Senior Software Engineer – Database Optimizer

Why Cast AI?

Cast AI is an automation platform that operates cloud-native and AI infrastructure at scale. By embedding autonomous decision-making directly into Kubernetes and cloud environments, Cast AI continuously optimizes performance, reliability, and efficiency in production.

The old way doesn't work. As Kubernetes and AI environments grow, manual decisions don’t. Cast AI replaces tickets, alerts, and manual tuning with continuous automation that adapts infrastructure as conditions change. Efficiency and cost savings follow naturally from that automation.

Over 2,100 companies already rely on Cast AI, including Akamai, BMW, Cisco, FICO, HuggingFace, NielsenIQ, Swisscom, and TGS.

Global team, diverse perspectives
We're headquartered in Miami, but our impact is international. We take a global and intentional approach to diversity. Today, Cast AI operates across 34 countries spanning Europe, North America, Latin America, and APAC, bringing a wide range of perspectives into how we build and lead. 

Unicorn momentum
In January 2026, we achieved unicorn status with a strategic investment from Pacific Alliance Ventures, the corporate venture arm of Shinsegae Group (a $50+ billion Korean conglomerate). Our valuation now exceeds $1 billion, and we're just getting started.

Join us as we build the future of autonomous infrastructure.

About the role

Databases are notoriously hard to optimize—with 350+ configuration parameters in PostgreSQL alone, even experienced engineers struggle to find the right settings. Have you ever dreamed about a database that continuously self-optimizes itself in the background, so you can focus on what really matters: building great products?

Sometimes your queries slow down and it's not immediately clear why. Imagine a system that proactively detects performance degradation, analyzes the root cause, and automatically improves your queries and indexes for you—creating pull requests with the exact optimizations needed.

CAST AI is seeking a skilled senior software engineer with expertise in databases and interest in understanding the underlying technology that makes them work. Knowledge of implementation details around transactions, wire protocols, WAL, indexes, query planning, and other fundamental database features will enable you to build a product that automates what's traditionally been manual and complex.

You'll work on a greenfield project with high impact, creating intelligent systems that make database optimization effortless for our customers.

This is a location-specific opportunity. We are currently accepting applications from candidates residing in the following European countries: Bulgaria, Croatia, Estonia, Greece, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, and Ukraine.

Requirements:

• Experience working with and troubleshooting PostgreSQL and/or MySQL in production environments
• Experience troubleshooting database-related issues in one of your previous roles—whether as a DBA, backend engineer, SRE, or any position where you've debugged slow queries, optimized indexes, or resolved production database problems
• Strong programming skills in Go and/or C++
• Strong problem-solving skills and the ability to troubleshoot complex issues in a production environment
• Strong written and verbal communication skills in English
• Ability to work independently and collaboratively within a team
• Startup mindset: adaptable, proactive, and comfortable with ambiguity
• A proactive, problem-solving mindset with a "yes we can" attitude

Here are some of the tools we use daily:

• Mostly Golang with C++ in the most critical data pathways
• Extending Envoy with custom network filters
• ClickHouse and PostgreSQL for business metrics
• GRPC and REST APIs
• GitLab CI with ArgoCD as our GitOps CD engine
• Prometheus, Grafana, Loki, and Tempo for observability
• Deployment charts are written in Helm.

Responsibilities:

• Design, build, and operate database optimization services in Go and C++.
• Develop features for query analysis, index recommendations, and automated performance tuning that deliver measurable database cost savings.
• Extend and maintain integrations with PostgreSQL and MySQL protocols, cloud database services (RDS, Cloud SQL, Azure Database).
• Implement query parsing, plan analysis, and recommendation algorithms that identify optimization opportunities.
• Develop monitoring and alerting systems for database performance metrics, connection health, and cost tracking.
• Shape public and internal APIs with an eye for simplicity and developer experience.
• Participate in design reviews, code reviews, and occasional customer deep‑dives.

What’s in it for you?

• Competitive salary (€6,500 - €9,000 gross, depending on the level of experience)
• Enjoy a flexible, remote-first global environment.
• Collaborate with a global team of cloud experts and innovators, passionate about pushing the boundaries of Kubernetes technology.
• Equity options.
• Private health insurance.
• Get quick feedback with a fast-paced workflow. Most feature projects are completed in 1 to 4 weeks.
• Spend 10% of your work time on personal projects or self-improvement. 
• Learning budget for professional and personal development - including access to international conferences and courses that elevate your skills.
• Annual hackathon to spark new ideas and strengthen team bonds.
• Team-building budget and company events to connect with your colleagues.
• Equipment budget to ensure you have everything you need.
• Extra days off to help maintain a healthy work-life balance.

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