Data Platform Engineering Lead

Lead - Data Platform Engineering

Company Description

Organizations everywhere struggle under the crushing costs and complexities of “solutions” that promise to simplify their lives. To create a better experience for their customers and employees. To help them grow. Software is a choice that can make or break a business. Create better or worse experiences. Propel or throttle growth. Business software has become a blocker instead of ways to get work done.

There’s another option. Freshworks. With a fresh vision for how the world works.

Freshworks Inc. builds uncomplicated service software that delivers exceptional employee and customer experiences. Our people-first approach to AI eliminates friction, helping businesses reduce complexity, lower cost-to-serve, and deliver faster, more human support through enterprise-grade yet easy-to-use CX and IT solutions. Nearly 75,000 companies, including Bridgestone, New Balance, Nucor, S&P Global, and Sony Music, trust Freshworks to power their Employee Experience (EX) and Customer Experience (CX) operations.

Fresh vision. Real impact. Come build it with us.

Job Description

We are seeking an experienced Lead Engineer specializing in database performance engineering to optimize and scale mission-critical MySQL and PostgreSQL systems. This role focuses on deep query analysis, performance tuning, architecture improvements, and production troubleshooting in high-scale environments.

You will work closely with application teams, SREs, and platform engineers to ensure database reliability, efficiency, and scalability.

• Deep Query Optimization: Analyze complex SQL queries and execution plans to identify inefficiencies. You will be responsible for rewriting queries, suggesting architectural changes, and implementing indexing strategies that drastically reduce latency.
• System Profiling & Bottleneck Analysis: Use advanced profiling tools to diagnose issues related to CPU, I/O, locking contention, and memory pressure.
• Analyze slow or inefficient queries using tools such as EXPLAIN, EXPLAIN ANALYZE, query plans, and performance schema views
• Optimize SQL queries, indexes, schema design, and data access patterns
• Identify and resolve performance bottlenecks across application, database, and infrastructure layers
• Tune database configuration parameters for optimal performance under varying workloads
• Conduct capacity planning and performance benchmarking
• Design strategies for scaling databases (sharding, partitioning, replication, read/write splitting)
• Implement monitoring and alerting for database performance metrics
• Troubleshoot production incidents related to database latency, locks, deadlocks, and resource contention
• Collaborate with developers to enforce best practices in query design and ORM usage
• Lead performance reviews for new features and schema changes
• Document performance guidelines and mentor engineering teams

Qualifications

Required Skills & Qualifications

• 7+ years of experience working with relational databases, including MySQL and PostgreSQL
• Strong expertise in SQL query optimization and execution plan analysis
• Deep understanding of indexing strategies, joins, transactions, and concurrency control
• Hands-on experience with performance tuning tools (e.g., pt-query-digest, pg_stat_statements)
• Experience with large datasets and high-throughput systems
• Strong knowledge of storage engines, locking behavior, and isolation levels
• Familiarity with Linux system performance (CPU, memory, I/O, network)
• Experience troubleshooting production database issues
• Ability to work with cross-functional teams and lead technical initiatives

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience with managed databases (Self Hosted MySQL, PostgreSQL, AWS RDS/Aurora, GCP Cloud SQL, etc.)
• Knowledge of database internals and query optimizer behavior
• Experience with distributed systems and microservices architectures
• Familiarity with NoSQL databases is a plus
• Experience with automation using scripting languages (Python, Bash, etc.)
• Contributions to database performance improvements at scale

Additional Information

At Freshworks, we have fostered an environment that enables everyone to find their true potential, purpose, and passion, welcoming colleagues of all backgrounds, genders, sexual orientations, religions, and ethnicities. We are committed to providing equal opportunity and believe that diversity in the workplace creates a more vibrant, richer environment that boosts the goals of our employees, communities, and business. Fresh vision. Real impact. Come build it with us.

Experience Level

Senior Level