Senior Performance Database Engineer

Caris Life Sciences is transforming cancer care through precision medicine and innovative solutions. The Senior Performance Database Engineer will ensure the reliability and performance of database platforms, focusing on optimizing MySQL, PostgreSQL, and AWS environments while collaborating with various engineering teams.

Responsibilities:

• Design, optimize, and maintain MySQL, PostgreSQL, Aurora, and RDS databases across AWS and on-prem environments
• Perform advanced performance tuning including query optimization, indexing strategy, schema refinement, and execution plan analysis
• Diagnose and resolve performance bottlenecks across memory, CPU, I/O, caching, storage, and replication layers, and implement lasting improvements
• Own the database high-availability and disaster-recovery program end to end: architect, implement, and routinely validate HA/DR strategies including point-in-time recovery (PITR), Aurora Backtrack, and cross-region failover, ensuring business-continuity readiness for mission-critical systems
• Automate database provisioning, configuration, backups, patching, monitoring, and non-production data refresh with obfuscation using IaC and configuration tools
• Build and maintain CI/CD pipelines for schema changes, versioning, testing, and compliance workflows
• Monitor system performance using CloudWatch, DataDog, Prometheus, Grafana, and other observability platforms
• Perform capacity planning, growth forecasting, workload analysis, and cost optimization for AWS RDS and Aurora
• Collaborate with Engineering teams to review SQL queries, optimize access patterns, and provide best practices guidance
• Ensure adherence to SOX, HIPAA, and internal security standards for encryption, auditing, backup, and access management
• Develop and maintain detailed documentation, runbooks, operating procedures, and performance tuning guidelines
• Establish and own in-house database engineering practices, runbooks, and knowledge, reducing reliance on external vendors and ensuring continuity of system ownership
• Participate in on-call rotations and support production incidents requiring database expertise

Requirements:

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Information Technology, or related field
• 10+ years of experience as a DBA or Performance DBA supporting large-scale systems
• 8+ years of hands-on experience with MySQL, PostgreSQL, and AWS RDS/Aurora
• 5+ years of experience working in a cloud environment such as AWS, Azure, or GCP
• Deep expertise in SQL tuning, indexing, schema optimization, and execution plan analysis
• Experience with Infrastructure as Code (Terraform, CloudFormation) and automation workflows
• Strong scripting experience (Python, Bash)
• Expertise with replication, storage engines, locking mechanisms, and database internals
• Experience designing high-availability and disaster recovery architectures
• Familiarity with CloudWatch, DataDog, Prometheus, Grafana, or equivalent observability systems
• Working knowledge of SOX and HIPAA compliance requirements
• Excellent analytical and communication skills
• Experience with AWS Redshift or similar data warehouse systems
• Experience in healthcare, life sciences, or other regulated industries
• AWS certifications (Database Specialty, Solutions Architect, DevOps Engineer)
• Experience with MySQL/PostgreSQL benchmarking and profiling tools
• Experience implementing cost optimization strategies for RDS and Aurora