Database Engineer (PostgreSQL SRE)

AI & Data Platforms (AiDP) is IS&T's engine for AI-powered innovation. The team brings together data, application development, and machine learning — including generative AI — along with data services and customer success functions, to help IS&T build solutions more efficiently and streamline the adoption and embedding of generative AI across Apple.

The people here at Apple don’t just build products — they build the kind of wonder that’s revolutionized entire industries. It’s the diversity of those people and their ideas that encourages the innovation that runs through everything we do, from amazing technology to industry-leading environmental efforts. Join Apple, and help us leave the world better than we found it.

Imagine what you could do here. At Apple, extraordinary ideas have a way of becoming industry leading products, services, and customer experiences very quickly. Bring passion and dedication to your job and there's no telling what you could accomplish.

The Postgres Database Team is responsible for design, configuration and maintenance of fleet of Postgres databases under Data Services. We are engaged in interacting with application team to understand their requirements and suggesting optimal database solution to them. The Postgres databases are deployed across baremetal, AWS and Kubernetes.

Description

We are part of Apple’s Information Systems and Technology (IS&T) division, and are based primarily in Sunnyvale, California with teams in Austin (TX), Seattle, Bangalore and Hyderabad India working as a single global team.

The job is located in Bangalore, India.

Minimum qualifications

MS in Computer Science / Engineering or Equivalent.
8 - 12 years of experience supporting PostgreSQL databases in a high-volume, customer-facing environment
In-depth understanding of PostgreSQL architecture and the internal workings of the PostgreSQL engine
Strong experience in PostgreSQL optimization and performance tuning, including drill-down analysis and execution plan awareness
Deep understanding of MVCC and how it is implemented in PostgreSQL
Ability to perform major and minor version upgrades and migrations with near-zero downtime, while selecting the right approach for each situation
Strong awareness of various types of maintenance operations, including when and how to perform them
Hands-on experience configuring and supporting replication (logical, physical, active-active)
Able to perform PostgreSQL installation via source code or RPM
Strong knowledge of PostgreSQL parameters and tune those parameters and configurations to optimize performance, throughput, and resource utilization
Manage day-to-day operations and issues, and extend expertise to provide the required support to the on-call/L2 team, including finding detailed RCAs for outages
Experience implementing PostgreSQL security best practices
Background in building and administering large-scale infrastructure supporting high transaction volumes in a mission-critical environment

Preferred qualifications

Able to manage user administration, permissions, and role-based access grants
Able to implement standard backup methodologies (pg_dump/restore, online backups, Incremental backups, Differential backups )
Proficient in SQL and at least one scripting language (Shell, Python)
Strong communication skills and the ability to collaborate effectively across business and technical teams
Ability to thrive in a fast-paced environment with tight delivery timelines

Aptitude for independently learning and implementing new technologies for maximum benefit
Strong hands-on experience with AWS (RDS/EC2), GCP (GKE), and AliCloud-related services
Creative, out-of-the-box thinker, able to devise multiple solutions to the same problem
Responsible for administering production, QA, and development database infrastructure
Provides database architecture and design solutions
Handles database infrastructure setup, configuration, upgrades/patching, monitoring, and troubleshooting
Builds automation scripts for database infrastructure
Measures and optimizes system performance, including capacity planning and forecasting
Participates in evaluation, design, and development of new technologies, extensions, and features for highly scalable distributed databases
Able to perform performance benchmarking between different versions of the same database technology, or between different database technologies, using pgbench or other open-source tools
Able to manage databases deployed across cloud infrastructure, including AWS, GCP, AliCloud, and Kubernetes
May require participation in a 12*7 FTE/L3 on-call support rotation with other team members
Awareness of AI tolling and MCP servers.
Deep expertise into the Oracle to PostgreSQL migration and associated challenges and solutions.
Experience with CI/CD pipelines and Infrastructure as Code (Terraform, Ansible) is a plus
Certified Kubernetes Administrator (CKA)
AWS Certified Solutions Architect Associate