Software Engineer - Surfaces

PlanetScale•San Francisco, CA

21h•$120,000 - $290,000

About The Position

PlanetScale is rapidly growing and reinventing the database space with its platform offering both Postgres and Vitess clusters. Vitess, an open-source database clustering system for horizontal scaling of MySQL, enables businesses to efficiently handle large-scale data workloads without sacrificing developer experience. The company is looking for a Software Engineer to join its Surfaces team, which is responsible for all user-facing UIs, CLIs, and APIs. This team builds and maintains the PlanetScale dashboard, APIs, and billing systems that every PlanetScale user relies on to launch and manage their databases. The role involves working on app.planetscale.com, the central control plane for every PlanetScale database, responsible for the creation and management of Vitess and Postgres databases. The engineer will work across multiple languages and technologies including Go for the CLI, React + TypeScript for the dashboard, and Ruby on Rails for the backend API. The position offers the opportunity to learn and deeply understand Vitess and Postgres, collaborate with the design team to solve database DX challenges, and build the best database for developers. Responsibilities include building, documenting, and publishing RESTful APIs, working on internal admin tools, and contributing to bringing PlanetScale to users via APIs, Terraform providers, or MCP servers. The role emphasizes working independently to solve engineering and business problems with high autonomy and little direction.

Requirements

5+ years of software engineering experience building web applications
Strong proficiency in Ruby on Rails for backend development
Experience with React and TypeScript for frontend development
Familiarity with relational databases (PostgreSQL, MySQL)
Understanding of web fundamentals: HTTP, authentication, browser APIs
Familiarity with feature flags and progressive rollouts to move quickly and safely
Experience with modern CSS (Tailwind CSS or similar utility-first frameworks)

Nice To Haves

Experience with Go for CLI development
Experience with Next.js or Remix
Experience with background job processing (Sidekiq)
Knowledge of data visualization libraries (D3, charting libraries)
Experience with cloud platforms (AWS, GCP)
Previous experience at a high-growth technology company

Responsibilities

Work on app.planetscale.com, the central control plane for every PlanetScale database.
Work across languages including Go (CLI), React + TypeScript (dashboard), and Ruby on Rails (backend API).
Learn and deeply understand Vitess and Postgres.
Apply skills and taste to solve database DX challenges with the design team.
Build, document, and publish RESTful APIs used by end users and the user-facing dashboard.
Work on internal admin tools (chatbots, admin panels) to assist engineers and support teams.
Bring PlanetScale to users via an API, Terraform provider, or MCP server.
Work independently to solve engineering and business problems with little direction and high autonomy.