Senior Software Engineer II, Managed Databases

DigitalOcean • Seattle, WA

1d • Hybrid

About The Position

DigitalOcean is seeking a Senior Software Engineer II to join their Managed Databases (DBaaS) engineering organization. This role focuses on delivering fully managed Postgres, MySQL, and related database services, enabling customers to run production data workloads, AI inference, and data-intensive applications without managing clusters themselves. In this high-impact IC4 role, you will leverage advanced expertise in distributed control planes, database platform infrastructure, and production reliability. You will translate product and system requirements into concrete architecture, lead complex technical projects across DBaaS and adjacent platform boundaries, and mentor engineers to enhance team standards. The ideal candidate is comfortable independently navigating ambiguous problems from design through implementation, launch, and long-term operation.

Requirements

• 8+ years of professional software engineering experience building and operating large-scale distributed systems or data-plane/control-plane infrastructure (SaaS/PaaS or equivalent).
• Proven track record diagnosing and solving complex, high-concurrency engineering problems in production cloud environments.
• Strong understanding of concurrency, failure modes, multi-region concerns, and performance optimization in production Linux/cloud environments.
• Track record of driving complex cross-team technical projects, mentoring engineers, and communicating tradeoffs clearly with partners and leadership.
• Appetite for feedback and a “leave it better than you found it” approach to architecture and maintainability.

Nice To Haves

• Working knowledge of relational database engine internals—specifically PostgreSQL and/or MySQL—including query performance, replication, and scale.
• Experience scaling services for compute, memory, and networking demands of data-intensive or AI inference-adjacent workloads.

Responsibilities

• Architect and implement DBaaS platform systems, designing and building scalable control-plane and infrastructure components to enhance throughput, multi-region operability, and reliability for managed database workloads.
• Translate ambiguous requirements into deliverable architecture by deconstructing customer and system needs into clear technical designs and workstreams that drive predictable delivery with product and engineering partners.
• Own performance and resiliency outcomes on services by improving resource utilization, fault tolerance, and availability through profiling and targeted changes against I/O, CPU, and network bottlenecks under real production load.
• Strengthen lifecycle capabilities by shipping improvements to automated failover, continuous backups, point-in-time recovery (PITR), and maintenance workflows to handle higher data volumes and tighter SLAs.
• Scale for data-heavy and AI-adjacent demand by expanding and hardening control-plane and infrastructure pieces that support compute-heavy and high-concurrency customer workloads.
• Raise the team's engineering bar by guiding technical decisions through design and code reviews, and contributing clear design documents for led initiatives.
• Mentor team members through technical guidance, architectural reviews, and code-quality standards to accelerate growth and execution velocity.
• Operate built systems by establishing observability, failover, and recovery practices, participating in on-call rotations, and turning incident learnings into durable platform improvements.

Benefits

• Competitive array of benefits to support you from our Employee Assistance Program to Local Employee Meetups to flexible time off policy.
• Reimbursement for relevant conferences, training, and education.
• Access to LinkedIn Learning's 10,000+ courses.
• Bonus in addition to base salary (based on company and individual performance).
• Equity compensation, including equity grants upon hire and the option to participate in our Employee Stock Purchase Program.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Senior
• Education Level: No Education Listed