Senior Database Administrator - Core Infrastructure - remote job

Kraken is hiring a Senior Database Administrator - Core Infrastructure - a senior role, so the employer expects you to make the calls yourself. The role sits in IT and programming and is fully remote. The company hires candidates based in Europe.

The employer did not publish a figure; that is settled at interview. The advert sets no condition on working hours.

This vacancy passed an automated check: the list excludes any advert requiring a foreign work permit, visa sponsorship, a particular citizenship, or residence in a specific country.

Building the Future of Open Finance

Payward - the parent company behind Kraken, NinjaTrader, Breakout, xStocks, Payward Services, and CF Benchmarks - has dedicated the past 15 years to developing one of the most advanced and globally accessible financial infrastructure platforms. Our mission is to foster an open, global financial ecosystem.

Before applying, we recommend you delve into our culture page to grasp our core values and operational ethos. The Team You'll be part of a senior team of Database Administrators (DBAs) and Site Reliability Engineers (SREs), vital for Kraken's critical service operations. This team leverages extensive operational expertise with a platform-centric mindset, crafting systems that empower engineering teams to innovate swiftly while maintaining stringent performance, security, and reliability standards. The team is poised for a transformative phase as Kraken expands globally. Over the next year, our focus will be on enhancing operational excellence, scaling our database environments to support future growth, and boosting automation and self-service to streamline operations at scale. This role is not about merely maintaining operations; it's about scaling distributed MariaDB environments, designing resilient systems for high-traffic scenarios, and translating operational knowledge into auditable, automated workflows that benefit the entire engineering organization. It's a collaborative environment that values clarity, rigor, and continuous improvement. If you thrive in building robust distributed systems and designing platforms that enhance engineering efficiency and security, you'll find a dynamic fit here.

The Opportunity

* Scale and optimize high-throughput MariaDB clusters to support global expansion and new product launches. * Strengthen high-availability, disaster-recovery, and backup strategies through robust design and regular validation. * Automate operational tasks to reduce manual work, improve process consistency, and enable safe, streamlined database workflows. * Enhance observability and alert quality by advocating for meaningful metrics, reducing noise, and ensuring operational clarity. * Secure databases through robust access controls, disciplined patching, and upgrade practices, and implement secure operational practices. * Contribute to modern platform initiatives, including containerization, infrastructure-as-code, and reproducible deployments. * Collaborate with service teams to improve performance, operational readiness, and database hygiene across the engineering organization. * Participate in on-call rotations with a long-term focus on making on-call responsibilities predictable and informed by high-quality signals and proactive engineering.

What You Bring

* At least 5 years of experience in high-volume production environments, including tuning, replication, and troubleshooting MariaDB/MySQL. * In-depth knowledge of high-availability patterns, distributed database behavior, and practical failure scenarios. * Hands-on experience with database proxies or load-balancing layers like HAProxy, ProxySQL, or MaxScale. * Experience with CI/CD, GitOps, and Infrastructure-as-Code workflows, with Terraform a plus. * Strong cloud, Linux, and networking fundamentals. * Expertise in containers and orchestration platforms, including building container images and managing Kubernetes at scale. * Strong security practices, including access control, upgrade processes, and safe operational workflows. * Observability skills: monitoring, alerting hygiene, and readiness for incident response. * Excellent communication and collaboration skills, with the ability to work with stakeholders, negotiate long-term plans, write formal documentation, and tie success to specific metrics and KPIs.

Nice to Have

* Experience with SRE methodologies, such as error budgets, operational reviews, or reliability programs. * Proficiency in scripting or programming languages, particularly Python or Rust. * Hands-on experience with GitOps tools like ArgoCD, GitHub Actions, or GitLab CI. * Knowledge of multi-region or disaster-recovery designs. * Interest in cryptocurrency or decentralized systems.

Unless a specific application deadline is stated, applications are accepted on an ongoing basis. Please note, applicants may redact or remove identifying information on their resume, such as age, date of birth, or dates of attendance at or graduation from educational institutions. We consider qualified applicants with criminal histories for employment and assess candidates in a manner consistent with the requirements of the San Francisco Fair Chance Ordinance.

Our Commitment Payward is a global community of diverse talents and backgrounds. We hire based on merit, seeking individuals with the necessary skills and knowledge for the role. We encourage applications from candidates who bring unique perspectives and are passionate about crypto.

We may require candidates to complete job-related skills or work-style assessments as part of our hiring process. These assessments evaluate competencies relevant to the role and are applied consistently across candidates for similar positions. Results are considered alongside experience and interviews, and are not the sole basis for any employment decision.

As an equal opportunity employer, we do not tolerate discrimination or harassment of any kind, regardless of race, ethnicity, age, gender identity, citizenship, religion, sexual orientation, disability, pregnancy, veteran status, or any other protected characteristic as outlined by federal, state, or local laws.

Stay Connected Follow us on Twitter Read the Kraken Blog Connect on LinkedIn

Candidate Privacy Notice