Senior Database Engineer at ServiceNow
Santa Clara, CA
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Jul 6, 2026
Santa Clara, CA
Jul 21, 2026
What this job asks for AI summary
A senior database and infrastructure reliability role on a production SWAT team, serving as the final escalation point for stability issues across large-scale multi-tenant PostgreSQL and MariaDB fleets. Day-to-day work centers on deep incident investigation and root-cause analysis, building observability tooling and automation, and tuning database and Linux performance in cloud and on-premises environments. Best suited to experienced engineers with strong relational database internals knowledge and a background supporting distributed SaaS or cloud platforms.
Senior level · 5+ years · Remote · Full-time
“or” means any one of them counts — you don't need all of them.
Posted 2 times — it's one opening, so apply once.
We read this from the posting text with AI. Skim the description below before ruling yourself out.
How this req sits in the market our data
Roughly 2,750 people nationally plausibly meet what this posting asks for (database administrators). range 560–4,100
Applicant volume Heavy — This req sits in a large pool with little in its requirements to thin it, and auto-apply tools fire at everything in the occupation. Applying early and leading with the rare skills below is what gets read.
Most people in this occupation already list these. Still required — just not what gets you shortlisted.
What the occupation pays Median $106,921 (middle half $81,361–$138,439).
Estimated from BLS employment for this occupation and area, per-skill prevalence across our listing corpus, and published wage benchmarks — as of Jul 28, 2026. It is a model, not a headcount.
Why we read it this way (11)
SOC classification is Medium confidence: the role is primarily database operations and troubleshooting at scale (RCA, vacuum mechanics, WAL, query tuning), which maps to 15-1242 Database Administrators. However, the JD also emphasizes developing observability and automation tooling and supporting broad cloud infrastructure, which pulls toward 15-1244 (Systems Administrators) — hence the runner-up.
The degree requirement accepts equivalent work experience ('or equivalent work experience'), so the degree requirement is set to None.
The role requires passing USFedPASS screening and is restricted to US citizens, naturalized citizens, or permanent residents (green card holders) — noted here as it is a meaningful eligibility gate not captured by the clearance field.
The role includes on-call rotation responsibilities.
PostgreSQL is listed as the primary database with MariaDB also explicitly named in the fleet context; both are captured as alternatives on the same skill.
Database internals (MVCC, transaction management, vacuum mechanics, buffer management, WAL architecture, backup/restore) are all called out under the required qualifications block; 'database performance tuning' consolidates the query/database tuning aspects of that list.
ServiceNow platform experience is listed under 'Desired Skills' as 'highly preferred' — treated as preferred accordingly.
Scripting skills (shell, Python, JavaScript, Ansible) and OS familiarity (CentOS/Red Hat) appear under 'Desired Skills' and are treated as preferred.
Kubernetes and CI/CD appear under 'Desired Skills' as part of a DevOps/performance team experience note — treated as preferred.
Ignored 2 non-technology phrase(s) as skills (responsibilities/concepts, not named tools): WAL architecture, SaaS/PaaS/Cloud Infrastructure.
Caller marked this a fully-remote role — scored against the national candidate pool.
Read the full posting
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