Formal experience on a DevOps team (Kubernetes and CI/CD pipeline), performance team, or support team for a web-based application.
Responsibilities
- Become a subject matter expert in production database troubleshooting, ServiceNow instance performance issues, and Linux performance analysis on premises and on hyperscalers.
- Own complex incident root-cause analysis across large, multi-tenant PostgreSQL and MariaDB fleets.
- Develop observability and automation to prevent recurrence of critical issues.
- Influence infrastructure decisions shaping the multi-tenant cloud platform.
- Mentor and collaborate with engineers across operations, support, and development.
- Participate in an on-call rotation.
Benefits
- Health plans, including flexible spending accounts.
- 401(k) plan with company match.
- Employee stock purchase plan (ESPP).
- Matching donations.
- Flexible time away plan.
- Family leave programs.
- Equity, when applicable, and variable/incentive compensation.
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What This Job Offers
Job Type
Full-time
Career Level
Senior
