DraftKings

Senior Lead Database Reliability Engineer

DraftKings$168K — $210K *
US-AnywhereRemote in United States
Information Technology
5 - 7 years of experience
Job Overview by Ladders

Qualifications

  • 6+ years in Database Reliability Engineering, Database Platform Engineering, or Site Reliability Engineering with technical leadership experience.
  • Deep expertise in at least one major relational database, ideally PostgreSQL, and operational experience with MySQL, MongoDB, Redis, and others.
  • Experience managing stateful workloads on Kubernetes with tools like StatefulSets and Terraform.
  • Hands-on software development skills in Go or Python to automate and enhance database platforms.
  • Data-driven mindset focusing on reliability through observability and performance optimization.
  • Experience with AI tools for improving operational workflows and validation of AI outputs.
  • Strong leadership and communication skills with a history of mentoring and collaboration.

Responsibilities

  • Drive the technical roadmap for various database technologies and develop architectures for high availability.
  • Design automation-driven database platforms using Kubernetes and GitOps methodologies.
  • Lead operational excellence, defining SLOs and ensuring database health, capacity, and performance.
  • Optimize performance and cost in cloud and on-prem environments through capacity planning and workload consolidation.
  • Collaborate with app engineering teams on database practices including schema reviews and query optimization.
  • Utilize AI to enhance database operations and engineering productivity through observability and predictive insights.
  • Mentor engineers by sharing best practices and influencing technical direction.

Benefits

  • Opportunity to work for a public NASDAQ-listed technology company.
  • Guidance through the gaming license process if required.
  • Engagement in a high-demand, real-time platform for sports betting and gaming.
Full Job Description
The Crown Is Yours

As a Senior Lead Database Reliability Engineer, you'll own the reliability, scalability, and operational excellence of the database infrastructure powering one of the most demanding real time platforms in sports betting and gaming. In this role, you'll combine deep database expertise with software engineering and infrastructure automation to build resilient, self healing systems, improve platform performance, and drive reliability across cloud and on premises database environments.

What You'll Do
  • Drive the technical roadmap for database reliability across PostgreSQL, MySQL, MongoDB, Redis, ScyllaDB, Aerospike, and managed cloud services, while shaping architecture for high availability, replication, partitioning, storage, and connection management.
  • Design and build automation first database platforms by developing Kubernetes operators, infrastructure as code, GitOps workflows, and production quality tooling in Go or Python to automate provisioning, failover, backups, schema migrations, and lifecycle management.
  • Lead operational excellence by defining service level objectives, monitoring database health, capacity, and performance, eliminating recurring reliability issues, validating backup and recovery processes, and leading critical production incidents through resolution and continuous improvement.
  • Optimize database performance and cost across cloud and on premises environments by driving capacity planning, resource efficiency, storage optimization, workload consolidation, and performance tuning for large scale systems.
  • Partner closely with application engineering teams to establish safe database practices, including schema reviews, migration strategies, query optimization, connection management, and zero downtime deployment processes.
  • Leverage AI to improve engineering productivity and database operations through intelligent observability, anomaly detection, root cause analysis, documentation, predictive insights, and evaluation of AI generated code to ensure reliability and security.
  • Mentor engineers across the organization by sharing best practices, leading design and code reviews, influencing technical direction, supporting hiring efforts, and raising the overall maturity of database reliability engineering.

What You'll Bring
  • At least 6 years of experience in Database Reliability Engineering, Database Platform Engineering, or Site Reliability Engineering with a strong database focus, including technical leadership experience delivering complex database infrastructure projects at scale.
  • Deep expertise in at least one major relational database, preferably PostgreSQL, along with operational experience supporting technologies such as MySQL, MongoDB, Redis, ScyllaDB, Aerospike, Aurora, Cloud SQL, and other managed cloud database services.
  • Strong experience building and operating stateful workloads on Kubernetes using technologies such as StatefulSets, Persistent Volumes, database operators, Terraform, Pulumi, FluxCD, ArgoCD, GKE, and EKS.
  • Hands on software development experience using Go or Python to create automation, platform tooling, Kubernetes controllers, APIs, and infrastructure that reduces manual effort and improves engineering efficiency.
  • A data driven, automation first mindset with proven experience improving reliability through observability, monitoring, service level objectives, capacity planning, performance optimization, and self service engineering solutions.
  • Practical experience using AI tools such as Claude, GitHub Copilot, Cursor, MCP, or similar technologies to improve design, coding, documentation, troubleshooting, and operational workflows while applying sound engineering judgment to validate AI generated outputs.
  • Excellent leadership and communication skills with a track record of mentoring engineers, influencing architectural decisions, collaborating across engineering teams, producing clear technical documentation, and driving continuous improvement in highly available production environments.


Join Our Team

We're a publicly traded (NASDAQ: DKNG) technology company headquartered in Boston. As a regulated gaming company, you may be required to obtain a gaming license issued by the appropriate state agency as a condition of employment. Don't worry, we'll guide you through the process if this is relevant to your role.

The US base salary range for this full-time position is 168,000.00 USD - 210,000.00 USD, plus bonus, equity, and benefits as applicable. Our ranges are determined by role, level, and location. The compensation information displayed on each job posting reflects the range for new hire pay rates for the position across all US locations. Within the range, individual pay is determined by work location and additional factors, including job-related skills, experience, and relevant education or training. Your recruiter can share more about the specific pay range and how that was determined during the hiring process.

About DraftKings

DraftKings is an American daily fantasy sports contest and sports betting operator. The company allows users to enter daily and weekly fantasy sports–related contests and win money based on individual player performances in five major American sports, Premier League and UEFA Champions League soccer, NASCAR auto racing, Canadian Football League, the XFL, mixed martial arts and Tennis. In August 2018, DraftKings launched DraftKings Sportsbook in New Jersey becoming the first legal mobile sports betting operator in the state. Since launching in New Jersey, DraftKings has opened mobile sports betting operations in Indiana, Pennsylvania, West Virginia and opened in New Hampshire December 30, 2019 after reaching contract with the New Hampshire Lottery. Retail sports betting is available in Iowa, Mississippi and New York. DraftKings Sportsbook mobile and retail sports betting products allow bettors in each state engage in betting for most major U.S. and international sports. As of April 2016, the majority of U.S. states consider fantasy sports a game of skill and not gambling. In November 2016, FanDuel and DraftKings, the two largest companies in the daily fantasy sports industry, reached an agreement to merge. However the merger was terminated in July 2017 due to it being blocked by the Federal Trade Commission as the combined company would have controlled a 90 percent of the market for daily fantasy sports. As of July 2017, DraftKings had eight million users.
Learn more about DraftKings
Size
3,400 employees
Market Cap
$4.9 billion
Industry
Net Income
-$577.9 million
Revenue
$292.3 million
NASDAQ

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