Senior Database Reliability Engineer

SummaryMathWorks has a hybrid work model that enables staff members to split their time between office and home. The hybrid model provides the advantage of having both in-person time with colleagues and flexible at-home life optimizations. Learn More: https://www.mathworks.com/company/jobs/resources/applying-and-interviewing.html#onboarding.As a Senior Database Reliability Engineer (DBRE), you will be responsible for ensuring the reliability, performance, scalability, security, and operational excellence of critical business databases and the applications they support. Serving as a subject matter expert in Microsoft SQL Server and related database technologies, you will partner closely with Site Reliability Engineers (SREs), application teams, cloud engineers, and security partners to design, operate, and continuously improve resilient production systems. This role combines deep database expertise with modern reliability engineering practices to prevent issues before they occur and enable business-critical services to operate confidently at-scale.As part of the IT Platform Engineering organization, you will approach operations through an engineering lens; leveraging automation, observability, cloud technologies, and continuous improvement to reduce operational toil and enhance the developer-experience. This position extends beyond database administration to include platform engineering, architecture influence, cloud modernization, and cross-stack troubleshooting. You will help shape the future of database services at MathWorks by building reliable, secure, and scalable solutions that enable teams across the organization to deliver and operate software effectively.MathWorks nurtures growth, appreciates inclusivity, encourages initiative, values teamwork, shares success, and rewards excellence.ResponsibilitiesDatabase Reliability & Operations - Own the reliability, availability, recoverability, security, and performance of production database platforms supporting critical business applications. Drive operational excellence through proactive monitoring, capacity planning, incident prevention, and continuous improvement of database services. Partner with application teams and SREs to diagnose and resolve complex production issues across the application and database stack.Engineering, Automation & Platform Enablement - Design, build, and maintain automation that reduces operational toil, improves consistency, and enables self-service capabilities. Implement Infrastructure-as-Code, operational tooling, CI/CD integrations, and reliability-focused engineering practices that improve database and platform operations at scale.Cloud & Architecture Engineering - Provide database expertise during application, platform, and cloud architecture discussions. Lead database modernization initiatives, evaluate cloud-native services, and help design scalable, resilient, and secure database solutions across on-premises, hybrid, and cloud environments.Security, Governance & Risk Management - Partner with security and compliance teams to implement secure-by-default database capabilities including access controls, encryption, auditing, disaster recovery, backup strategies, and data protection controls. Continuously assess and reduce operational and security risks.Collaboration, Knowledge Sharing & Reliability Leadership - Operate as a trusted database subject matter expert within a swarming-culture engineering organization. Mentor peers, participate in incident reviews, contribute to technical standards, and help advance platform reliability practices across IT Platform Engineering and its adjacent teams.Minimum QualificationsA bachelor's degree and 6 years of professional work experience (or a master's degree and 3 years of professional work experience, or equivalent experience) is required.Demonstrated experience in/with DatabaseAdditional QualificationsKnowledgeDeep knowledge of relational database systems, with expert-level proficiency in Microsoft SQL Server administration, performance tuning, troubleshooting, high availability, disaster recovery, and operational management.Strong understanding of database architecture, data modeling, indexing strategies, query optimization, capacity planning, and scalability patterns.Knowledge of database security principles including access controls, encryption, auditing, compliance, and data protection.Understanding of modern cloud database platforms and services, including AWS/RDS, Azure, and hybrid cloud architectures.Knowledge of Infrastructure as Code (IaC), automation, scripting, and platform engineering practices.Familiarity with observability concepts including monitoring, alerting, logging, performance analysis, and operational readiness.Understanding of software development lifecycle (SDLC), Agile delivery methodologies, DevOps practices, CI/CD pipelines, and developer platform concepts.ExperienceSignificant experience operating and supporting production database environments at enterprise scale.Demonstrated experience diagnosing and resolving complex reliability and performance issues spanning databases, applications, infrastructure, and cloud services.Experience designing and implementing automation to improve reliability, reduce operational toil, and increase platform scalability.Experience partnering with application engineers, Site Reliability Engineers (SREs), cloud engineers, and security teams to deliver resilient solutions.Experience supporting cloud migrations, database modernization initiatives, and hybrid platform environments.Key Success TraitsSystems-thinking mindset focused on reliability, automation, scalability, security, and continuous improvement.Strong collaboration and communication skills with the ability to influence technical decisions across organizational boundaries.Ability to serve as a trusted database subject matter expert while contributing broadly to team and platform outcomes.