Senior Database Reliability Engineer

Location: Belgium or Portugal (Remote / Hybrid)
Contract: Permanent
Language: English
Team: Platform Engineering – Infrastructure (Data & Transport)
Level: Senior (L4+)

Koda Staff is working exclusively with GAMING1 to hire a Senior Database Reliability Engineer to join its growing Platform Engineering organisation.

This role sits at the intersection of database engineering and platform engineering, helping build the PostgreSQL and messaging capabilities that power Product Engineering teams across the business.

As part of a broader Platform Engineering scale-up, GAMING1 is investing heavily in creating a faster, safer, and more self-service infrastructure foundation — and this role will play a key part in making that happen.

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The Opportunity

As a Senior Database Reliability Engineer, you will treat relational data and messaging as code — building reliable, scalable, and self-service platform capabilities that Product Engineers can consume without friction.

Your primary focus will be PostgreSQL on CloudNativePG, alongside RabbitMQ operations and reusable messaging patterns that support teams operating at scale in a regulated environment.

This is a highly autonomous role for engineers who enjoy combining infrastructure reliability, automation, platform thinking, and developer enablement.

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Your Mission

• Build and evolve PostgreSQL and messaging platform capabilities
• Enable Product Engineers through self-service data and transport primitives
• Embed reliability, observability, and compliance by default
• Reduce operational friction through automation and platform engineering practices
• Raise standards across database reliability and Kubernetes-stateful operations

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Key Responsibilities

PostgreSQL Platform Ownership

• Own the PostgreSQL golden path on CloudNativePG
• Manage provisioning, upgrades, backup/restore, replication, HA, and observability as code
• Expose database capabilities to Product Engineering teams through self-service patterns

Messaging & Platform Reliability

• Operate RabbitMQ alongside the Platform Engineering team
• Build reusable messaging patterns and transport capabilities
• Improve reliability and scalability across messaging infrastructure

Self-Service & Platform Enablement

• Create safe, scoped platform primitives Product Engineers can consume independently
• Surface adoption signals, friction points, and operational bottlenecks
• Continuously improve platform usability and developer experience

Security, Compliance & Observability

• Translate security and compliance requirements into platform capabilities
• Implement access controls, encryption standards, and secure defaults
• Maintain telemetry and observability through Datadog and related tooling

Engineering Leadership

• Mentor peers on PostgreSQL and Kubernetes-stateful patterns
• Raise standards across automation, operational rigor, and platform reliability
• Contribute to continuous improvement across the Platform Engineering organisation

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Experience & Skills

Core Background

• 5+ years operating PostgreSQL in production at scale
• Experience with HA, replication, backup/restore, and performance tuning
• At least 2 years in a platform or Infrastructure-as-Code environment
• Strong Kubernetes experience for stateful workloads
• Hands-on Terraform and Ansible experience
• Strong GitOps / CI/CD understanding

Technical Expertise

• PostgreSQL in high-scale production environments
• RabbitMQ or other production-grade messaging systems
• Datadog or equivalent observability tooling
• Secure configuration and cybersecurity best practices
• Strong automation mindset and platform-oriented thinking

Highly Valued Experience

Experience in any of the following will strengthen your profile:

• CloudNativePG (CNPG)
• PostgreSQL in regulated industries
• MongoDB / MongoDB Atlas
• VMware or Nutanix
• Prometheus / Grafana
• Python or Go for tooling and automation

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What You Can Expect

• High autonomy and engineering ownership
• Strong platform engineering culture with modern tooling and practices
• Opportunity to shape self-service infrastructure capabilities at scale
• Remote-flexible setup across Belgium or Portugal, with quarterly onsite moments in Liège
• Competitive salary and benefits package
• Internal mobility and long-term engineering growth opportunities

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Interested in learning more?

Koda Staff is managing this search exclusively on behalf of GAMING1.

If the role aligns with your experience, or you’d like to explore fit and scope in more detail, applications and confidential conversations are welcome.