Database Reliability Engineer
Terminal
Data Science
About VEG
hold your horses—something's not right
As a veterinarian, Dr. David Bessler knew something was wrong with the ER experience. A major piece was missing: the customer's feelings. They were left out in a lobby, kept in the dark about treatment options, and then hit with surprise fees.
working like a dog, but excited as a puppy
Enter VEG. Along with VEG co-founder David Glattstein and a dedicated team, Dr. Bessler created the VEG experience, which puts people and their pets first. Customers are met at the door and that door is open 24/7, even on holidays. And our staff is trained to treat any emergency—from vomiting to surgery.
keeping the flock together
If pets could talk, they'd tell you to stay with them. That's why at VEG, our open floor plan lets you see everything and participate in your pet's care. In fact, you can stay with your pet the entire time, even through surgery.
welcoming scaredy-cats
Want to hold your pet during treatment? YES! We do whatever it takes to take the scary out of a stressful situation. With your pet more at ease, we can have an open conversation about diagnosis, treatment options, and costs.
About The Role
ABOUT VEG In 2014, VEG was born with a mission to help people and their pets when they need it most by challenging norms and fixing the ER experience. Since then, we’ve expanded rapidly, with hospitals nationwide open 24/7/365, and created an ER experience that focuses on what our pets and pet parents really need. We’ve done the same for our people (VEGgies), finding a way to say YES so they are empowered to achieve great things, grow in unexpected ways, and find a place where they truly belong. We’re rethinking emergency care from every angle—from how we run our hospitals to how we support the people working inside them. That’s where our headquarters team comes in. Whether building technology to make our hospitals more efficient, recruiting and growing incredible VEGgies, or bringing our brand to life through marketing, our VQ (VEG Headquarters) team makes it all possible—ensuring our hospitals and people have everything they need to help pets and their families. VEG is a 2025 and 2026 certified Great Place to Work®. THE JOB We are looking for a Database Reliability Engineer who understands both the architecture and orchestration of data – someone with a sharp engineering mind and a passion for building systems that never blink. In this role, you’ll be on the frontlines of our global expansion, bringing your expertise in AWS RDS, PostgreSQL, and Python to architect a data roadmap that scales from startup speed to global enterprise scale for hundreds of hospitals worldwide. At VEG, we find a way to say YES to building resilient, self-healing systems that eliminate “toil” and empower our medical teams to provide life-saving care 24/7/365. You will take ownership of the performance and stability of our data layer, implementing the standards and SLOs that ensure our systems remain robust as we expand. Join us to tackle complex challenges at the core of our infrastructure and make a measurable impact on the future of veterinary medicine – all while being part of a team that values your technical craft and your drive to see us thrive.
What You’ll Do
Analyze complex database access patterns to identify bottlenecks, then design and implement optimizations in Postgres and Python to ensure high performance as our workload keeps growing ● Architect and execute the roadmap to transition our data layer from startup scale to a global enterprise footprint, supporting our continued hospital expansion ● Build and maintain a world-class observability stack to transform 'surprises' into predictable, automated alerts ● Define and enforce Service Level Objectives (SLOs) and database best practices, ensuring that as we scale, our data remains resilient, secure, and highly available
What You’ll Bring
Bachelor’s Degree preferred or equivalent experience ● 7+ years of experience in DBRE/DBA/SRE/DevOps roles managing high-traffic production databases ● Deep PostgreSQL internal expertise, including a strong understanding of MVCC, indexing strategies, and query optimization ● Proven track record of managing RDS for PostgreSQL across Multi-AZ deployments, with a focus on parameter group tuning and high-concurrency traffic via RDS Proxy ● Designed and executed roadmaps for transitioning from a single primary database to a multi-cluster environment, utilizing read replicas, caching layers, and service-specific data stores ● You have direct experience with technologies relevant to our technical stack, which currently includes: AWS, RDS Proxy, PostgreSQL (RDS), Python