Senior Engineer, Database Platform

Position Summary

The Senior Database Platform Engineer is responsible for the infrastructure, administration, recoverability, performance, security, and cost optimization of Panera's enterprise database platforms across Google Cloud, managed database services, and the on-premises database footprint. This is an engineering role focused on building, operating, standardizing, and improving the database platform capabilities that support enterprise applications and data services.

As a member of the Platform Engineering team, the engineer will partner with Cloud Engineering, Application Development, Data Engineering, IT Security, Infrastructure teams, and managed service providers to ensure database platforms are reliable, recoverable, scalable, secure, automated, and cost-effective.

The environment includes GCP Cloud SQL for PostgreSQL, MongoDB Atlas, Oracle Database@Google Cloud, GCP Firestore, and BigQuery for the enterprise Data Lake. The role also supports BigQuery platform administration, including storage model, slot reservations, workload performance, troubleshooting, and cost optimization, while maintaining the on-premises Oracle and Microsoft SQL Server systems.

Location: St. Louis, MO (hybrid)

Key Responsibilities

Database Platform Engineering & Infrastructure

• Engineer, administer, and support enterprise database platforms across GCP Cloud SQL for PostgreSQL, MongoDB Atlas, Oracle Database@Google Cloud, GCP Firestore, BigQuery, and on-premises Oracle and Microsoft SQL Server environments.
• Design and maintain database platform configuration standards, deployment patterns, operational controls, and support models that improve reliability, scalability, security, and maintainability.
• Partner with Cloud Engineering and Application Development teams to support database infrastructure requirements, connectivity patterns, environment readiness, and production platform support.
• Provide senior-level technical escalation for database infrastructure incidents, platform issues, performance concerns, and recoverability events.
• Support database modernization, cloud migration, and platform transformation initiatives with an emphasis on operational readiness and long-term supportability.

Cloud Database Administration & Operations

• Administer and operate GCP Cloud SQL for PostgreSQL, MongoDB Atlas, Oracle Database@Google Cloud, and GCP Firestore environments.
• Manage database provisioning, configuration, lifecycle maintenance, patch coordination, monitoring, capacity planning, and operational health.
• Troubleshoot database connectivity, replication, authentication, storage, performance, and platform-related issues across supported services.
• Develop repeatable procedures and automation to improve consistency, reduce manual effort, and strengthen production support.
• Coordinate with managed service providers and internal teams to ensure clear accountability, effective escalation, and knowledge transfer.

Recoverability, Resiliency & Data Protection

• Engineer and support database backup, restore, replication, high availability, failover, and disaster recovery capabilities across supported platforms.
• Validate recoverability through restore testing, recovery procedure reviews, operational runbooks, and readiness exercises.
• Define and maintain database recovery standards aligned to business requirements, including recovery point objectives, recovery time objectives, retention, and restore validation practices.
• Support incident response activities involving data recovery, database corruption, service degradation, replication failures, or platform outages.
• Partner with Infrastructure, IT Operations, Security, and application teams to improve database resilience and reduce recovery risk.

BigQuery Platform Engineering

• Administer BigQuery environments supporting the enterprise Data Lake with a focus on infrastructure governance, storage model, workload management, recoverability considerations, performance, and cost optimization.
• Manage dataset organization, table design considerations, partitioning, clustering, retention, access controls, and platform standards.
• Administer BigQuery slot reservations, capacity commitments, workload allocation, performance tuning, and utilization monitoring.
• Troubleshoot BigQuery job failures, query performance issues, access problems, reservation constraints, storage inefficiencies, and cost anomalies.
• Collaborate with Data Engineering, Analytics, and Application teams to ensure BigQuery remains reliable, secure, performant, and financially sustainable.

Performance, Capacity & Cost Optimization

• Monitor database platform health, availability, storage consumption, query performance, capacity utilization, and cost trends across supported environments.
• Identify and implement tuning opportunities for indexes, queries, storage layout, workload configuration, reservation usage, and resource allocation.
• Provide capacity recommendations and cost optimization guidance for database services, BigQuery workloads, and managed platform consumption.
• Develop reporting, dashboards, and operational insights that improve visibility into database performance, cost drivers, and utilization patterns.
• Reduce recurring incidents and avoid unnecessary spend through proactive tuning, standards, automation, and root cause remediation.

Security, Access Management & Compliance

• Engineer and support database security controls, role-based access models, service account usage, privileged access processes, encryption, audit logging, and least-privilege access practices.
• Partner with IT Security and application teams to remediate vulnerabilities, address audit findings, and support compliance requirements.
• Maintain governance standards related to backups, retention, replication, administrative access, data protection, logging, and operational controls.
• Support security reviews and operational control validation for database platforms and BigQuery environments.
• Ensure database platforms align with internal security, compliance, and operational standards.

Automation, Standards & Operational Excellence

• Develop and maintain automation for database platform provisioning, configuration validation, recurring administration tasks, health checks, reporting, and governance.
• Support Infrastructure as Code and DevOps practices where applicable for database platform lifecycle management.
• Use GitLab repositories and CI/CD workflows to manage database-related scripts, automation, runbooks, and operational tooling where appropriate.
• Create and maintain technical documentation, platform standards, operational procedures, diagrams, and knowledge articles.
• Drive continuous improvement across database engineering practices, operational handoffs, monitoring, alerting, incident response, and support models.

On-Premises Database Support

• Provide engineering administration and support for a small footprint of on-premises Oracle and Microsoft SQL Server databases.
• Support patching, monitoring, troubleshooting, backup/recovery validation, performance tuning, and operational maintenance for remaining on-premises platforms.
• Assist with migration planning, modernization, decommissioning, and transition activities as workloads move to cloud-native or managed database platforms.
• Coordinate with Infrastructure, Application, and managed service teams to ensure on-premises database systems remain stable, recoverable, and supportable.

Collaboration & Project Delivery

• Participate in database platform projects, cloud modernization initiatives, application migrations, data platform enhancements, and resiliency improvements.
• Serve as a senior technical escalation point for database platform engineering, recoverability, performance, and cost optimization decisions.
• Collaborate with application teams to review database design, production readiness, performance considerations, and support requirements.
• Work with managed service providers to ensure effective operational alignment, escalation, standards adherence, and knowledge sharing.
• Contribute technical expertise to Platform Engineering, Cloud Engineering, Data Lake, security, compliance, and infrastructure initiatives.

Required Qualifications

• 5+ years of hands-on database administration or database engineering experience across enterprise database platforms.
• 3+ years of experience supporting cloud database platforms or managed database services.
• Experience engineering, administering, or supporting PostgreSQL databases, preferably using GCP Cloud SQL for PostgreSQL.
• Experience supporting MongoDB or MongoDB Atlas environments.
• Experience supporting Oracle Database platforms, including production administration, troubleshooting, recoverability, and performance tuning.
• Experience with Microsoft SQL Server administration in production environments.
• Experience administering or supporting BigQuery environments, including storage model, slot reservations, workload performance, troubleshooting, and cost considerations.
• Strong understanding of database backup, recovery, replication, high availability, monitoring, capacity planning, and operational support practices.
• Experience with database security, access management, role-based permissions, encryption, audit logging, and compliance support.
• Experience troubleshooting complex production database incidents, recoverability issues, and performance problems.
• Experience developing scripts, automation, standards, runbooks, or operational tooling for database platforms.
• Strong analytical, problem-solving, documentation, and communication skills.
• Ability to work effectively with platform engineers, cloud engineers, application teams, data engineers, security teams, infrastructure teams, and managed service providers.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience with Oracle Database@Google Cloud or Oracle database workloads running in cloud environments.
• Experience with GCP Firestore administration, governance, performance considerations, and operational support.
• Experience managing BigQuery slot reservations, workload management, storage optimization, and cost/performance tuning.
• Experience with BigQuery data lake platform administration, including dataset governance, partitioning, clustering, reservation management, and query optimization.
• Experience with Terraform, GitLab, CI/CD workflows, or automation practices related to database platform provisioning and administration.
• Experience supporting database migrations from on-premises platforms to cloud-native or managed database services.
• Experience with database observability, alerting, dashboards, capacity reporting, and cost reporting.
• Experience with DevSecOps practices, privileged access management, cloud security governance, and operational controls.
• Google Cloud certification, database certification, or relevant platform-specific certification.