[Hiring] Senior Database Engineer @USA TODAY Co.

Role Description

As a Database Engineer, you will help operate and improve the database systems that power LOCALiQ, running primarily in the cloud across MySQL, PostgreSQL, and BigQuery. You will partner closely with software engineers, data engineers, analysts, and data scientists to keep our data platforms fast, safe, and available as our products scale.

This is a hands-on engineering role for someone who is curious about data challenges, comfortable operating production systems, and motivated to automate the work that shouldn't be done by hand. You'll have the support of a senior team while owning meaningful pieces of the platform yourself.

We are a fast-paced, product-led engineering organization building the next generation of digital marketing management systems in partnership with Google, Bing, Yahoo, Facebook, and Snap. If you are technical, analytical, and eager to build solutions that directly impact the business, we want to talk to you.

What You'll Do

• Design, build, and operate database systems on MySQL, PostgreSQL, and BigQuery, primarily on Google Cloud Platform.
• Maintain performance, availability, and security across LOCALiQ's production database estate.
• Ensure data safety and data integrity, including backup, recovery, and disaster recovery validation.
• Perform routine database operations such as upgrades, patching, schema changes, replication management, and capacity planning.
• Tune and troubleshoot slow queries, blocking, and replication issues alongside application teams.
• Review database changes to minimize deployment risk, and help teams design schemas and access patterns that scale.
• Automate recurring operational work through scripting, infrastructure as code, and CI/CD pipelines.
• Participate in a scheduled 24x7 on-call rotation shared with other team members.

Qualifications

• 3+ years of experience in a Database Engineer, Database Administrator, or similar role.
• Hands-on experience managing production database infrastructure in a cloud environment (GCP, AWS, or Azure).
• Working knowledge of relational databases — MySQL and/or PostgreSQL — including administration, replication, and backup/recovery.
• Strong SQL skills, including the ability to read, write, and optimize non-trivial queries.
• Programming experience in at least one language — Python preferred, but Go, Java, Ruby, or similar are all valuable.
• Experience with Git version control and working on code as part of a team.
• Sound judgment around change management, risk, and data integrity in production systems.
• BS or MS in Computer Science or a related field, or equivalent practical experience.
• Curiosity, self-direction, and a bias toward automating repetitive work.

Preferred Skills

• Experience with Google Cloud Platform, particularly Cloud SQL, BigQuery, GKE, and Pub/Sub (equivalent AWS experience with RDS, Redshift, EKS, and SQS is welcome).
• Experience with BigQuery or another cloud data warehouse, including cost and performance optimization.
• Experience data modeling and data transformation tools like Dataform or DBT.
• Experience with infrastructure as code (Terraform), containers, and CI/CD practices such as test automation and automated deployments.
• Comfort working in an Agile/Scrum environment.
• Exposure to digital marketing or online advertising data (SEO/SEM) is an advantage.

Compensation

The annualized base salary for this role will range between $144,000 and $154,000. Variable incentive compensation, including commissions, is not reflected in these figures and based on the role, may be applicable. Exact compensation may vary based on skills, experience, education level, location, and union representation, if applicable.

Equal Opportunity Employer

USA TODAY Co., Inc. is a proud equal opportunity employer committed to building and maintaining a diverse workforce. As such, we will consider all qualified applicants for employment and do not discriminate in connection with employment decisions on the basis of an applicant or employee’s race, color, national origin, ethnicity, ancestry, citizenship status, sex, gender, gender identity, gender expression, religion, age, marital status, personal appearance (including height and weight), sexual orientation, family responsibilities, physical or mental disability, medical condition, pregnancy status (including childbirth, breastfeeding or related medical conditions), education, genetic characteristics or information, political affiliation, military or veteran status or other classifications protected by applicable federal, state and local laws in the jurisdictions where USA TODAY Co. employs employees.

In addition, USA TODAY Co., Inc. will provide applicants who require a reasonable accommodation, as a result of an applicant’s disability or religion, to complete this employment application and/or any other process in connection with an individuals’ application for employment with USA TODAY Co., Inc. Applicants who require such accommodation should contact USA TODAY Co., Inc.’s Recruitment Department at [email protected] .

Applicants must be authorized to work in the applicable location. Applications from outside these regions will be removed from our system after submission.