Software Engineer, Backend (Cloud Platform) - Toronto

Cockroach Labs

Cockroach Labs

Software Engineering
Toronto, ON, Canada
Posted on Aug 6, 2024

Databases are the beating heart of every business in the world.

Cockroach Labs is the team behind CockroachDB, the most highly evolved cloud-native, distributed SQL database on the planet. We created CockroachDB and CockroachDB Cloud to deliver the ability to build and scale apps with fewer obstacles, more freedom, and greater efficiency. Today, Cockroach Labs helps companies of all sizes—and the apps they develop—scale fast, survive disaster, and thrive everywhere. Join us on our mission to make data easy.

About the Role

CockroachDB is the backbone of storing global services. As an Engineer on the Cloud Platform team, you will help manage and scale our CockroachDB Cloud services and infrastructure, which span multiple cloud providers, including AWS, Azure, and GCP. You will oversee our production systems, spending time developing systems, tooling, and infrastructure that ensures stable and scalable infrastructure - and the reliability and quality of our cloud offerings - as we deliver CockroachDB to our customers. In this role, you will collaborate across multiple teams building CockroachDB’s cloud offerings and the development and product teams working on the actual database.

Our team is enabling key features of running on CockroachDB Cloud, such as multi-region deployments, customer managed encryption keys and elastic scaling. The platform is deployed globally and will push the limits of the services cloud vendors provide today.

You Will

  • Design, build, and maintain our internal and customer facing systems with Cockroach Cloud.
  • Design, write, and deliver software and systems that increase product reliability and operational efficiency.
  • Develop custom tools as necessary.
  • Keep a complex system running and solve problems relating to mission-critical services.
  • Design, implement, operate, and troubleshoot the automation and deployment of internal and production Kubernetes clusters to maximize performance and availability.
  • Participate in an on-call rotation for our production systems and hosted services.

The Expectations

In your first 30 days, you will onboard and gain exposure to our current internal and customer-facing production systems. Working with our existing Cloud Platform and engineering teams, you will learn how our systems are built and deployed and help to manage aspects of our overall Cloud operations. We believe that it's essential for you to take this first month to become familiar with our technology and our company.

After three months, you'll be integrated fully into the team. You will develop and own tooling for infrastructure, reliability, automation, and other issues related to CockroachDB Cloud’s stability and scalability. You will identify new opportunities for automating processes, streamlining delivery, deploying new core functionality, and building great tools. You will help make Cockroach Cloud the best platform to host CockroachDB on by bringing your expertise to our database product.

You Have

  • Expertise with at least one cloud provider such as AWS, Azure, or GCP and Cloud APIs.
  • Expertise in analyzing, monitoring, and troubleshooting large-scale distributed systems.
  • Experience managing large projects/initiatives to completion on your own.
  • Experience in software development using one or more of the following: Go, C, C++, Python, Java.
  • Experience running Kubernetes clusters in a production environment.
  • Familiarity with infrastructure tooling such as Terraform or Pulumi.
  • Proficiency in working with algorithms, data structures, and production troubleshooting.
  • Debugged and optimized code to automate routine tasks.
  • A working knowledge of web and network protocols and standards (HTTP, TLS, DNS, etc.)
  • Previous on-call experience.
  • Experience building collaborative relationships with your colleagues. You enjoy being part of the code review process, partnering with your teammates on complex problems, and mentoring less senior engineers.
  • Ideally 2+ years of professional experience and a degree in CS or related field.

The Team

Steve Tidwell - Senior Manager, Engineering

Steve has been in the tech industry for over two decades, working in global IT operations and management, corporate IT, networking, data center, and cloud-based platforms. Prior to joining Cockroach Labs in 2022, he worked at Crunchyroll, Venturebeat, and Conviva, among others. His experience runs the gamut from building on-prem installations, to migrating those to the cloud, to his current primary focus on large-scale cloud-based distributed systems. During his free time he enjoys writing technical blog posts, reading science fiction, cooking, and gardening.

Jordan Lewis - Sr. Director of Engineering

Jordan is a Director of Engineering at Cockroach Labs responsible for the teams that build and maintain CockroachDB Cloud. He’s been at Cockroach Labs since 2016, when he joined as an engineer on CockroachDB’s SQL engine, and has been involved with a wide variety of CockroachDB development projects and teams. He’s heavily involved in the CockroachDB community and for three years hosted a Friday programming livestream which featured live CockroachDB development. Jordan lives with his wife in Brooklyn where he was also born and raised. Outside of work he enjoys bike riding and playing Spikeball in Prospect Park.

Our Benefits

  • Competitive Health Insurance Coverage (for you & your dependents!)
  • Paid Parental Leave (with baby bucks)
  • Flexible PTO
  • Learning & Development Budget
  • Relocation Support (as applicable)

Cockroach Labs is proud to be an Equal Opportunity Employer building a diverse and inclusive workforce. If you need additional accommodations to feel comfortable during your interview process, please email us at accessibility@cockroachlabs.com.