Position: Database Performance Engineer
Location: Chennai - Onsite/Hybrid
Shift Timing: Regular IST
Engagement Mode: Full Time
About the role: We are seeking an experienced Lead Engineer specializing in database performance engineering to optimize and scale mission-critical MySQL and PostgreSQL systems. This role focuses on deep query analysis, performance tuning, architecture improvements, and production troubleshooting in high-scale environments. You will work closely with application teams, SREs, and platform engineers to ensure database reliability, efficiency, and scalability in a high-throughput environment.
Key Responsibilities:
- Deep Query Optimization: Analyze complex SQL queries and execution plans to identify inefficiencies. You will be responsible for rewriting queries, suggesting architectural changes, and implementing indexing strategies that drastically reduce latency.
- System Profiling & Bottleneck Analysis: Use advanced profiling tools to diagnose issues related to CPU, I/O, locking contention, and memory pressure.
- Analyze slow or inefficient queries using tools such as EXPLAIN, EXPLAIN ANALYZE, query plans, and performance schema views
- Optimize SQL queries, indexes, schema design, and data access patterns
- Identify and resolve performance bottlenecks across application, database, and infrastructure layers
- Tune database configuration parameters for optimal performance under varying workloads
- Conduct capacity planning and performance benchmarking
- Design strategies for scaling databases (sharding, partitioning, replication, read/write splitting)
- Implement monitoring and alerting for database performance metrics
- Troubleshoot production incidents related to database latency, locks, deadlocks, and resource contention
- Collaborate with developers to enforce best practices in query design and ORM usage
- Lead performance reviews for new features and schema changes
- Document performance guidelines and mentor engineering teams
Required Skills & Qualifications:
- 7+ years of hands-on experience working deeply with relational databases, specifically MySQL and PostgreSQL, in high-scale, high-throughput environments.
- Mastery of SQL optimization: Exceptional expertise in query optimization, execution plan analysis, and diagnosing complex bottlenecks.
- Deep architectural knowledge: Profound understanding of indexing strategies, joins, transactions, concurrency control, storage engines, locking behavior, and isolation levels.
- Tooling proficiency: Hands-on experience with industry-standard performance tuning and diagnostic tools (e.g., pt-query-digest, pg_stat_statements).
- Systems-level thinking: Strong grasp of Linux system performance mechanics (CPU, memory, I/O, network) and how they interact with database engines.
- Leadership & execution: Proven ability to troubleshoot critical production issues under pressure, lead cross-functional technical initiatives, and drive consensus among diverse engineering teams.
Preferred Qualifications:
- Experience managing and scaling databases across varied environments (Self-Hosted MySQL/PostgreSQL, AWS RDS/Aurora, GCP Cloud SQL).
- Deep theoretical and practical knowledge of database internals and query optimizer behavior.
- Strong familiarity with distributed systems, microservices architectures, and the role of NoSQL databases in modern tech stacks.
- Proficiency in automation and scripting using languages such as Python or Bash.
- A demonstrable track record of architecting and delivering massive-scale database performance improvements in a fast-paced product company.
