PlanetScale
Database
SoftwareEngineer-PostgresInternals
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optimal for Entry candidates.
“Software Engineer - Postgres Internals at PlanetScale. Skills: PostgreSQL internals, C programming, Open-source contributions. Contribute upstream to PostgreSQL core engine. Maintain Postgres extensions”
Industry & Context.
Root-cause Postgres issues
What They're Looking For.
Must Have
C programming skills, Git, PostgreSQL patch workflow, Linux
Nice to Have
PostgreSQL contribution history, Postgres extension end-to-end, distributed systems, storage engines, query optimization, Public talks, papers, blog posts
What You'll Do.
Contribute upstream to PostgreSQL core engine
Maintain Postgres extensions
Author and review patches
Maintain open-source extensions
Maintain proprietary extensions
Review community patches
Engage PostgreSQL community
Root-cause Postgres issues
Improve documentation
How You'll Work.
Team & Collaboration
Collaborate effectively with engineers
Communication Scope
Engage in design discussions
Full Job Description
PlanetScale is growing rapidly and reinventing the database space. The PlanetScale platform offers both Postgres and Vitess clusters. Vitess, an open-source database clustering system for horizontal scaling of MySQL, enables businesses to efficiently handle large-scale data workloads — without sacrificing developer experience. About the role As a PostgreSQL Core Engineer, you will spend most of your time contributing upstream to the PostgreSQL core engine and maintaining the Postgres extensions — both open-source community projects and Planetscale's proprietary extensions — that power our Postgres offering. What You'll Do Author and review patches to the PostgreSQL core engine: performance, features, bug fixes, and security — landed through the pgsql-hackers mailing list and the Commitfest process. Maintain Postgres extensions, both open-source (community projects we depend on) and proprietary (Planetscale-owned). Includes feature work, bug fixes, performance tuning, and major-version compatibility. Review community patches with rigor on correctness, stability, and PostgreSQL coding conventions. Engage the PostgreSQL community in design discussions, the 5 (five) annual Commitfests, and conferences. Root-cause Postgres issues affecting Planetscale customers and turn fixes into upstream patches when applicable. Improve documentation for PostgreSQL and our extensions as part of every change. What We're Looking For Required: Strong C programming skills in large, established codebases. Deep knowledge of PostgreSQL internals: MVCC, query planner/executor, WAL, vacuum, replication, memory contexts. Demonstrated open-source contributions to PostgreSQL or comparable database projects (accepted patches, reviews, or extensions). Fluency with Git and the PostgreSQL patch workflow. Comfortable in Linux/BSD development environments; able to profile and benchmark database workloads. Nice to Have: PostgreSQL contribution history. Experience authoring or maintaining a Postgres exten
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