Distributed Systems Engineer, Postgres Platform

What we do

ParadeDB is a Postgres-native alternative to Elasticsearch. We build state-of-the-art search (full-text, vector, and hybrid) and columnar analytics as a Postgres extension.

Companies like Modern Treasury, BILT Rewards, Alibaba Cloud, and many others use ParadeDB to:

• Eliminate ETL/change data capture tools
• Add transactional guarantees to their search indexes
• Perform JOINs on their search data
• Unify their search & transactional stack for agentic workloads

We're a small, focused team of engineers dedicated to creating an inclusive and enjoyable work environment. We’re primarily distributed across the United States and Canada, with a small office in San Francisco. We’re a Series A company with a flat structure, strong backing from investors, and plenty of room for growth.

What we want

We’re looking for a distributed systems engineer to join our team full-time and help build ParadeDB Cloud.

ParadeDB Cloud is our managed database platform built on Kubernetes and CloudNativePG. We're building a cloud-native control plane and Kubernetes operators that make it easy for customers to deploy and operate ParadeDB at scale.

The ideal candidate should have:

• Meaningful experience building distributed systems, cloud platforms, Kubernetes operators/controllers, or similarly complex infrastructure software
• A solid understanding of Kubernetes internals, including reconciliation loops, controllers, CRDs, and cloud-native architecture
• Experience designing and building APIs, control planes, orchestration systems, or automation frameworks that manage stateful infrastructure
• Experience developing production software in Go and operating reliable production systems on Kubernetes
• Familiarity with infrastructure tooling such as Terraform, Helm, and Bash/Python
• Experience with CloudNativePG, database operators, database-as-a-service platforms, or other stateful systems is a plus
• Familiarity with Elasticsearch-type workloads, analytical databases, or high-performance data systems is a plus
• Contributions to high-quality open-source projects and prior experience at a small, high-performing startup are a plus

We're seeking someone creative, independent, and excited by difficult technical challenges. You'll bring thoughtful opinions, learn quickly, engage directly with customers, and help us build a world-class product.

What you want

• You want to be part of the core team of a fast-growing infrastructure startup
• You want to build a cloud database platform from the ground up
• You’re passionate about distributed systems, databases, Kubernetes, and cloud infrastructure
• You’re excited to dive deep into Kubernetes and Postgres to build the best Postgres platform
• You’re excited about designing controllers, automation systems, and platform infrastructure that operate databases at scale
• You believe in open-source and want to contribute to building a sustainable open-source business
• You want autonomy over your work and the opportunity to make impactful design decisions

What you'll do

• Design and contribute to building the ParadeDB Cloud control plane
• Design and implement Kubernetes controllers and operators for provisioning, operating, upgrading, and scaling ParadeDB clusters
• Build automation around backups, replication, failover, maintenance operations, monitoring, and lifecycle management
• Develop APIs, cloud integrations, and orchestration systems that power the ParadeDB Cloud platform
• Work closely with CloudNativePG and the broader Postgres ecosystem, contributing upstream when required
• Develop deployment, monitoring, and testing infrastructure around ParadeDB Cloud and the ParadeDB database product
• Engage directly with customers to understand their requirements and help shape the product roadmap
• Develop and maintain documentation, including API references and user guides
• Contribute to technical writing, product demos, and content marketing
• Help shape ParadeDB's product roadmap and technical direction

Official listing: https://paradedb.notion.site/

• Job type: Full-time
• Role: Backend
• Salary: $150K - $250K
• Equity: 0.15% - 0.40%
• Visa: Will sponsor
• Experience: 3+ years
• Skills: Amazon Web Services (AWS), Bash/Shell, Go, Kubernetes, PostgreSQL, Elasticsearch, RDS/Aurora, Distributed Systems, Docker

Interview process

The interview process consist in 3 technical interviews where you’ll discuss system design and past experiences.

About ParadeDB

ParadeDB is an one Postgres for your application data, full-text search, vector retrieval, and aggregations.