Principal Database Reliability Engineer

Come work at a place where innovation and teamwork come together to support the most exciting missions in the world! Principal Database Reliability Engineer (DBRE) - Enterprise Data Platform OpenSearch Anchor Expertise | Enterprise Architecture | Distributed Systems | Automation | Strategy Level Principal DBRE Domain Enterprise Data Infrastructure and Multi-Paradigm Data Platforms Primary Focus Enterprise technical direction anchored in OpenSearch, distributed-systems reliability, automation platforms, cross-domain architecture, and multi-year strategy Work Expectations U.S. Eastern Time business hours; on-call participation as required   1.

Summary We are seeking a hands-on Principal DBRE to serve as the highest individual-contributor technical authority for enterprise data-platform reliability and architecture. OpenSearch/Elasticsearch is the required anchor expertise. The role also requires strong breadth across distributed and relational data technologies, automation, observability, capacity, resilience, and technology strategy. The Principal DBRE defines multi-year direction, resolves consequential cross-domain architecture issues, establishes enterprise engineering principles, and influences senior engineering and executive leadership. The role guides domain specialists without requiring the individual to be the deepest expert in every database engine. 2. Level Scope and Leadership Expectations Principal DBRE is an executive-adjacent individual-contributor technical leadership role. The Principal establishes enterprise direction across multiple platform domains, resolves the most consequential architecture and reliability problems, and creates standards and investment priorities that scale across the organization. Dimension Expectation at This Level Scope of Ownership Shapes enterprise reliability, scalability, resilience, security, cost, and lifecycle direction across distributed and relational data-platform families. Anchor Technical Depth Serves as a recognized authority in OpenSearch/Elasticsearch and distributed-systems architecture, with enough depth to lead the most consequential technical decisions. Cross-Domain Breadth Demonstrates strong experience in at least two complementary domains such as Kafka, Redis, PostgreSQL, or Oracle, and can guide specialists across unfamiliar technologies. Strategic Leadership Defines multi-year architecture principles, technical roadmaps, production-readiness expectations, and investment priorities aligned with business needs. Organizational Influence Builds alignment across senior engineers, leaders, platform teams, and application organizations through clear tradeoffs, evidence, and measurable outcomes. Platform Engineering Champions reusable automation, observability, governance, and self-service capabilities as enterprise platform products.   3.

A. Enterprise Data-Platform Architecture • Define enterprise architecture principles and target-state direction anchored in OpenSearch and distributed-systems reliability. • Guide cross-domain decisions spanning search, streaming, caching, and relational services without displacing domain specialists. • Resolve architecture conflicts involving scalability, resilience, operability, security, cost, data movement, and lifecycle constraints. B. Reliability and Resilience Strategy • Establish enterprise production-readiness, SLI/SLO, backup, recovery, DR, capacity, lifecycle, and incident-learning principles. • Lead the technical response and systemic review for the most consequential multi-platform failures. • Translate recurring incidents and platform risks into architecture safeguards and prioritized investment roadmaps. C. Automation and Platform Engineering • Define the strategy for shared Python automation platforms, operational APIs/CLIs, CI/CD guardrails, validation frameworks, safe remediation, and Infrastructure as Code. • Promote self-service and platform-as-a-product practices that