[Hiring] Scale Engineer @Cal.com

Role Description

We are hiring a Scale Engineer to scale and optimize the performance of our core platform at very large data volumes. Your mission is to ensure our queries, indexes, caching layers, and global infrastructure stay fast, efficient, and resilient under load.

This is a hands-on engineering role focused on query optimization, database architecture, observability, and global performance. You will work closely with engineering, SRE, and foundation teams to proactively detect bottlenecks and design systems that prevent performance degradation before users feel it.

This role is globally remote, async by default, and built for engineers who take ownership of reliability and performance.

What You'll Do

• Audit and optimize Prisma queries across the codebase, removing N+1 queries, excessive includes, and inefficient data access patterns
• Design and implement PostgreSQL indexing strategies for very large tables that will scale to hundreds of millions of rows
• Build query performance monitoring and alerting using Grafana, Axiom, and Sentry to detect slow queries early
• Implement and manage read replicas across multiple regions to reduce global latency
• Deploy and manage globally distributed serverless functions on Vercel connected to localized read replicas
• Design multi layer caching strategies using CDN caching, application caching, and query caching with Cloudflare and in memory systems
• Establish connection pooling and query optimization patterns that scale during traffic spikes
• Rebuild our application telemetry to have detailed insights into our code's performance
• Create runbooks and automated responses for common performance degradation scenarios
• Partner with SRE to define and maintain SLOs and SLIs for database and API performance
• Conduct regular performance audits and capacity planning exercises

Qualifications

• Deep expertise in PostgreSQL performance tuning, indexing, and query optimization at scale
• Extensive experience with Prisma ORM and its query generation behavior
• Strong experience running production systems on Vercel serverless infrastructure
• Experience implementing read replicas and high availability database strategies
• Strong knowledge of CDN and edge caching configuration with Cloudflare
• Hands on experience with observability tooling including Grafana, Axiom, Sentry, and synthetic monitoring
• Production experience with Next.js and NestJS
• Strong understanding of connection pooling, batching, and database connection management
• Experience building alerting systems that detect performance regressions early
• High autonomy mindset and comfort working in a remote, async-first environment
• Clear written communication and calm incident communication

Requirements

• Experience with zero downtime database migration strategies
• Knowledge of edge computing and Vercel Edge Functions
• Experience with distributed caching systems such as Redis or Memcached
• Familiarity with load testing tools and performance testing methodologies
• Experience optimizing cloud infrastructure cost versus performance
• Ability to work in the Americas timezones
• 8+ Years of experience

Who You Are

• You genuinely enjoy performance and reliability engineering and like solving hard scaling problems
• You take ownership of system reliability and are comfortable participating in on call and incident response
• You are friendly, collaborative, and easy to work with across teams
• You thrive in a globally distributed team and respect different cultures and working styles
• You are highly curious and continuously learn new technologies and patterns
• You stay calm under pressure and communicate clearly during incidents
• You are proactive and look for performance risks before they become production issues

Tech Stack

• Next.js on Vercel
• NestJS on Vercel
• PostgreSQL with Prisma
• Cloudflare CDN and caching
• Grafana, Axiom, Sentry, Checkly

How We Hire: The Lean Hire Trial

We approach hiring differently. Nearly all full-time roles at Cal.com begin with a 30-day contract-to-hire trial, which we call a Lean Hire. This isn't a test to prove yourself; it's a mutual exploration. Think of it more like dating than interviewing.

• It gives you time to experience the culture, team, and work before committing
• It gives us a chance to ensure alignment without long-term risk on either side
• Many of our strongest team members joined through Lean Hire and never looked back
• Success in a Lean Hire isn't about perfection; it's about curiosity, transparency, and seeing whether we thrive working together.

Why Work at Cal.com?

• We're building Cal.com not just as a product, but as a place to do great work and live a good life.
• Work from anywhere, anytime, fully remote & async
• Earn the same salary no matter where you live
• No standups, no micromanagement, no unnecessary calls
• Real flexibility, take time for life stuff, no approval needed
• Work in your own flow, pajamas welcome
• 30 paid OOO days per year (wherever you are in the world)
• Yearly team retreats in beautiful locations
• People-first culture, stable, family-friendly, kind