Senior Database Engineer

Job Description

Company: Canopy
Location: Draper, UT
Workplace Type: Remote
Employment Type: Full-time

About the Role

Canopy is looking for a Senior Database Engineer who takes real pride in databases that run well and enjoys writing great SQL. If you’re eager to own a fleet of roughly 100 Postgres databases, obsessed with query performance, and opinionated about what good schema design looks like on a modern SaaS platform, you’re the person we’re looking for. You’ll be central to backend engineering efforts, working alongside developers, product managers, and QA engineers to shape data models and keep the platform fast and reliable.

What You’ll Do / Key Responsibilities

• Fleet Maintenance: Oversee the maintenance of 100+ managed databases to ensure optimal performance, security, and reliability.
• Health Monitoring: Regularly monitor database health, identify bottlenecks, and recommend actionable solutions.
• Cost & Capacity Planning: Own database cost and capacity planning across the fleet—right-sizing instances, forecasting spend, and making the case for where to invest versus trim.
• Traffic Scaling: Use historical performance and growth trends to plan for busy season, scaling up before load arrives and scaling back down as needed.
• Structure Refinement: Refine and refactor database structures to align with best practices and enhance the ease of data access for backend developers.
• Index & Query Optimization: Own index and query health across the fleet: plan analysis, slow query review, index coverage and bloat, autovacuum tuning, and connection pooling.
• Migration Collaboration: Collaborate with teams to write and optimize complex database queries and migrations.
• Design Review: Serve as the database reviewer on squad design docs, providing sign-off on data models, schema changes, and query patterns.
• Downtime Minimization: Spearhead initiatives to minimize downtime during database maintenance.
• Team Mentoring: Provide mentoring and training to team members on database insights, optimizations, and SQL best practices.

Requirements & Qualifications

• Minimum of 5 years of experience as a Database Engineer, with a track record of managing and optimizing databases.
• 5+ years of experience writing SQL and experience with relational database systems—specifically PostgreSQL.
• Acute ability to diagnose database performance issues and provide solutions.
• Proven experience in implementing database best practices and ensuring minimal downtime.
• Experience with managed cloud database infrastructure (RDS preferred).
• Excellent communication skills, fostering collaboration and understanding across teams.
• A relentless passion for ensuring data integrity and accessibility.

Preferred / Bonus Qualifications (if applicable)

• Experience with warehousing techniques for better analytics and reporting.
• Proficiency with various programming languages (Python and/or Java/Kotlin are a plus).

Benefits & Perks (if applicable)

• Flexible Paid Time Off plus 10 company holidays
• Health Benefits including Medical, Dental, Vision, and an HSA Match (Medical premiums covered at 100% for employees only)
• 401(k) match up to 3% with immediate eligibility and 100% vesting
• Mental Health access to Impact Suite & EAP
• Paid New Parent Leave & Birthing Parent Leave
• Supplemental Benefits including 100% company-paid Basic Life, AD&D, and disability coverage
• Motivosity peer-to-peer recognition program
• Fully-stocked kitchen and company events

Canopy provides equal employment opportunities (EEO) to all employees and applicants for employment without regard to race, color, religion, gender, national origin, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, age, disability, genetic information, marital status, or veteran status.