Database Performance Engineer

Full Time
Raleigh, NC, USA
10 months ago

Position Overview

Our customers are at the forefront of some of the most interesting data in the world, using MemSQL to push the boundaries every day. To do this well, they leverage the expertise of our Support Engineering Team, composed of technical subject matter experts on the frontlines of critical customer issues. 

This Support Engineering role skews far more towards engineering than typical technical support as you will need to delve into database internals and memory allocators, investigate Linux and host related configurations, and diagnose SQL query behavior, all in the name of resolving complex database issues. Our Support Engineers are constantly learning a wide range of customer systems and technical concepts and are thrilled by the new and exciting challenges that they encounter on a regular basis. 

To accurately identify the source and solution of an issue, this team will take the time to learn about the customer’s business and systems while helping to improve their fundamental MemSQL and database operational knowledge. This often requires additional research and time spent on learning new technologies and tools outside of MemSQL while also being deeply engaged with multiple departments including development teams, query performance engineering, product management, infrastructure SREs, etc.

Role and Responsibilities

  • Provide email and live technical support to our enterprise customers, acting as the first-line-of-defense for complex technical issues, bug diagnosis, or resolving critical outages.
  • Identify and reproduce product issues and submit formal bug reports or feature requests to the appropriate Engineering team.
  • Collaborate with software developers, sales engineers, and technical account managers to keep all teams up to date with current issues a customer may be facing.
  • Work to streamline and improve various Support and Engineering processes and tools, author new internal run-books or public documentation, and help the team continually improve efficiency and effectiveness.
  • Ensure customers have a positive support experience during every interaction.
  • Participate in our on-call rotation that includes weekends and holidays.

Required Skills and Experience

  • 2+ years of previous customer-facing technical support experience, ideally at an advanced level. 
  • Experience with SQL databases and advanced SQL Query Optimization. You should be familiar enough with at least one commercial or open source database to decipher its EXPLAIN plan and understand potential performance impact or ways to improve the query.
  • A solid devops/sysadmin skill set. That means you are hands-on with Linux and you know three ways to find a file, check utilization of system I/O, measure network throughput, and are comfortable navigating large log files. Bonus points for familiarity with Kubernetes.
  • Experience with a scripting or coding language. Whether it’s Python, Bash, or Go, you should have a go-to solution for quick and dirty problem-solving and be able to navigate through our code base.
  • Familiarity with distributed systems and AWS/GCP. You understand how organizations deploy and maintain distributed applications and services across multiple machines Bonus points for knowing how to analyze them for performance bottlenecks and remove single points of failure.
  • Experience improving support processes regarding ticket triage, escalation, and reporting business metrics back to the organization.
  • Strong written and verbal English communication skills. Have the ability to explain technical concepts to a wide range of end-users.
  • Previous technical support experience.
  • Familiarity with Linux, databases, and distributed systems.
  • Ability to code.

 

MemSQL is The Database of Now, powering modern applications and analytical systems with a cloud-native, massively scalable architecture. MemSQL delivers maximum ingest, accelerated transaction processing and blisteringly fast query performance, including AI integration and machine learning models, all at the highest concurrency. Global enterprises use the MemSQL distributed database to easily ingest, process, analyze and act on data, to thrive in today’s insight-driven economy. MemSQL is optimized to run on any public cloud or on-premises with commodity hardware. 

Headquartered in San Francisco, CA with offices globally, MemSQL has raised nearly $100M from top investors including GV, Accel Partners and Khosla Ventures, among others. MemSQL is trusted by customers including Uber, Akamai, Dell EMC, Samsung, Comcast, Kellogg, and more.

Consistent with our commitment to diversity & inclusion, we value individuals with the ability to work on diverse teams and with a diverse range of people.

To all recruitment agencies: MemSQL does not accept agency resumes. Please do not forward resumes to MemSQL employees. MemSQL is not responsible for any fees related to unsolicited resumes and will not pay fees to any third-party agency or company that does not have a signed agreement with the Company.