Senior Lead Database Engineer

As passionate about our people as we are about our mission.

Why Join Q2?

Q2 is a leading provider of digital banking and lending solutions to banks, credit unions, alternative finance companies, and fintechs in the U.S. and internationally. Our mission is simple: build strong and diverse communities through innovative financial technology—and we do that by empowering our people to help create success for our customers.

What Makes Q2 Special?

Being as passionate about our people as we are about our mission. We celebrate our employees in many ways through our year-round Q2 ChangeMakers awards program and global moments of recognition and connection. We invest in the growth and development of our team members through ongoing learning opportunities, internal mobility, and meaningful leadership relationships. We also know that nothing builds trust and collaboration like having fun and giving back together. From company-wide volunteer days to events like our Q2 Homecoming Week—featuring learning, community service, and culture-building experiences—we create opportunities to connect, grow, and make an impact.

What You’ll Do

• Identify, analyze, and resolve complex SQL performance and scalability issues
• Deeply analyze execution plans, indexing strategies, concurrency, locking, and resource utilization
• Design and implement durable performance improvements across queries, schemas, and workloads
• Build automation and tooling to detect, diagnose, and remediate database performance issues
• Partner with application and platform teams to improve database access patterns and system design
• Establish, document, and enforce database performance best practices
• Clearly explain complex technical concepts and trade-offs to both technical and non-technical audiences

Required Expertise

Candidates must demonstrate expert-level (“can teach a class”) knowledge in all the following:

• SQL performance tuning and optimization
• SQL Server, Postgres, Aurora
• Query optimizers, execution plans, indexing, statistics, and transaction isolation
• Designing and supporting database-backed APIs
• Building automation and tooling to support database performance and reliability
• Infrastructure as Code using Terraform
• Leveraging AI to automatically identify bottlenecks
• Cloud platforms: AWS and Azure, including managed database services
• Performance monitoring, troubleshooting, and tuning in distributed systems
• CI/CD pipelines and deployment automation
• Capacity planning, workload modeling, and cost optimization

What We’re Looking For

• A proven track record of improving database performance at scale
• A keen eye to spot when something isn’t right and the diligence to not stop until its resolved
• Strong written and verbal communication skills
• Ability to mentor engineers and influence architecture and design decisions
• Comfortable operating as a technical authority across teams

RESPONSIBILITIES
• Lead the design and implementation of business intelligence solutions, data architecture, analytics frameworks, governance protocols, and data quality standards.
• Serve as subject matter expert in database performance, scalability, and security
• Develop and enforce enterprise standards, policies, and procedures
• Partner with senior leadership to align data architecture with business strategy
• Lead major modernization, migration, or transformation projects
• Mentor other technical staff and lead knowledge-sharing efforts
• Evaluate technology trends and make strategic recommendations

EXPERIENCE AND KNOWLEDGE
• Typically requires a Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Information Systems, or a related field and a minimum of 12 years of related experience; or an advanced degree with 8+ years of experience; or equivalent related work experience
• Recognized expert in database design, architecture, and optimization
• Demonstrated leadership in enterprise database strategy and execution
• Experience with cloud-native and distributed database solutions
• Strong cross-functional collaboration and communication skills

This position requires fluent written and oral communication in English.

Health & Wellness

• Hybrid Work Opportunities

• Flexible Time Off

• Career Development & Mentoring Programs

• Health & Wellness Benefits, including competitive health insurance offerings and generous paid parental leave for eligible new parents

• Community Volunteering & Company Philanthropy Programs

• Employee Peer Recognition Programs – “You Earned it”

Click here to find out more about the benefits we offer.

Our Culture & Commitment:

We’re proud to foster a supportive, inclusive environment where career growth, collaboration, and wellness are prioritized. And our benefits go beyond healthcare—offering resources for physical, mental, and professional well-being. Click here to find out more about the benefits we offer. Q2 employees are encouraged to give back through volunteer work and nonprofit support through our Spark Program (see more). We believe in making an impact—in the industry and in the community.

We are an Equal Opportunity Employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, age, disability, genetic information, or veteran status.

About Us

Mission

Q2’s mission is to build strong and diverse communities by strengthening their financial institutions. That mission shapes the technology we build, how we serve our customers, and how we show up for each other.

Vision

We started with a straightforward belief: technology could fundamentally change how financial institutions serve their communities. More than 20 years later, that belief still drives us. Q2 delivers digital banking and lending solutions that help financial institutions deepen relationships, improve experiences, and grow. Across every department and region, Q2 team members bring creativity, collaboration, and purpose to building technology that makes banking stronger, easier, and more human.

Culture & Values

Q2’s culture is built by Q2ers and grounded in ten guiding principles that define how we show up for each other, our customers, and our communities.

We take our mission seriously. We also have fun doing it. Teams across the company work together to solve hard problems, move quickly, and make a real impact on the financial institutions and communities we serve. We’re also helping shape how AI is applied in financial services, bringing the same disciplined, banking-first approach Q2 has practiced for more than 20 years to this next chapter of innovation.