Database Platform Engineer [IC4]

Location

🌎 While we hire almost anywhere in the world, we have a preference for someone to reside in the following locations for this role. However, if you feel qualified, we welcome you to apply regardless of location. No matter what, working hours must overlap with PST for at least 20 hours/week.

Preferred locations:

• Remote - USA

Why this job is exciting

As a Database Engineer on our Dev Infrastructure team this role offers the opportunity to be a key technical leader, driving high-impact database initiatives that optimize performance, scalability, and cost efficiency. You'll tackle complex PostgreSQL challenges, influence critical architectural decisions, and collaborate across teams to shape the organization's database strategy. If you enjoy solving deep technical problems, building automation for reliability, and making a measurable impact on cloud efficiency, this position provides an exciting and rewarding challenge.

📅 Within one month, you will…

• Familiarize yourself with the current database architecture, telemetry pipelines, and key pain points related to performance and data flows.
• Collaborate with key teams to identify immediate optimizations and develop a short-term improvement plan.

📅 Within three months, you will…

• Implement optimizations to improve query performance, indexing, and data ingestion latency.
• Establish database best practices (e.g., schema design, query optimization) and document them for adoption across teams.

📅 Within six months, you will…

• Lead the design and implementation of foundational changes to improve database scalability, reliability, and performance.
• Collaborate with the Metrics and Operations team to design efficient telemetry pipelines and reduce data pipeline failures.

📅 Within one year, you will…

• Design and implement a scalable, self-service database architecture that supports future growth while minimizing manual intervention.
• Partner with cross-functional teams to ensure ongoing improvements in data migrations, schema evolution, and disaster recovery.

About you

You are a PostgreSQL expert with a proven ability to optimize performance, resolve complex issues, and lead large-scale database initiatives. You excel at automation, observability, and cost optimization while collaborating across teams to drive efficiency and reliability. A strong collaborator, you work seamlessly across engineering teams, embedding when needed to provide direct support on database-heavy projects while driving broader system-wide improvements. You are strongly aligned with our values, inspired by our mission to make it so that everyone can code, and motivated to do your best work at Sourcegraph.

Qualifications:

• Clear and empathetic communication skills.
• Deep Expertise in PostgreSQL – Hands-on experience with query optimization, schema design, indexing, migrations, and troubleshooting complex database issues.
• Cross-Team Collaboration – Proven ability to work across engineering teams, effectively prioritize tasks, and balance project-specific work with broader system-wide improvements.
• Database Observability – Experience implementing and utilizing monitoring tools to gain insights into database performance, reliability, and usage patterns.
• Cost Optimization – Strong understanding of database cost management strategies, including performance tuning, indexing strategies, and cloud cost reduction techniques.
• Your working hours overlap with 9am-5pm PT for at least 15 hours per week so we have time to collaborate synchronously when necessary.

Level

📊 This job is an IC4.  You can read more about our job leveling philosophy in our Handbook.

Compensation

💸 We pay you an above-average salary because we want to hire the best people who are fully focused on helping Sourcegraph succeed, not worried about paying bills. As an open and transparent company that values competitive compensation, our compensation ranges are visible to every single Sourcegraph teammate.

Your salary is determined by your pay band for the IC4  job level. For determining pay bands, we use a number of market and data-driven salary sources, along with your location zone, and target the high-end of the range to ensure we’re always paying above market regardless of where you live in the world. Both U.S. and international locations are divided into one of four zones, determined by the cost of labor index for each area. The salary for a successful candidate will be based on level, job-related skills, experience, qualifications, and location zone. Please note that the salaries below may be adjusted in the future.

💰 The target compensation for this role is based on the IC4 pay band for your zone. The start of the IC4 pay band for each zone is listed below:

• Zone 1: $200,000 USD
• Zone 2: $160,000 USD
• Zone 3: $120,000 USD
• Zone 4: $80,000 USD

Please speak with a recruiter for additional information regarding zone locations.

📈 In addition to our cash compensation, we offer equity (because when we succeed as a company, we want you to succeed, too) and generous perks & benefits.

Interview process

Below is the interview process you can expect for this role (you can read more about the types of interviews in our Handbook). It may look like a lot of steps, but rest assured that we move quickly and the steps are designed to help you get the information needed to determine if we’re the right fit for you… Interviewing is a two-way street, after all! 

We expect the interview process to take 5 hours in total.

👋 Introduction Stage - we have initial conversations to get to know you better…

• [30m] Recruiter Screen
• [15m] Hiring Manager Screen

🧑‍💻 Team Interview Stage - we then delve into your experience in more depth and introduce you to members of the team, including cross-functional partners…

• [Async] Take home Exercise
• [60m] Technical Screen / Resume Deep Dive
• [60m] Take home Exercise Walkthrough
• [45m] Cross-functional Team Collaboration / Values
• [15m] Leadership with co-founder 
• We check references and conduct your background check

Please note - you are welcome to request additional conversations with anyone you would like to meet, but didn’t get to meet during the interview process.