PlanetScale is growing rapidly and reinventing the database space. The PlanetScale platform offers both PostgresQL and Vitess clusters. Vitess is an open-source database clustering system for horizontal scaling of MySQL, enables businesses to efficiently handle large-scale data workloads — without sacrificing developer experience. We're bringing the same scaling power to PostgreSQL with Neki, our sharded PostgreSQL product, and we're looking for Software Engineers to come help build it from scratch.
Our customers entrust us with what is often their most precious digital asset, their data, so the stakes couldn't be higher. We're looking for a Software Engineer to join our core engineering team and help us build the next generation of database infrastructure.
What's the job to be done?- You will work on building the best solution for sharded Postgres, a project we're calling Neki: https://www.neki.dev/
- You will design and build critical systems that power PlanetScale's database platform, serving millions of queries per second for some of the world's largest applications.
- You will collaborate with a team of expert engineers to solve complex distributed systems challenges.
- You will work independently to solve engineering and business problems with little direction and high autonomy.
- You will work directly with customers to understand their needs and translate them into robust technical solutions.
- You are passionate about building high-quality, scalable systems and take pride in writing clean, maintainable code.
- You have strong experience with distributed systems, databases, and performance optimization.
- You are comfortable working with large codebases and can quickly understand and contribute to complex systems.
- You thrive in a collaborative environment and enjoy mentoring junior engineers.
- You have excellent problem-solving skills and can debug complex issues across multiple systems.
- You are self-motivated and can work independently with minimal guidance while making sound technical decisions.
- 5+ years of software engineering experience with a focus on backend systems, database engines, query planners, etc.
- Strong proficiency in Go, with experience in other languages like Python or C++
- Experience with not just operating, but developing PostgreSQL, MySQL or other databases
- Experience building and operating distributed systems at scale
- Experience with database internals, query optimization, or distributed consensus algorithms
- Contributions to open-source projects, especially in the database or infrastructure space
- Experience with cloud platforms (AWS, GCP, Azure)
- Knowledge of monitoring, observability, and debugging tools
- Previous experience at a high-growth technology company
We're redefining how high-growth companies manage data at scale—and we work with some of the most exciting brands in gaming, consumer tech, and B2B SaaS. As a Software Engineer, you'll be at the core of building the platform that powers world-class apps used by hundreds of millions of users worldwide. PlanetScale is a profitable company with a philosophy centered around building small teams of p99 individuals and is recognized as one of the fastest growing companies in America.
At PlanetScale we believe in supporting people to do their best work and thrive no matter the location. Our mission is to build a diverse, equitable, and inclusive company. We strive to build an inclusive environment where all people feel that they are equally respected and valued, whether they are a candidate or an employee. We welcome applicants of any educational background, gender identity and expression, sexual orientation, religion, ethnicity, age, citizenship, socioeconomic status, disability, pregnancy status, and veteran status.
If you have a disability, please let us know if there's any way we can make the interview process better for you; we're happy to accommodate!
Total Compensation and Pay TransparencyAn employee's total compensation consists of base salary + variable comp where appropriate + benefits + equity. A member of our Talent Acquisition team will be happy to answer any further questions when we engage with you to begin the interview process.
Base salary range: $120,000 - $290,000 USD
Skills Required
- 5+ years of software engineering experience
- Strong proficiency in Go
- Experience with PostgreSQL, MySQL, or other databases
- Experience building and operating distributed systems at scale
What We Do
Our Postgres and Vitess databases deliver exceptional speed and reliability, with Vitess adding ultra scalability through horizontal sharding. Our blazing fast NVMe drives unlock unlimited IOPS, bringing data center performance to the cloud. We offer a range of deployment options to cover all of your security and compliance requirements — including bring your own cloud with PlanetScale Managed. PlanetScale powers Tier 0 databases at companies like Slack, block, Etsy, intercom, Cursor, MyFitnessPal, and Barstool Sports. Our Offerings Vitess allows MySQL databases to scale horizontally through explicit sharding — enabling a shared nothing architecture distributing data across thousands of nodes, all routed through a single database connection. PlanetScale Postgres starts at $5 per month and gives you a fully managed PostgreSQL cluster built for performance and reliability, offering first-class tooling without sacrificing developer experience. Available in AWS and GCP. High availability clusters deliver automatic failover across three availability zones. Neki is our next-generation Postgres sharding architecture inspired by everything we have learned building Vitess: a fresh design from first principles to bring massive scale and reliability to PostgreSQL workloads.
Why Work With Us
Our philosophy is to attract the best talent and to support them doing amazing things where they are the most comfortable and productive. We have a highly distributed, remote forward team with employees across the United States and the globe.
