Software Engineer - PlanetScale Vitess

<p>PlanetScale is growing rapidly and reinventing the database space. The PlanetScale platform offers both Postgres and Vitess clusters. Vitess, an open-source database clustering system for horizontal scaling of MySQL, enables businesses to efficiently handle large-scale data workloads — without sacrificing developer experience.</p> <p>Our customers entrust us with what is often their most precious digital asset, their data, so the stakes couldn't be higher. We're looking for a Software Engineer to join our core engineering team and help us build the next generation of database infrastructure.</p> <h3 id="whats-the-job-to-be-done">What's the job to be done?</h3> <ul> <li>You will design and build critical systems that power PlanetScale's database platform, serving millions of queries per second for some of the world's largest applications.</li> <li>You will collaborate with a team of expert engineers to solve complex distributed systems challenges.</li> <li>You will work independently to solve engineering and business problems with little direction and high autonomy.</li> <li>You will work directly with customers to understand their needs and translate them into robust technical solutions.</li> </ul> <h3 id="these-attributes-best-describe-you">These attributes best describe you…</h3> <ul> <li>You are passionate about building high-quality, scalable systems and take pride in writing clean, maintainable code.</li> <li>You have strong experience with distributed systems, databases, and performance optimization.</li> <li>You are comfortable working with large codebases and can quickly understand and contribute to complex systems.</li> <li>You thrive in a collaborative environment and enjoy mentoring junior engineers.</li> <li>You have excellent problem-solving skills and can debug complex issues across multiple systems.</li> <li>You are self-motivated and can work independently with minimal guidance while making sound technical decisions.</li> </ul> <h3 id="what-you-will-need">What you will need</h3> <ul> <li>5+ years of software engineering experience with a focus on backend systems</li> <li>Strong proficiency in Go, with experience in other languages like Python, Java, or C++</li> <li>Experience with MySQL or other relational databases</li> <li>Working knowledge of Kubernetes and containerized applications</li> <li>Experience building and operating distributed systems at scale</li> </ul> <h3 id="what-else-will-help-you-be-successful">What else will help you be successful</h3> <ul> <li>Experience with database internals, query optimization, or distributed consensus algorithms</li> <li&g