Job posting may be removed earlier if the position is filled or if a sufficient number of applications are received.
Meet the Team
The Database Reliability Engineering team builds and operates the production database and data systems that power Cisco Meraki's cloud platform and Dashboard. We make high-volume device telemetry ingestion, customer-facing data access, product workflows, analytics, monitoring, and operational data needs reliable at global scale, so engineers and customers can depend on the data behind Meraki's products.
Our work sits at the intersection of database engineering, reliability engineering, and platform operations, with a focus on high availability, business continuity, performance, scalability, observability, and safe change management. We are a small, experienced team with a high-ownership, pragmatic, and collaborative culture; we work closely with SRE and product engineering teams while owning critical systems end to end.
This is an opportunity to work on core data reliability problems where improvements in automation, resilience, and operability have an immediate impact across Meraki.
Your Impact
As a Senior Database Reliability Engineer, you will help make Meraki's database and data systems reliable, scalable, secure, and operable. You will combine database engineering, reliability engineering, and platform automation to support relational databases, streaming systems, analytical stores, and low-latency data services.
You will work closely with SRE, application engineering, security, and infrastructure teams to improve the availability and performance of our data systems, reduce operational toil, and guide safe architectural changes as the platform grows.
You can expect to:
Plan, administer, maintain, and secure the PostgreSQL infrastructure in collaboration with Site Reliability Engineering (SRE) teams to ensure high performance and reliability.
Design, build, and maintain ETL pipelines for PostgreSQL, as well as develop procedures and scripts for data migration.
Perform operational database administration tasks such as installation, upgrades, patching, backup/recovery, monitoring, capacity planning, and architectural changes in cloud environments.
Participate in production operations such as on-call rotation, incident response, monitoring, alerting, and post-incident review processes.
Minimum Qualifications
5+ years of experience designing, operating, and troubleshooting PostgreSQL in production environments.
5+ years of experience managing production database or distributed data systems across application, database, operating system, storage, and network layers.
3+ years of experience in Linux systems engineering (performance tuning, memory management, I/O tuning, configuration, security, and networking) and automating infrastructure or database operations with tools such as Terraform, Ansible, Chef, or Puppet.
2+ years of experience using at least one scripting or programming language such as Python, Bash, Go, Ruby, or Perl for automation and operational tooling.
Experience working in a polyglot production data environment, including at least one non-PostgreSQL system such as Kafka/MSK, ClickHouse, Redis, MySQL, Cassandra, Elasticsearch, or a similar distributed data system.
Preferred Qualifications
Experience building database platform tooling, self-service workflows, and paved paths that enable application teams to use data systems safely and efficiently.
Previous work with cloud infrastructure and managed data services, including PostgreSQL on Kubernetes, Amazon RDS, AWS, Terraform, service discovery, and secrets management.
Ability to operate MSK/Kafka, ClickHouse, or Redis at scale, covering cluster operations, replication, partitioning or sharding, retention, capacity planning, and workload tuning.
Previous responsibility for refining reliability practices for production data systems, such as SLOs, disaster recovery plans, backup validation, and failover testing.
Deep knowledge of PostgreSQL internals and operational behavior, including concurrency, transaction consistency, replication, maintenance, backup and recovery, indexing, and query performance.
Ability to communicate effectively in writing and verbally by producing design documents, leading operational reviews, explaining tradeoffs, and mentoring engineers.
At Cisco, we’re revolutionizing how data and infrastructure connect and protect organizations in the AI era – and beyond. We’ve been innovating fearlessly for 40 years to create solutions that power how humans and technology work together across the physical and digital worlds. These solutions provide customers with unparalleled security, visibility, and insights across the entire digital footprint.
Fueled by the depth and breadth of our technology, we experiment and create meaningful solutions. Add to that our worldwide network of doers and experts, and you’ll see that the opportunities to grow and build are limitless. We work as a team, collaborating with empathy to make really big things happen on a global scale. Because our solutions are everywhere, our impact is everywhere.
We are Cisco, and our power starts with you.
Message to applicants applying to work in the U.S. and/or Canada:The starting salary range posted for this position is $165,000.00 to $241,400.00 and reflects the projected salary range for new hires in this position in U.S. and/or Canada locations, not including incentive compensation*, equity, or benefits.Individual pay is determined by the candidate's hiring location, market conditions, job-related skillset, experience, qualifications, education, certifications, and/or training. The full salary range for certain locations is listed below. For locations not listed below, the recruiter can share more details about compensation for the role in your location during the hiring process.
U.S. employees are offered benefits, subject to Cisco’s plan eligibility rules, which include medical, dental and vision insurance, a 401(k) plan with a Cisco matching contribution, paid parental leave, short and long-term disability coverage, and basic life insurance. Please see the Cisco careers site to discover more benefits and perks. Employees may be eligible to receive grants of Cisco restricted stock units, which vest following continued employment with Cisco for defined periods of time.
U.S. employees are eligible for paid time away as described below, subject to Cisco’s policies:
10 paid holidays per full calendar year, plus 1 floating holiday for non-exempt employees
1 paid day off for employee’s birthday, paid year-end holiday shutdown, and 4 paid days off for personal wellness determined by Cisco
Non-exempt employees** receive 16 days of paid vacation time per full calendar year, accrued at rate of 4.92 hours per pay period for full-time employees
Exempt employees participate in Cisco’s flexible vacation time off program, which has no defined limit on how much vacation time eligible employees may use (subject to availability and some business limitations)
80 hours of sick time off provided on hire date and each January 1st thereafter, and up to 80 hours of unused sick time carried forward from one calendar year to the next
Additional paid time away may be requested to deal with critical or emergency issues for family members
Optional 10 paid days per full calendar year to volunteer
For non-sales roles, employees are also eligible to earn annual bonuses subject to Cisco’s policies.
Employees on sales plans earn performance-based incentive pay on top of their base salary, which is split between quota and non-quota components, subject to the applicable Cisco plan. For quota-based incentive pay, Cisco typically pays as follows:
.75% of incentive target for each 1% of revenue attainment up to 50% of quota;
1.5% of incentive target for each 1% of attainment between 50% and 75%;
1% of incentive target for each 1% of attainment between 75% and 100%; and
Once performance exceeds 100% attainment, incentive rates are at or above 1% for each 1% of attainment with no cap on incentive compensation.
For non-quota-based sales performance elements such as strategic sales objectives, Cisco may pay 0% up to 125% of target. Cisco sales plans do not have a minimum threshold of performance for sales incentive compensation to be paid.
The applicable full salary ranges for this position, by specific state, are listed below:
New York City Metro Area:
$165,000.00 - $277,600.00Non-Metro New York state & Washington state:
$146,700.00 - $247,000.00* For quota-based sales roles on Cisco’s sales plan, the ranges provided in this posting include base pay and sales target incentive compensation combined.
** Employees in Illinois, whether exempt or non-exempt, will participate in a unique time off program to meet local requirements.
Skills Required
- 5+ years designing, operating, and troubleshooting PostgreSQL in production
- 5+ years managing production databases or distributed data systems across app, DB, OS, storage, and network layers
- 3+ years Linux systems engineering (performance tuning, memory management, I/O tuning, config, security, networking)
- 3+ years automating infrastructure or database operations with Terraform, Ansible, Chef, or Puppet
- 2+ years using a scripting or programming language such as Python, Bash, Go, Ruby, or Perl for automation and tooling
- Experience in a polyglot production data environment including at least one non-PostgreSQL system such as Kafka/MSK, ClickHouse, Redis, MySQL, Cassandra, or Elasticsearch
- Experience building database platform tooling, self-service workflows, and paved paths for application teams
- Previous work with cloud infrastructure and managed data services, including PostgreSQL on Kubernetes, Amazon RDS, AWS, Terraform, service discovery, and secrets management
- Ability to operate MSK/Kafka, ClickHouse, or Redis at scale including cluster operations, replication, partitioning/sharding, retention, capacity planning, and workload tuning
- Experience defining reliability practices for production data systems (SLOs, disaster recovery, backup validation, failover testing)
- Deep knowledge of PostgreSQL internals (concurrency, transactions, replication, backup/recovery, indexing, query performance)
- Strong written and verbal communication skills for design docs, operational reviews, and mentoring
Cisco Compensation & Benefits Highlights
The following summarizes recurring compensation and benefits themes identified from responses generated by popular LLMs to common candidate questions about Cisco and has not been reviewed or approved by Cisco.
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Healthcare Strength — Comprehensive medical, dental, and vision coverage, mental health support via an EAP, and access to on-site or virtual health centers indicate robust healthcare offerings. Wellness programs, fitness resources, and specialized services further reinforce coverage depth.
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Leave & Time Off Breadth — Generous PTO, a global minimum for paid parental leave, and unique programs like company-wide recharge days and paid volunteer time expand time-away options. Additional offerings such as Critical Time Off and adoption assistance add flexibility for life events.
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Equity Value & Accessibility — Restricted stock units and a discounted employee stock purchase plan are meaningful elements of total compensation. The prominence of equity can materially augment overall pay packages alongside salary and bonuses.
Cisco Insights
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