Staff Platform Database Reliability Engineer

Index Exchange•Toronto, ON

23h•Hybrid

About The Position

Join our global organization at the forefront of innovation in the Ad-Tech industry. We are seeking a dynamic and experienced Staff Database Reliability Engineer to lead across data domains and teams, driving strategic outcomes for our organization. The ideal candidate will be equal parts responsible for driving initiatives at deep technical level and ensuring robust operational rigor to achieve stability and scale in our data environments.

Requirements

7+ years of proven experience as a Database Reliability Engineer, Database Administrator, general SRE with a slant to data systems, or a similar role.
In-depth expertise of databases, with a focus on the specified key technologies (MySQL, MariaDB, Galera, PostgreSQL, Kafka, Aerospike, Redis, StarRocks, Vertica).
Experience deploying and operating databases at scale in containerized (Kubernetes) and bare metal environments.
Working knowledge of languages like Python, Bash/Shell, Kotlin, Java and/or golang
Good understanding of automation tools like Ansible, Terraform, and any CI/CD tools (Helm, Gitlab workflows, ArgoCD, etc.).
Good understanding of database change management systems like Liquibase, Flywheel, or Alembic.
Good understanding of observability tools like Loki, Grafana, Prometheus, etc.
Demonstrated leadership, mentoring, and collaboration skills balancing strategic and tactical needs.
Excellent problem-solving and troubleshooting abilities, diagnosing at depth for a globally distributed infrastructure with low-latency requirements.
Effective communication skills, both technical and non-technical audiences

Nice To Haves

Basic understanding of streaming and big data technologies like Kafka, Spark, Flink, Hadoop, Presto/Trino, or Redis (desirable).

Responsibilities

Provide strategic leadership across multiple domains, collaborating with cross-functional teams such as product, operations, infrastructure, and platform engineering to achieve business objectives.
Foster a culture of innovation, continuous improvement, and collaboration within the data systems team.
Advocate for strategic directions that reduce our complexity and tech stack footprint.
Demonstrate deep expertise some of our core database technologies, including MySQL, MariaDB, Galera, PostgreSQL, Aerospike, Redis, Kafka, Zookeeper, Cassandra/ScyllaDB, etcd, StarRocks, Vertica.
Deploy and operate databases at scale in decentralized cloud (k8s, external) and bare metal-based environments.
Architect relational data structures for performance, scale, and continuity.
Drive technical excellence by staying abreast of industry trends, evaluating emerging technologies, and making recommendations for adoption.
Lead initiatives with other cross-functional engineering staff that are supporters and consumers of your data systems.
Ensure robust operational processes are in place to guarantee the stability and scalability of database environments.
Develop and implement best practices for database administration, monitoring, and maintenance using open-source observability and instrumentation tools.
Develop and enhance testing and production release procedures with an automation-first core principle to end-to-end delivery.
Security/IAM minded practices and implementations, audits, traceability.
Collaborate effectively with cross-functional teams, including developers, system administrators, and data scientists, to optimize database performance and functionality.
Communicate complex technical concepts to non-technical stakeholders, fostering understanding and alignment across the organization.
Participate in quarterly planning events to present your roadmaps and ensure strong alignment with the objectives and the broader technology teams.
Lead efforts in problem identification, troubleshooting, and resolution to minimize downtime and enhance our Exchange reliability.
Lead retrospective/rca engagements for data systems to ensure we are on a continuous improvement path.

Benefits

Comprehensive health, dental, and vision plans for you and your dependents
Paid time off, health days, and personal obligation days plus flexible work schedules
Competitive retirement matching plans
Equity packages
Generous parental leave available to birthing, non-birthing, and adoptive parents
Annual well-being allowance plus fitness discounts and group wellness activities
Commuter benefits and discounts, where available
Employee assistance program
Mental health first aid program that provides an in-the-moment point of contact and reassurance
One day of volunteer time off per year and a donation-matching program
Monthly town halls and regular community-led team events
Multiple resources and programming to support continuous learning
A workplace that supports a diverse, equitable, and inclusive environment