Senior Database Engineer

Wavelo is a SaaS business on a mission to make telecoms a breeze. We provide flexible software that modernizes how communication service providers (CSPs) do business, helping them drive more value, focus on customer experience, and scale their operations faster. As part of Tucows (NASDAQ:TCX, TSX:TC)—one of the world’s largest Internet services companies—Wavelo is backed by outstanding resources and talent. We embrace a people-first philosophy that is rooted in respect, trust, and flexibility. We believe that whatever works for our employees is what works best for us. It’s also why the majority of our roles are remote-first, meaning you can work from anywhere you can connect to the Internet! The work we do genuinely changes lives. If this sounds exciting, we’d love to hear from you! About the Opportunity We are looking for a highly skilled Senior D atabase Reliability Engineer (DBRE) with deep expertise in PostgreSQL at scale. In this role, you will design, operationalize, and optimize the data persistence layer that powers large-scale, mission-critical systems. You’ll work closely with SRE, Platform, and Engineering teams to ensure performance, reliability, automation, and operational excellence across the database environment. This is a hands-on engineering role focused on building resilient data infrastructure—well beyond traditional database administration. This role is a remote position open to applicants based in Canada and USA. What You’ll Do Architecture, Reliability & Performance Design, implement, and operate highly available PostgreSQL clusters (physical/logical replication, sharding, partitioning, failover automation) Optimize query performance and indexing strategies Perform capacity planning, growth forecasting, and workload modeling Own high-availability strategies, including: Automatic failover Multi-region deployments Disaster recovery Automation & Tooling Build and maintain automation for: Provisioning and configuration Backups and recovery Failovers Vacuum tuning Schema management Use tools such as Terraform, Ansible/SaltStack, Bash, Python, etc. Develop monitoring and alerting systems for PostgreSQL clusters Operations & Incident Response Lead response during database incidents (e.g., performance regressions, replication lag, deadlocks, bloat, storage failures) Conduct root-cause analysis and implement long-term fixes Cross-Functional Collaboration Partner with software engineers to: Review SQL queries Optimize schemas Ensure effective use of PostgreSQL features Provide guidance on: Database design patterns Migrations and version upgrades Best practices Knowledge, Skills & Abilities Deep understanding of PostgreSQL internals: MVCC, WAL processing, vacuum behavior, locking, query planning Experience designing and operating highly available database clusters with automated failover Strong performance tuning skills (query optimization, indexing, workload tuning) Ability to diagnose database and system issues: Query plans, I/O, memory usage, WAL growth, table/index bloat Experience with backup and recovery strategies: Point-in-time recovery (PITR), durability planning Familiarity with observability and monitoring: Metrics, alerting, and performance dashboards (Grafana) Understanding of distributed systems concepts: Service discovery, consensus (e.g., Consul) Strong Linux systems knowledge (performance tuning, resource management) Experience with scripting and infrastructure-as-code automation Strong troubleshooting and problem-solving skills in production environments Knowledge of: Security, compliance, encryption, auditing, access control Ability to work independently in high-availability, production-critical systems Familiarity with AI-assisted tools (e.g., Claude, Windsurf, GitHub Copilot) Qualifications Required 7+ years of hands-on PostgreSQL experience in large-scale, high-volume production environments Strong expertise in PostgreSQL internals: WAL, MVCC, vacuum tuning, query planner, indexing, logical re