Database Platform Engineer

G-Research; City of London; On-site; GBP 60,000 - 80,000; Full time

Job summary

A leading quantitative finance firm in London seeks an experienced Database Platform Engineer to join their Data Services team. The role involves designing, building, and operating high-availability database platforms. Candidates should have strong expertise in relational databases and automation skills. The position offers competitive compensation, 30 days of leave, and a great work-life balance.

Benefits

Highly competitive compensation

Annual discretionary bonus

Lunch provided

30 days' annual leave

9% pension contributions

Comprehensive healthcare

Cycle-to-work scheme

Monthly company events

Qualifications

• Strong experience with relational database platforms like PostgreSQL and MySQL.
• Good understanding of database internals such as query execution and indexing.
• Hands-on experience running databases at scale.

Responsibilities

• Build, operate and scale distributed database services.
• Support large-scale deployments of various database platforms.
• Contribute to automation for database provisioning.
• Drive improvements in performance tuning and optimization.
• Collaborate to deliver database solutions meeting scalability needs.

Skills

Relational databases

Database internals

Linux

Python

Terraform

Container orchestration

AWS services

Job description

Overview

We tackle the most complex problems in quantitative finance, by bringing scientific clarity to financial complexity.

From our London HQ, we unite world-class researchers and engineers in an environment that values deep exploration and methodical execution - because the best ideas take time to evolve. Together we’re building a world-class platform to amplify our teams’ most powerful ideas.

As part of our engineering team, you’ll shape the platforms and tools that drive high-impact research - designing systems that scale, accelerate discovery and support innovation across the firm.

The role

G-Research is a fast-growing, software-driven organisation where data is at the heart of everything we do.

We are looking for an experienced Database Platform Engineer to join our Data Services team. In this role, you will help design, build and operate the mission-critical database platforms that underpin research, a global platform and business operations

This role focuses on providing highly available, performant and secure data services. Our environment spans multiple database technologies - PostgreSQL, Microsoft SQL Server, MySQL, and CockroachDB - deployed across both on-premises infrastructure and the cloud (AWS).

The role is highly collaborative, working with research and engineering stakeholders to deliver performant, resilient and secure database services at scale. You will gain deep expertise in our database platforms, drive automation and operational excellence, and help evolve the platform to meet the growing needs of the business.

Responsibilities

• Building, operating and scaling distributed database services across on-premises and AWS environments
• Supporting large-scale deployments of PostgreSQL, Microsoft SQL Server, MySQL and CockroachDB, ensuring high availability, disaster recovery and performance
• Contributing to the design and implementation of automation for database provisioning, upgrades, replication and monitoring using Python, Ansible and Terraform
• Driving improvements in performance tuning, query optimisation, indexing strategies and storage design
• Collaborating with application and research teams to design and deliver database solutions that meet demanding scalability and latency requirements
• Participating in the out-of-hours rota to provide support for critical systems
• Staying up to date with industry trends and emerging database technologies, helping evaluate their applicability
• Defining SLAs, KPIs and monitoring strategies to ensure platform reliability, security and service excellence
• Proactively identifying and resolving stability, security and capacity issues across the platform

Who are we looking for?

We are seeking a Database Platform Engineer with strong technical expertise in database systems, automation skills and a passion for solving complex infrastructure problems at scale.

The ideal candidate will have the following skills and experience:

• Strong experience with relational database platforms, such as PostgreSQL, MSSQL Server, MySQL, CockroachDB or similar
• Good understanding of database internals, including query execution, concurrency, replication, indexing and partitioning
• Hands-on experience running databases at scale
• Strong proficiency with Linux and Python for automation
• Familiarity with infrastructure as code, including Terraform, Ansible, Jenkins, Dagger, ArgoCD or similar
• Experience deploying and running services in containerised or Kubernetes environments
• Understanding of AWS services relevant to data platforms, such as RDS, Aurora, S3, EC2 or EKS
• Familiarity with modern observability stacks, such as Prometheus, Grafana, Elk or OTel

Desirable Skills

• Experience with cloud-native and distributed SQL database, such as Aurora, YugabyteDB or TiDB
• Knowledge of data streaming and integration tools, including Kafka, Debezium and CDC pipelines
• Experience with security and compliance in database environments, for example covering encryption, auditing and RBAC
• Familiarity with DataOps practices and collaboration with Data Engineering teams

Why join us?

• Highly competitive compensation plus annual discretionary bonus
• Lunch provided (via Just Eat for Business) and dedicated barista bar
• 30 days’ annual leave
• 9% company pension contributions
• Informal dress code and excellent work/life balance
• Comprehensive healthcare and life assurance
• Cycle-to-work scheme
• Monthly company events