Senior Database Engineer

As a Senior Database Engineer at Clearwater Analytics, you will be a core technical contributor to the data platform behind a leading investment management SaaS solution. You will work hands-on across a large-scale SQL Server environment and contribute to its evolution toward a modern, cloud-native AWS ecosystem, helping build a secure, scalable, and high-performing platform for mission-critical products.

In this role, you will execute across database reliability, performance, automation, and modernization. You’ll work on complex technical challenges that directly impact transaction processing, reporting, and reconciliation services used by clients every day. This is an opportunity to grow your architectural influence, deepen your engineering craft, and help define how database platforms operate at scale.

We’re looking for someone who combines strong database fundamentals with a drive for continuous improvement. The ideal candidate has deep hands-on SQL Server experience, growing exposure to cloud database technologies, and a track record of independently solving difficult problems in high-scale, high-availability environments.

If you enjoy owning complex database problems, building automation that eliminates toil, and collaborating across engineering teams to deliver meaningful impact, this role offers the chance to do exactly that.

Key Responsibilities

• Contribute hands-on to the design, implementation, and maintenance of SQL Server environments across on-premises and cloud (AWS) platforms
• Configure and manage SQL Server Always On Availability Groups, replication, clustering, and startup parameters/flags
• Independently diagnose and resolve complex locking, blocking, deadlock, and performance issues across high-volume, low-latency workloads
• Perform advanced query optimization — read and interpret execution plans, understand the performance impact of each query component, and tune accordingly
• Profile workloads using traces and real-world load simulations; use performance counters and DMVs to understand database behavior under production load
• Automate database operations including deployments, backups, patching, failovers, and capacity scaling using PowerShell or Python
• Use Terraform or CloudFormation to manage and provision database infrastructure as code
• Build scripts and tools that improve operational efficiency and reduce toil for the broader team
• Implement and maintain data security controls including Transparent Data Encryption (TDE), AWS IAM database authentication, and encryption at rest/in transit
• Support audit and compliance activities aligned with SOC2 and HIPAA requirements
• Contribute to database modernization initiatives including cloud migration and adoption of managed database services
• Participate in architecture discussions and implement standards defined by senior and staff-level engineers
• Design OLAP structures and support analytical workloads and data warehousing requirements
• Implement and manage distributed transactions across multi-tier application layers
• Serve as a key responder for database incidents; lead blameless post-incident reviews and implement durable fixes
• Proactively monitor system health and adapt systems and practices to changes in load, usage, and customer requirements
• Contribute to disaster recovery planning and testing across cross-region environments
• Partner with software engineering, SRE, analytics, cloud platform, and security teams to ensure database solutions align with business and technical objectives
• Define and document best practices for database installation, configuration, troubleshooting, and monitoring
• Mentor junior engineers and serve as a go-to resource for query optimization, schema design, and operational best practices
• Contribute to hiring and interview processes for the database engineering discipline

Required Qualifications

• 7+ years of production database engineering experience with deep expertise in SQL Server — performance tuning, indexing, high availability/DR, query optimization, and execution plan analysis
• Hands-on experience with cloud database platforms (AWS RDS, Aurora, or equivalent)
• Proven ability to independently troubleshoot and resolve complex database issues at scale
• Proficiency in PowerShell or Python for operational automation and CI/CD integration
• Experience with Terraform or CloudFormation for infrastructure-as-code
• Working knowledge of data security practices and compliance frameworks (SOC2, HIPAA, TDE, IAM)
• Strong communication skills — able to document clearly, collaborate across teams, and communicate effectively during incidents
• Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in Computer Science, Information Systems, or a related technical discipline

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience in investment accounting, financial reporting, or other regulated SaaS environments
• Familiarity with Snowflake, PostgreSQL, MySQL, MongoDB, Redis, or other cloud-native and non-relational platforms
• Exposure to data streaming or CDC-based ingestion tools
• Experience with OLAP cube design and advanced data mining
• Certifications: AWS Database Specialty, Microsoft SQL Server/Azure DBA, or equivalent