Senior Data Platform Engineer

Job Summary: 

The Senior Data Platform Engineer serves as Sola's primary database administrator and data platform engineer within the DevSecOps team. This role owns the production databases that support our analytics, transactional, and caching layers, including Amazon Redshift, MySQL, Microsoft SQL Server, and PostgreSQL, as well as the Cube.js semantic layer, the ingestion pipelines that feed it, and the Terraform managed infrastructure beneath it.

This is a hands-on role with a high degree of autonomy. The successful candidate will design new data architecture, resolve production performance issues, and maintain the pipelines and infrastructure as code that support them. Operating within a PCI DSS and SOC 2 regulated payments environment, this engineer partners closely with Engineering, DevOps, and Security to keep the data platform performant, reliable, secure, and scalable as the business grows.

Duties and Responsibilities: 

Data Warehouse and Analytics Layer

• Own the performance, availability, and cost of the Amazon Redshift data warehouse, including cluster sizing, workload management (WLM), distribution and sort key design, and routine vacuum and analyze maintenance.

• Administer and tune Cube.js as the semantic and analytics layer built on Redshift.

Relational Database Administration

• Administer production relational databases, including MySQL/Aurora MySQL and Microsoft SQL Server, covering backup and recovery, patching, version upgrades, CDC and replication, and high availability and failover configuration.

• Lead schema design, administration, and standards for PostgreSQL, which supports newer services such as the Developer Portal and Hierarchy Service.

Query and Performance Optimization

• Profile and tune queries, indexes, and execution plans across relational and NoSQL systems.

• Implement monitoring and alerting that identifies performance regressions before they become incidents.

Database Architecture and Design

• Partner with engineering teams early in the project lifecycle to design schemas, select the appropriate data store for each workload, and establish standards for scalability, normalization, and data integrity.

Data Pipeline Engineering

• Own the warehouse ingestion pipelines, including AWS DMS and CDC replication, Glue jobs, Step Functions orchestration, and EventBridge scheduled loads, and resolve throughput, memory, and data freshness issues end to end.

NoSQL and Caching Platforms

• Design DynamoDB table structures, partition and sort key strategies, secondary indexes, and capacity modes to balance performance and cost at scale.

• Administer and tune ElastiCache (Redis and Memcached), including cluster topology, eviction policies, and failover behavior.

Operational Excellence

• Develop and maintain runbooks, backup and disaster recovery procedures, and monitoring for all owned database platforms.

• Participate in the on call rotation as required.

Collaboration

• Manage day to day database operations independently while collaborating with Engineering and Security on architecture reviews, capacity planning, and incident response.

Key Performance Indicators:

Success in this role will be measured through a combination of platform reliability, performance, data quality, and operational maturity, including:

• Production database availability that meets defined uptime targets across Redshift, MySQL, SQL Server, and PostgreSQL.

• Query performance, measured by p95 latency for key dashboards and Cube.js endpoints, with sustained improvement against baseline.

• Data freshness, with warehouse loads and CDC replication consistently meeting agreed latency windows and pipeline failures resolved within defined SLAs.

• Backup and disaster recovery readiness, including successful scheduled restore tests and documented RPO and RTO targets met for all owned platforms.

• Reduction in database related incidents and repeat issues, with root cause analysis completed for every Sev 1 and Sev 2 event.

• Data platform cost efficiency, with Redshift, DynamoDB, and ElastiCache spend optimized relative to usage growth.

• Timely completion of patching and version upgrades, with no platforms running unsupported versions.

• Audit readiness, with database controls and evidence supporting PCI DSS and SOC 2 requirements delivered without findings.

• Complete and current runbooks, monitoring, and alerting for all owned platforms.

Requirements and Qualifications:

• 7+ years of hands-on database administration experience across relational and NoSQL technologies.

• At least 2 years of production Amazon Redshift experience (required), including workload management, distribution and sort key design, vacuum and analyze operations, and diagnosing complex performance issues.

• Strong MySQL and Microsoft SQL Server administration skills, including backup and restore, replication and CDC, upgrades, and troubleshooting.

• Working knowledge of PostgreSQL, with the ability to lead schema design and administration for new services.

• Experience in PCI DSS or SOC 2 regulated environments.

• Demonstrated success diagnosing and resolving query performance issues in high throughput environments.

• Experience designing database architecture for new applications, in addition to maintaining existing systems.

• Working knowledge of DynamoDB data modeling and performance tuning.

• Experience administering ElastiCache (Redis or Memcached) or equivalent caching infrastructure.

• Solid AWS proficiency across the console and CLI, including IAM, CloudWatch, VPC, RDS, and S3.

• Scripting proficiency in Python, Bash, or similar, and enough familiarity with application code to collaborate effectively with engineers.

• Experience using AI assisted tools to accelerate query development, troubleshooting, documentation, and scripting.

• Ability to work independently, prioritize competing demands, and deliver projects with minimal oversight.

• Strong written and verbal communication skills, including documenting architecture decisions and operational procedures.

• Ability to take part in after-hours incident response coverage, including a weekend and holiday backup rotation.

Preferred Qualifications:

• Experience with Cube.js or a comparable semantic layer.

• Infrastructure as code experience, preferably Terraform (CloudFormation or CDK also relevant), including extending existing modules.

• Experience with data pipeline and ETL tooling such as AWS DMS, Glue, or Step Functions.

• Familiarity with CI/CD pipelines and database change management tools such as Flyway or Liquibase.

• Relevant AWS certifications, such as AWS Certified Database Specialty or Solutions Architect.

Leadership Profile:

The successful candidate will combine deep database expertise with sound engineering judgment and a strong sense of ownership. They will hold meaningful accountability for business critical data platforms, exercise autonomy in architectural decisions, and contribute to a team culture grounded in pragmatic engineering, security, and continuous improvement.

Location:

• Remote

Salary:

• $165,000 - $200,000 annually

About Sola 

Sola is a leading payments provider offering a full suite of merchant services, including payment processing, gateway solutions, and PayFac capabilities. With strong partnerships across key verticals and a deep integration with ISV platforms, we deliver innovative and scalable solutions that help businesses of all sizes manage their payments efficiently. Headquartered in New York, our company is known for its customer-first approach, cutting-edge technology, and commitment to driving seamless transactions.

Equal Employment Opportunity Policy

Sola provides equal employment opportunities to all employees and applicants for employment and prohibits discrimination and harassment of any type without regard to race, color, religion, age, sex, national origin, disability status, genetics, veteran status, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, or any other characteristic protected by federal, state, or local laws. This policy applies to all terms and conditions of employment, including recruiting, hiring, placement, promotion, termination, layoff, recall, transfer, leaves of absence, compensation and training.