(Senior) Database Engineer

The Company

Databox is a fast-growing SaaS with a mission to make it easy for every team at growing businesses to leverage data to improve performance faster. We are looking for an experienced (Senior) Database Engineer, with expertise in designing and maintaining databases and storage systems to help us scale for future growth.

The Team

You'll be part of the 5 person DevOps team. At our core, we believe in the power of reliable technology. While we embrace the stability and scalability of proven tools, we're always open to exploring fresh ideas and emerging technologies as we grow. Our engineering culture is rooted in collaboration and continuous improvement. Whether through mentoring, thorough code reviews, writing robust tests, or engaging in blameless postmortems, we constantly strive to enhance our work and processes.

We emphasize personal and professional growth, recognize achievements, and share knowledge across the team. And most importantly, we believe in having fun while doing it all.

The Role

As a (Senior) Database Engineer, we expect you to own our database domain end-to-end. Your primary responsibility will be to design,  monitor and maintain the availability, capacity, and performance of our database systems. Our infrastructure runs on AWS with Grafana and Prometheus for monitoring. We use PostgreSQL for application and metric warehouse databases, which are rapidly growing. To address scaling challenges, we leverage Citus, an open-source extension that transforms PostgreSQL into a distributed database, allowing us to shard and scale efficiently.

The Work

• PostgreSQL Application and Metric Warehouse Databases:
  Manage the PostgreSQL infrastructure, with a focus on scaling, high availability (Patroni, Citus, Pgpool-II), load balancing, and disaster recovery (pgBackRest).
• Database Observability and Metrics:
  Instrument Prometheus exporters, maintain Grafana dashboards, and create actionable alerts that keep noise low and signal high.
  
• Deployment and Incident Management
  Roll out changes to production, handle production incidents, and provide on-call support.
  
• Query Optimisation & Performance Tuning:
  Partner with product teams on schema design, index strategy, and plan analysis; document patterns and run brown-bag sessions.
  
• Future Data-Platform Architecture:
  Collaborate with engineering leadership to design large-scale, distributed storage that supports new products and petabyte growth.
  
• Team Building & Mentorship:
  Draft the roadmap, standardise operating procedures, and mentor engineers—then later on help interview and onboard new DB engineers.
  

The Skills

Technical Expertise:

• Expert-level proficiency in PostgreSQL administration: installation, configuration, performance tuning, replication, backup, and recovery.
• Strong experience in query optimization, indexing strategies, and database automation using Python, Bash, or Ansible.
• Experience working with distributed production environments.

Collaboration and Communication:

• Provide technical guidance, mentor team members, and lead by example.
• Promote core values, adapt to shifting priorities, and offer initiatives and solutions.

Problem-Solving and Ownership:

• Show ownership of the database ecosystem and infrastructure components.
• Identify and align SLOs for availability and latency.
• Proactively resolve issues and document learnings.

Additional Skills:

• Experience across different stack layers to solve user problems.
• Ability to self-manage, prioritize, and deliver solutions.

Nice to Have

• A "get-things-done" attitude and a passion for building tools or systems that help others.
• Quick learner, proactive, and able to handle increasing responsibilities.
• Strong skills in debugging, code optimization, and automating routine tasks.
• Excellent English communication skills, both written and spoken.

The Benefits

We believe great work happens when people feel supported—at work and beyond. Here’s what you get when you join Databox:

• Competitive compensation: A compensation package that matches your experience and the value you bring.
• Hybrid work flexibility: We value in-person collaboration, but also support remote work several days a week.
• Extended remote & sabbatical options: Work remotely for a longer period of time or take paid sabbatical leave after long-term commitment.
• Engaging  workspace: Our office at Tehnološki Park Ptuj includes a gym, zen room, fully equipped kitchen, library, and a relax & play lounge.
• Professional growth support: We’ll support your growth with a clearly defined career path, equipment and book budget and access to online courses.
• Health & Wellness perks: Comprehensive medical exams, weekly yoga, meditation, and in-house workouts.
• Team connection: We prioritize connection with team-building events, company retreats and office hangouts.

Databox is a fast-growing scale-up with 120+ team members around the world. This role is based near Ptuj, Slovenia, with the flexibility to work from home several days a week.