Software Engineer - PlanetScale Postgres
WFA Digital Insight
The demand for skilled software engineers in the database space has grown significantly, with a 25% increase in remote job postings in the past year. As companies continue to scale their digital operations, the need for experts who can design and maintain large-scale Postgres deployments has never been more pressing. Planetscale is at the forefront of this trend, offering a unique opportunity for engineers to work on cutting-edge technology and collaborate with a talented team. With the company's commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion, candidates can expect a supportive and dynamic work environment. Before applying, it's essential to have a strong foundation in computer science fundamentals, experience with distributed systems, and excellent communication skills.
Job Description
About the Role
The Software Engineer position at Planetscale is a critical role that requires a unique blend of technical expertise and collaborative skills. As a member of the Postgres engineering team, you will be responsible for designing and building scalable, fault-tolerant solutions that meet the needs of Planetscale's rapidly growing customer base. You will work closely with cross-functional teams to ensure seamless integration of your work and contribute to the development of a world-class managed Postgres offering.Day-to-day, you will focus on building and maintaining high availability, disaster recovery, and data protection solutions that keep customer databases safe through infrastructure failures. You will also tune Postgres to operate at scale for some of the largest and most demanding workloads in the world, leveraging your expertise in distributed systems and fault-tolerant design.
What You Will Do
- Design and build the control plane that provisions, scales, and heals Postgres clusters with minimal customer-visible downtime
- Build and maintain high availability, disaster recovery, and data protection solutions that keep customer databases safe through infrastructure failures
- Tune Postgres to operate at scale for some of the largest and most demanding workloads in the world
- Build tooling and automation for database operations, backup, restore, and migration workflows
- Participate in an on-call rotation to ensure 24/7 support for Planetscale's customers
- Work directly with customers to understand their workloads and translate real-world needs into platform improvements
- Collaborate with the engineering team to develop and implement new features and functionality
- Stay up-to-date with the latest developments in Postgres and related technologies, applying this knowledge to continuously improve Planetscale's offerings
- Contribute to the development of technical documentation and training materials for customers and internal teams
What We Are Looking For
- 5+ years of software engineering experience designing, building, and supporting large-scale systems in production
- Strong proficiency in Go, with experience in other languages like Ruby, Python, Zig, or Rust
- Experience building and maintaining distributed, fault-tolerant services
- Working knowledge of Kubernetes and containerized applications
- Experience building and operating distributed systems at scale
- Strong fundamental computer science skills and the ability to reason about distributed, fault-tolerant systems
- Excellent communication skills and the ability to work effectively in a collaborative environment
Nice to Have
- Experience building or operating a database-as-a-service or managed database platform
- Experience with connection pooling and proxy layers for Postgres
- Experience with cloud platforms (AWS, GCP, Azure) and infrastructure-as-code
- Contributions to open-source projects, especially in the Postgres or database infrastructure space
Benefits and Perks
- Competitive salary and equity package
- Opportunity to work on cutting-edge technology and collaborate with a talented team
- Flexible working hours and remote work options
- Comprehensive health insurance and benefits package
- Professional development opportunities, including training and conference attendance
- Access to the latest tools and technologies
- Recognition and rewards for outstanding performance
How to Stand Out
- Develop a strong understanding of distributed systems and fault-tolerant design principles to stand out in the application process
- Showcase your experience with Go and Kubernetes by providing specific examples of projects you've worked on
- Prepare to discuss your approach to building and maintaining high availability, disaster recovery, and data protection solutions
- Emphasize your ability to work effectively in a collaborative environment and communicate complex technical concepts clearly
- Research Planetscale's technology stack and be prepared to ask informed questions during the interview process
- Highlight any experience you have with cloud platforms, infrastructure-as-code, or open-source projects to demonstrate your versatility and willingness to learn
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