Job Title: Senior Database DBA – MemSQL / SingleStore
Location: New Jersey / Irving, TX / Tampa, FL
Role Overview
We are seeking a Senior MemSQL / SingleStore Cluster Administrator to own and manage mission-critical, large-scale distributed database platforms. This role requires a pure Database Administrator (DBA) with deep expertise in handling petabyte-scale data, complex distributed clusters, and real-time latency-sensitive workloads.
Core Technical Expectations
Experience handling petabytes of data ingested every 15 minutes in large-scale environments.
Strong expertise managing large MemSQL / SingleStore clusters (multi-node, multi-TB to multi-PB).
Deep understanding of data distribution across aggregators and leaf nodes.
Expertise in:
-
Partitioning and shard key strategy
-
Data skew mitigation
-
Hot partition resolution
-
Worker node and leaf node optimization
Strong table-level knowledge including:
-
Index strategy
-
Thread management
-
Connection pooling
-
Memory limits
-
Query plan optimization
Strong understanding of different MemSQL/SingleStore versions and corresponding architectural/feature changes.
Key Responsibilities
End-to-end ownership of large MemSQL/SingleStore clusters (design, build, upgrade, operate, decommission).
Architect and maintain High Availability (HA) and Disaster Recovery (DR) setups including:
-
Redundancy levels
-
Availability groups
-
Cross-region replication
Plan and execute:
-
Cluster expansion
-
Downsizing
-
Online partition rebalancing
-
Leaf node management with minimal/no downtime
Proactively monitor cluster health, throughput, latency, and capacity; define and maintain SLAs.
Perform advanced performance tuning:
-
Schema design
-
Shard key design
-
Index strategy
-
NUMA and memory tuning
-
Workload management
Implement backup/restore strategies and regularly test DR & failover.
Lead incident response and perform deep root cause analysis.
Enforce database security best practices:
-
Authentication & authorization
-
Encryption
-
Auditing
-
Network controls
Drive automation using scripting (Python/Bash) and Infrastructure as Code.
Maintain documentation, operational runbooks, and standards.
Evaluate new MemSQL/SingleStore features and lead version upgrades and migrations.
Required Experience & Skills
10+ years of total database engineering/administration experience.
4–5+ years of deep, production-grade experience administering MemSQL/SingleStore clusters at scale.
Strong hands-on experience with:
-
Aggregators & leaf nodes
-
Licensing and memory limits
-
Cluster expansion & partition rebalancing
-
Replication & failover/failback
-
Proven ability to diagnose:
-
Locking issues
-
Data skew
-
Hot partitions
-
Bad execution plans
-
Strong Linux system tuning knowledge:
-
CPU/NUMA affinity
-
Disk & I/O optimization
-
Networking
-
ulimits & OS-level tuning
-
Experience with monitoring & alerting tools:
-
Prometheus / Grafana
-
Datadog
-
Splunk
-
ELK
-
Strong SQL expertise and scripting (Python/Bash).
-
Experience in Cloud/Container environments (AWS/Azure/GCP, Kubernetes) is highly preferred.
Excellent communication skills with ability to lead production calls and explain technical trade-offs clearly.
