Database Performance Engineer

Position Overview

Our customers are at the forefront of some of the most interesting data in the world, using SingleStore DB to push the boundaries daily. To do this well, they leverage the expertise of our Support Engineering Team, composed of technical subject matter experts on the frontlines of critical product and customer issues.

Our Database Performance Engineers develop a deep understanding of the SingleStore query optimizer and query execution. They leverage that knowledge to help customers achieve the full lightspeed capabilities of the SingeStore engine. 

This is a customer-facing role where the problems that you are investigating and solving have been escalated to you straight from our customers. The Database Performance Engineer role is within our Support Engineering department and reports to Support Engineering management. Additionally, some of your closest colleagues will be members of the Query Optimization and Query Execution engineering teams as you collaborate on the behavior of the optimizer, bugs, and general product behavior daily.

You should be excited to:

• Explore new features and improvements that are making your job easier and providing you with a constant source of new subject matter and product features to delve into.
• Dive into the internals of our query optimizer to become an expert with our query engine. 
• Keep up to date on the ways statistical information is collected on tables and used in our cost-based query optimizer.
• Discover how even small changes in query text can achieve 10x performance gains.
• Reproduce query performance problems across various on-premise and cloud platforms to understand the whole scope of an issue, even parts that are Linux or systems-related.
• Enlighten a customer on database implementation for peak performance.
• Be part of a small, tight-knit team where you can have a real impact and help shape product direction.

Role and Responsibilities

• As a subject matter expert, collaborate with our customers and the rest of the Support Engineering team on escalated query tuning and workload performance-related support tickets.
• Understand how the underlying Linux host configuration can impact database performance and suggest changes to improve it.
• Build reproductions of poorly performing customer workloads to investigate issues along with the query processing team to identify bugs or areas where the product can be enhanced.
• Collaborate with software developers, sales engineers, and technical account managers to keep all internal teams up to date with the current customer status.
• Work to streamline and improve various Support and Engineering processes and tools, author new internal run-books or public documentation, and help the team continually improve efficiency and effectiveness.
• Participate in our on-call rotation that may include weekends and holidays.

Required Skills and Experience

• 8+ years of previous experience as a DBA or hands-on database work.
• Deep expertise in relational/distributed database implementation, advanced SQL query optimization, and SQL query tuning.
• Strong background in general product troubleshooting, keeping in mind that query processing issues can be impacted by database or Linux configuration and resource availability.
• A solid Linux performance background. That means you are hands-on with Linux, and your skills include generating and reading flame graphs, checking system resource utilization, and parsing verbose log files—bonus points for familiarity with Kubernetes.
• Experience with a scripting or coding language. Whether it’s C++, Python, Go, or Bash, you should have a go-to solution for quick problem-solving and be able to navigate through our extensive code base.
• Familiarity with distributed systems and AWS/GCP. You understand how organizations deploy and maintain distributed applications and services across multiple machines and know how to analyze these systems for performance bottlenecks.
• Strong written and verbal English communication skills. Have the ability to explain technical concepts to a wide range of end-users.

Note: Applicants must be available to work during Eastern Standard Time (EST) business hours i.e. 6:00 PM to 3:00 AM India Time

SingleStore delivers a cloud-native database with the speed and scale to power the world’s data-intensive applications. With a distributed SQL database that introduces simplicity to your data architecture by unifying transactions and analytics, SingleStore empowers digital leaders to deliver exceptional, real-time data experiences to their customers. SingleStore is venture-backed and headquartered in San Francisco with offices in Sunnyvale, Raleigh, Seattle, Boston, London, Lisbon, Bangalore, Dublin and Kyiv. 

Consistent with our commitment to diversity & inclusion, we value individuals who can work on diverse teams and with a diverse range of people.

Please note that SingleStore’s COVID-19 vaccination policy requires that team members in the United States be up to date with the current CDC guidelines for their vaccinations with one of the United States FDA-approved vaccine options to meet in person for SingleStore business or to work from one of our U.S. office locations. [It is expected that this will be a requirement for this role]. If an exemption and/or accommodation to our vaccination policy is requested, a member of the Human Resources department will be available to begin the interactive accommodation process.

To all recruitment agencies: SingleStore does not accept agency resumes. Please do not forward resumes to SingleStore employees. SingleStore is not responsible for any fees related to unsolicited resumes and will not pay fees to any third-party agency or company that does not have a signed agreement with the Company.

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