[Remote] Principal Engineer (Managed Database Services)

Note: The job is a remote job and is open to candidates in USA. DigitalOcean is a leading cloud infrastructure provider that focuses on simplifying cloud solutions for developers. As a Principal Engineer, you will lead the design and development of scalable database platforms, ensuring high availability and performance while mentoring engineering teams and collaborating with cross-functional stakeholders. Responsibilities • Design and evolve the architecture of large-scale distributed database systems optimized for scalability, reliability, low-latency, and cost efficiency • Architect solutions for storage engines, indexing, querying, caching, replication, and high availability, drawing from best practices in both relational and NoSQL paradigms • Roll out new services by taking on a hands-on lead role as required to ensure timely delivery • Establish and enforce technical standards, coding practices, tooling, and infrastructure guidelines across the database engineering teams • Mentor other senior engineers, shaping the team’s culture of architectural rigor and operational excellence • Work with product managers, stakeholders, and business leaders to translate strategic objectives into scalable technical roadmaps • Guide customer-facing teams (e.g., consultants, support, sales engineers) to define database solutions and migration strategies aligned with organizational goals • Lead Operations Excellence for database services, establish mechanisms and processes that scale to the engineering organization while raising the bar • Oversee availability, performance tuning, failover strategies, capacity planning, and disaster recovery for database platforms • Drive automation (e.g., IaC, CI/CD pipelines, deployments, monitoring) to optimize operations • Research and integrate advanced capabilities (e.g., AI‑assisted tooling, MCP protocols) to enhance developer workflows and metadata accessibility across database types Skills • ≥ 12–15 years in distributed systems architecture, database internals (storage, indexing, query optimizers), and cloud infrastructure • Hands-on experience designing and operating production-grade systems on one or more database services in the Cloud • Prior experience as a technical visionary in large-scale, mission-critical projects; ability to align technology strategy with business impact • Familiarity with infrastructure as code, deployment pipelines, and observability frameworks • Strong written and verbal communication skills with a track record of mentoring senior and junior engineers; translating complex concepts across engineering and business teams Benefits • Reimbursement for relevant conferences, training, and education • Access to LinkedIn Learning's 10,000+ courses • Employee Assistance Program • Local Employee Meetups • Flexible time off policy • Bonus in addition to base salary • Equity compensation to eligible employees, including equity grants upon hire and the option to participate in our Employee Stock Purchase Program Company Overview • DigitalOcean provides a cloud platform to deploy, manage, and scale applications of any size. It was founded in 2012, and is headquartered in New York, New York, USA, with a workforce of 1001-5000 employees. Its website is Company H1B Sponsorship • DigitalOcean has a track record of offering H1B sponsorships, with 30 in 2025, 8 in 2024, 9 in 2023, 22 in 2022, 11 in 2021, 2 in 2020. Please note that this does not guarantee sponsorship for this specific role. Apply tot his job