Staff Database Reliability Engineer

As a Staff Database Reliability Engineer, you will own the performance, reliability, and scaling strategy for our PostgreSQL Aurora infrastructure that powers creative workflows for leading brands. As a technical leader, you'll partner closely with backend engineering and leadership to architect scalable solutions, establish best-in-class database operations practices, and build the observability framework that keeps Air running at 99.99%+ uptime.

Core Responsibilities

Ensure Database Reliability & Performance

Own the health, performance, and availability of Air's PostgreSQL Aurora infrastructure.

• Proactively optimize database parameters, indexes, and query patterns to maintain sub-100ms p95 response times
• Uplevel migration practices and tooling to ensure zero-downtime schema changes as the platform scales
• Establish and maintain comprehensive backup, recovery, and disaster recovery procedures with documented RTO/RPO targets
• Partner with backend engineers to implement database best practices in application code (connection pooling, query optimization, caching strategies)

Plan and Execute Long-Term Scaling Strategy

Develop multi-quarter roadmap to scale Air's database infrastructure to support 10x growth in asset volume and user activity.

• Collaborate with backend engineers and product leadership to model data growth patterns and anticipate scaling inflection points
• Evaluate and implement horizontal scaling strategies (read replicas, sharding, partitioning) aligned with business needs
• Continuously assess AWS Aurora capabilities, PostgreSQL ecosystem innovations, and emerging database technologies for strategic advantage
• Design and implement database architecture that supports Air's AI-powered features and real-time creative workflows

Build Observability and Data Health Framework

Create comprehensive monitoring, alerting, and reporting systems to maintain database reliability and inform data-driven infrastructure decisions.

• Implement detailed instrumentation for database performance metrics (query latency, connection pool utilization, replication lag, disk I/O)
• Build automated alerting for anomalies in query performance, connection patterns, and resource utilization
• Create executive-level dashboards showing database health trends, capacity utilization, and cost efficiency
• Develop regular database health review cadence with engineering leadership to surface insights and drive continuous improvement

Requirements:
• Experience: 5+ years using PostgreSQL and working with Distributed Database.
• Technical Ability: Proficient in Postgres Database operations, tuning and query optimization. Familiar with database observability tooling and establishing best practices around health metric. Familiar with AWS Aurora or RDS.
• Entrepreneurial Drive: You like to work in public, own problems end-to-end, and move with intentional speed - so your best ideas ship fast and make a visible dent.
• Obsessed with Winning: Everyone at Air plays to win, says the hard thing, and progresses every day while building genuine relationships.

How We Work at Air

• Act like a driver: Take initiative and ownership without waiting to be told.
• Work in public: Share ideas openly, get feedback early, and collaborate across teams.
• Play to win: Aim high and bring creativity, adaptability, and focus to your work.
• Say the hard thing: Give and receive feedback with clarity and respect.
• Disagree and commit: Debate honestly, then align quickly to move forward together.

Benefits:
Our Culture

At Air, our culture is defined by a relentless drive to excel. We are entrepreneurial, collaborative, and tackle challenges directly—with humility and without ego. Open and empathetic communication is central to how we operate: we speak honestly, listen carefully, and always remain curious. From our early days working out of a cozy warehouse in Brooklyn, we’ve expanded to vibrant teams in offices across New York City and Toronto.

We recognize that great businesses are built by diverse teams. Air proudly champions diversity of thought, background, race, sexual orientation, gender identity, age, ability, religion, and experience. We are an equal opportunity employer committed to fostering an inclusive and supportive environment, and we actively encourage individuals from all walks of life to join our journey.

Benefits & Perks

Air provides comprehensive medical, dental, and vision insurance—including dependent coverage. We also offer a generous workplace stipend, professional development reimbursements, and unlimited vacation time. Although we’re an early-stage company, we continually seek opportunities to invest in our employees’ long-term health, wellness, and professional growth.

Compensation & Work Requirements

This role is fully remote.

If based in the US, the compensation range for this role is USD $160,000 to $240,000.

If based in Canada, the compensation range for this role is CAD $165,000 to $248,000.

Equal Employment Opportunity Statement

Air is proud to be an equal opportunity employer. We celebrate diversity and are committed to creating an inclusive environment for all employees and candidates. Employment decisions are based solely on qualifications, merit, and business needs, without regard to race, color, religion, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, national origin, age, disability, veteran status, marital status, or any other characteristic protected by applicable law.