Hybrid Staff Database Engineer

at Redfin

• Job title: Staff Database Engineer
• Job type: Full Time
• Experience level: Lead
• Salary: $180,100 - $243,600 per year
• Degree requirement: Bachelor's Degree
• Tech skills: AWS, Cloud, Distributed Systems, EC2, Linux, Postgres, Python, Ruby, Terraform
• Location requirements: Hybrid, Seattle, United States

About the role

• Staff Database Engineer at Redfin leading database systems architecture and collaborating with teams on large-scale issues. Requires extensive experience in AWS and PostgreSQL management.

Responsibilities

• help lead the database strategy at Redfin, including architecture, management, and access patterns
• lead complex technical discussions with a variety of audiences, including software and systems engineers and business leaders
• support both large scale / high volume databases as well as more specialized AWS managed offerings
• consult with other teams on system design and capacity planning
• define & implement database architecture with a focus on reliability, throughput, scalability, and security
• use and evangelize approved AI code generation tools to document, architect, and create code
• build observability to proactively detect and prevent performance issues
• perform DBA duties in non-production and production environments, such as upgrade, backup, recovery, and migration
• work with the team to prioritize maintenance of Postgres instances including replication setup, parameter settings, and identification of appropriate instance types/sizes
• plan and participate in high availability and disaster recovery planning/drills
• use your systems knowledge to promote scaling and performance for every service at Redfin
• participate in an on-call rotation for about one week per month

Requirements

• 7+ years of cloud / AWS experience
• 7+ years managing a cloud database instances (i.e. RDS, Aurora, or on EC2)
• 5+ years of PostgreSQL (or similar) database engineering and administration
• experience analyzing and troubleshooting large-scale distributed systems
• experience monitoring infrastructure and database health
• deep knowledge of at least one AI code generation tool, such as GitHub CoPilot, Anthropic Claude Code, Cursor, or similar
• experience with Terraform, CloudFormation, or other infrastructure as code tools
• understanding and advocating for security best practices
• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science or similar, or equivalent work experience
• experienced mentor of other engineers with the ability to guide a team of engineers to identify and implement solutions to difficult problems
• experience in an Agile environment and production infrastructure on call
• understanding of continuous delivery and deployment
• experience with Linux administration and Linux scripting, including Python/Ruby script development

Benefits

• flexible vacation that supports the importance of time away from work for rest and relaxation
• 12 paid holidays
• paid parental leave
• sick leave (accrued at 1 hour for every 30 hours worked)
• medical, dental, and vision insurance benefits
• flexible spending account
• health savings account
• life and disability insurance
• fertility benefits
• Employee Assistance Programs
• 401(k) employer match