Job Description

MySQL Server Core Engineering develops the foundational database capabilities that enable MySQL to deliver high performance, reliability, security, scalability, and operational excellence for open-source users, enterprise customers, and cloud services.

As a Director, you will lead a broad Core Engineering organization responsible for critical database-server technology. You will set technical and organizational strategy, establish roadmap and investment priorities, develop engineering leaders and talent, and partner across product, cloud-service, and engineering organizations to deliver strategic customer and business outcomes.

This role requires an accomplished engineering leader with deep experience in database systems or comparable infrastructure software. You will guide complex architectural and execution decisions while balancing innovation with the compatibility, quality, security, and operational standards expected of a mature, globally deployed database platform. You will also help advance MySQL as a more contribution-driven open-source project through strong technical stewardship, clear architecture, high engineering standards, effective contributor workflows, and community collaboration.

Responsibilities

Key Responsibilities

Platform Software Development

Set the multi-year technical and organisational strategy for MySQL Server Core Engineering, aligning database-platform investments with product strategy, cloud-service priorities, customer needs, and open-source commitments.

Lead multiple engineering teams responsible for foundational database capabilities, including areas such as data management, query processing, transactions, concurrency, replication, security, performance, reliability, and operational tooling.

Establish organisational standards for compatibility, security, scalability, resilience, upgrade-ability, and operational readiness across the core database platform.

Make or sponsor high-impact technical decisions involving architectural direction, major migrations, compatibility commitments, lifecycle management, and long-term technology investments.

Shape MySQL's evolution as a contribution-driven open-source project by sponsoring improvements in architecture, developer experience, governance, contribution workflows, technical documentation, and community collaboration.

Software Development and Coding, Design, Testing, and Optimization

Establish the engineering vision, quality bar, and execution model for complex database-server development across the organization.

Ensure teams deliver software that meets demanding requirements for correctness, performance, scalability, reliability, security, compatibility, and maintainability.

Sponsor major architecture, design, and specification reviews; ensure technical decisions align with strategic product outcomes and long-term platform health.

Drive organization-wide investment in engineering excellence, including automated testing, performance validation, diagnostics, observability, developer productivity, release readiness, and defect prevention.

Guide leaders in managing technical trade-offs across feature delivery, customer impact, operational risk, security, compatibility, and technical debt.

Ensure engineering teams maintain clear, stable, and well-governed interfaces across database components, services, tools, and supported integrations.

Software Architecture, Software System Structural Design

Own the architectural direction and long-term technical health of the MySQL Server Core Engineering portfolio.

Lead senior technical and engineering leaders in defining architecture principles, reviewing complex designs, and ensuring consistent technical standards across teams.

Drive strategic modernisation and simplification initiatives that improve platform scalability, reliability, security, maintainability, and development velocity.

Partner with product, cloud-service, security, and other engineering leaders to align architecture decisions with business priorities, customer requirements, and future market needs.

Establish effective mechanisms for technology evaluation, architecture governance, technical-debt management, and investment prioritization.

Ensure that the organization makes timely, high-quality decisions on complex technical issues with broad product, customer, or business impact.

Issue/Defect Collaboration, Software Products Support

Provide executive technical leadership for high-impact customer, production, performance, availability, security, and product-quality issues.

Partner with product, cloud-service, support, and engineering leaders to establish clear escalation paths, decision mechanisms, and communication practices for critical issues.

Ensure teams deliver timely mitigation, root-cause analysis, durable corrective actions, and systemic prevention for broadly impactful issues.

Use customer feedback, operational evidence, and issue trends to guide quality investments, architectural improvements, and roadmap prioritization.

Represent the organization in executive-level discussions on major customer issues, technical risk, product commitments, and strategic remediation plans.

Practices and Standards Compliance, Security and Compliance

Set and enforce organizational expectations for secure software development, data protection, engineering quality, regulatory alignment, and operational risk management.

Ensure leaders establish and maintain appropriate security, compliance, privacy, code-quality, release, and operational standards across their teams.

Sponsor proactive identification and remediation of systemic technical, security, compatibility, and reliability risks.

Partner with security, compliance, legal, and cloud-service leaders to ensure core database technologies meet applicable enterprise and service requirements.

Promote a culture of technical accountability, rigorous review, clear documentation, and continuous improvement.

Development Operations, System Maintenance

Ensure the organization maintains strong operational discipline for software maintenance, lifecycle support, upgrades, patching, release readiness, and incident response.

Set expectations for reliable operational practices, including automation, testing, observability, diagnostics, performance management, and service-health improvement.

Lead investments that strengthen product availability, supportability, upgradeability, and operational efficiency across the database platform.

Ensure lessons from customer issues, production incidents, and service operations are incorporated into product strategy, engineering practices, and technology roadmaps.

Core Responsibilities

Planning & Execution

Set the strategic roadmap, investment priorities, operating model, and delivery expectations for the MySQL Server Core Engineering organization.

Lead multiple teams through complex, interdependent initiatives; ensure clear ownership, realistic milestones, effective resource allocation, and proactive risk management.

Balance short-term product and cloud-service commitments with sustained investment in architecture, quality, security, performance, reliability, technical debt, and open-source ecosystem health.

Provide senior leadership with transparent visibility into roadmap progress, material risks, investment trade-offs, staffing needs, and decisions requiring executive alignment.

Collaboration & Partnership

Build strong partnerships with senior leaders across engineering, product management, cloud services, support, security, and the open-source ecosystem.

Align cross-functional organizations on shared roadmap outcomes, technical dependencies, customer commitments, and strategic investments.

Represent MySQL Server Core Engineering in senior-level planning, architecture, product, and business discussions.

Create an organizational culture that encourages constructive challenge, diverse technical perspectives, clear decision-making, and shared accountability for outcomes.

Problem Solving

Lead resolution of the organization's most complex and consequential technical, operational, customer, and business challenges.

Provide strategic judgment and direction when decisions require balancing customer impact, delivery commitments, technical risk, organizational capacity, and long-term platform health.

Ensure leaders use rigorous analysis, system-level understanding, and root-cause methods to address issues and prevent recurrence.

Drive systemic improvements where recurring issues indicate architectural, process, capability, or operating-model gaps.

Continuous Learning

Maintain strategic awareness of database systems, cloud platforms, open-source ecosystems, customer needs, and industry technology trends.

Build an organization that continuously develops technical depth, leadership capability, domain knowledge, and cross-functional understanding.

Identify critical skill gaps and establish talent-development, hiring, knowledge-sharing, and succession strategies for specialized database and systems expertise.

Encourage leaders to create learning opportunities that strengthen innovation, technical judgment, engineering effectiveness, and organizational resilience.

Continuous Improvement

Lead a sustained improvement agenda across architecture, engineering quality, delivery practices, developer productivity, operational excellence, and contributor experience.

Prioritize improvement investments based on customer impact, strategic value, technical risk, organizational scalability, and long-term return.

Establish mechanisms to measure engineering effectiveness, identify systemic bottlenecks, and drive accountable improvements across teams.

Advance MySQL's contribution-driven open-source model through strong technical stewardship, transparent development practices, maintainable design, and effective engagement with contributors.

Performance and Development

Build and lead a high-performing leadership organization through clear expectations, coaching, talent development, accountability, and succession planning.

Develop managers and senior technical leaders who can independently lead complex technology areas, make sound decisions, and build strong teams.

Establish a talent strategy that attracts, retains, and develops specialists in database systems, systems software, cloud technologies, and open-source engineering.

Ensure consistent, equitable performance management, promotion, recognition, and career-development practices across the organization.

Partner with Human Resources and senior leadership to plan organizational capability, leadership succession, and workforce needs in support of long-term strategy.

Qualifications

Career Level - M4

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Director, Platform Software Engineering