Staff Software Engineer, Database Infrastructure at Gusto

This role is designed for a heavyweight infrastructure expert with at least 12 years of experience, specifically focused on the evolution of database systems. You are the ideal candidate if you have moved beyond managing simple RDS instances and have successfully navigated the complexities of self-hosted, distributed databases like TiDB or CockroachDB within Kubernetes environments. The position offers a high level of technical ownership as the company migrates from monolithic architectures to vertically sharded, distributed systems. While the compensation is competitive—reaching up to $270,000 in major hubs like NYC or SF—keep in mind this is a hybrid role requiring 2–3 days in the office. You’ll be joining a team that values "AI-native" operations, meaning you’ll have the latitude to automate away the toil of traditional DBA work. **You might be a good fit if you...** * Have extensive experience with TiDB, Vitess, or CockroachDB at scale. * Can lead zero-downtime migrations that involve sharding production databases. * Are an expert in the AWS ecosystem (RDS, Aurora, Kafka, and Redis). * Enjoy mentoring other engineers on the nuances of distributed transaction management.