Staff Database Platform Engineer - Remote Eligible

Staff Database Platform Engineer

Demandbase is hiring a Staff Database Platform Engineer to lead the evolution of how we manage databases in the cloud. In addition to operating monolithic databases, you'll build the platforms, automation, and guardrails that empower product teams to provision, run, and monitor their own databases across AWS accounts. This role is about designing the future of database reliability at scale — with automation, observability, and compliance baked in — while still being able to 'speak DBA' when it comes to tuning and schema design. You'll provide technical leadership to a global DBRE team, drive automation and best practices, and partner with engineering teams to move faster — without compromising on stability.

The base compensation range for this position for candidates in the SF Bay Area is $140,000 - $210,000. For all other locations, the base compensation range is based on the primary work location of the candidate as our ranges are location specific. Actual compensation packages are based on a wide array of factors unique to each candidate, including but not limited to skillset, years of experience, and depth of experience.

What You'll Be Doing

• Automation & Platform

  • Build the Database Platform of the Future: Design automation and self-service frameworks for provisioning, scaling, and securing databases across AWS (RDS, Aurora, DynamoDB) and other cloud-native stores.
  • Develop Infrastructure-as-Code modules (Terraform, Helm, Gitlab CI/CD) to eliminate manual operations.
  • Establish best practices for service-level databases in a microservices architecture (Postgres, MySQL, DynamoDB, etc.).
  • Evaluate and guide architectural decisions for large-scale analytical and ETL workloads — helping the company choose the right data technologies (e.g., RDS/Aurora, BigQuery, Iceberg or other cloud-native solutions) to balance performance, cost, and scalability.
  • Implement observability solutions (Prometheus, Grafana, Datadog, OpenSearch) for database health at scale.

• Support and Modernize Legacy Systems

  • Ensure availability, performance, and security of existing large-scale monolithic databases powering critical platform functions.
  • Lead efforts to reduce risk, cost, and complexity in these systems while preparing them for migration or replacement.
  • Guide safe transition of workloads from shared monolithic environments toward decentralized, service-owned models.

• Partner and Enable

  • Collaborate with product/platform teams on schema design, query optimization, and database best practices.
  • Provide tools, documentation, and onboarding support that empower teams to safely own and manage their databases.

• Lead & Mentor

  • Mentor DBREs to evolve from traditional DBA skillsets toward platform engineering and automation-first practices.
  • Influence organizational culture toward shift-left ownership of databases.
  • Participate in incident response/postmortems across both monolithic and service-owned systems.

What We're Looking For

• 10 years of experience in database reliability, platform engineering, or cloud infrastructure roles.
• Strong experience with Infrastructure-as-Code and automation (Terraform, Helm, GitLab CI/CD, Kubernetes Operators, etc.).
• Proficiency with cloud-managed relational databases (PostgreSQL/MySQL on RDS/Aurora) and cloud-native databases (DynamoDB).
• Proficiency with performance tuning, query optimization, and schema design.
• Experience modernizing and migrating legacy databases (including those used as ETL sources) into more scalable or fit-for-purpose systems, in partnership with data engineering/warehouse teams.
• Solid Linux skills and scripting (Python, Shell)
• Hands-on experience with observability stacks (Prometheus, Grafana, Datadog, OpenSearch, or similar) and passionate about building reliable monitoring/alerting frameworks.
• Demonstrated ability to mentor DBREs/DBAs into platform engineers, and to influence engineering culture toward shift-left ownership of databases.
• Excellent communicator and collaborator — able to bridge product, platform, DBRE, and data teams.

Nice to Have

• Experience guiding organizations through monolithic-to-microservices or shared-to-service-owned database transitions
• Familiarity with big data/streaming systems (Kafka, Spark, etc.) and their intersection with service-level databases.

We offer a comprehensive benefits package designed to support your health, well-being, and financial security. Our employees enjoy up to 100% paid premiums for Medical and Vision coverage, ensuring access to top-tier care for you and your loved ones. In addition, we provide a range of mental wellness resources, including access to Modern Health, to help support your emotional well-being. We believe in a healthy work-life harmony, which is why we offer a flexible PTO policy, 15 paid holidays in 2025—including a three-day break around July 4th and a full week off for Thanksgiving—and No Internal Meetings Fridays to give you uninterrupted time to focus on what matters most. For your financial future, we offer a competitive 401(k) plan, short-term and long-term disability coverage, life insurance, and other valuable benefits to ensure your financial peace of mind.

Our Commitment to Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion at Demandbase: At Demandbase, we believe in creating a workplace culture that values and celebrates diversity in all its forms. We recognize that everyone brings unique experiences, perspectives, and identities to the table, and we are committed to building a community where everyone feels valued, respected, and supported. Discrimination of any kind is not tolerated, and we strive to ensure that every individual has an equal opportunity to succeed and grow, regardless of their gender identity, sexual orientation, disability, race, ethnicity, background, marital status, genetic information, education level, veteran status, national origin, or any other protected status. We do not automatically disqualify applicants with criminal records and will consider each applicant on a case-by-case basis.

We recognize that not all candidates will have every skill or qualification listed in this job description. If you feel you have the level of experience to be successful in the role, we encourage you to apply! We acknowledge that true diversity and inclusion requires ongoing effort, and we are committed to doing the work required to make our workplace a safe and equitable space for all. Join us in building a community where we can learn from each other, celebrate our differences, and work together.