Senior Database Reliability Engineer (DBRE) ; postgreSQL
About The Position
Identity is the key to unlocking the potential of AI. Okta secures AI by building the trusted, neutral infrastructure that enables organizations to safely embrace this new era. This work requires a relentless drive to solve complex challenges with real-world stakes. We are looking for builders and owners who operate with speed and urgency and execute with excellence. This is an opportunity to do career-defining work. We're all in on this mission. If you are too, let's talk. Senior Database Reliability Engineer (DBRE) Experience Level: Mid–Senior (4+ years PostgreSQL experience) About the Role We are looking for a highly skilled Database Reliability Engineer (DBRE) with deep expertise in PostgreSQL at scale and solid experience with MySQL. In this role, you will design, operationalize, and optimize the data persistence layer that powers our large-scale, mission-critical systems. You will work closely with SRE, Platform, and Engineering teams to ensure performance, reliability, automation, and operational excellence across our database environment. This is a hands-on engineering role focused on building resilient data infrastructure, not just administering it.
Requirements
- 4 plus years of hands-on PostgreSQL experience in high-volume, distributed, or large-scale production environments.
- Strong knowledge of PostgreSQL internals (WAL, MVCC, bloat/ vacuum tuning, query planner, indexing, logical replication).
- Production experience with MySQL (InnoDB internals, replication, performance tuning).
- Advanced SQL and strong understanding of schema design and query optimization.
- Experience with Linux systems, networking fundamentals, and systems troubleshooting.
- Experience building automation with Go or Python.
- Production experience with monitoring tools (Prometheus, Grafana, Datadog, PMM, pg_stat_statements, etc.).
- Hands-on experience with cloud environments (AWS or GCP).
Nice To Haves
- Experience with PgBouncer, HAProxy, or other connection-pooling/load-balancing layers.
- Exposure to event streaming (Kafka, Debezium) and change data capture.
- Experience supporting 24/7 production environments with on-call rotation.
- Contributions to open-source PostgreSQL ecosystem.
Responsibilities
- Design, implement, and operate highly available PostgreSQL clusters (physical replication, logical replication, sharding/partitioning, failover automation).
- Optimize query performance, indexing strategies, schema design, and storage engines.
- Perform capacity planning, growth forecasting, and workload modeling.
- Own high-availability strategies including automatic failover, multi-AZ/multi-region setups, and disaster recovery.
- Develop automation for any and all tasks including but not limited to: provisioning, configuration, backups, failovers, vacuum tuning, and schema management using tools such as Terraform, Ansible, Kubernetes Operators, or custom tooling.
- Build monitoring, alerting, and self-healing systems for PostgreSQL and MySQL.
- Lead response during database incidents—performance regressions, replication lag, deadlocks, bloat issues, storage failures, etc.
- Conduct root-cause analysis and implement permanent fixes.
- Partner with software engineers to review SQL, optimize schemas, and ensure efficient use of PostgreSQL features.
- Provide guidance on database-related design patterns, migrations, version upgrades, and best practices.
Benefits
- health, dental and vision insurance
- 401(k)
- flexible spending account
- paid leave (including PTO and parental leave)
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What This Job Offers
Job Type
Full-time
Career Level
Mid Level
Education Level
No Education Listed
Number of Employees
1,001-5,000 employees
