Open source is our beating heart and it’s something that fuels our work and our culture. It’s where we began. It’s where we’ll always be. Our vision is to become the trusted open source data platform for everyone. We are a Cast of over 400 individuals (‘Crabs’) located across the globe. Why Crabs? Because we believe in thinking sideways. And right now, we’re looking for sideways-thinking Senior Software Engineers (Site Reliability Engineering).

The Engineering team at Aiven lies at the core of our organization. This is a great opportunity to become an integral team member as a Senior Software Engineer (Site Reliability Engineering).

We look for engineers who can work around problems by finding new angles. That means both creative and lateral approaches. Thinking sideways.

You will have the opportunity to collaborate with world-class tech people solving the toughest problems, where almost every project you work on is more complex and technically challenging than the previous one.

If you relish pushing your technical boundaries, come join us. Because if you can truly think sideways, you’ll never look back.

Who we are

So, how do we become the trusted open source data platform for everyone? By listening closely to our customers and taking action to ensure they achieve their business goals. You see, the software we create is merely a means of delivering value. Our thinking is customer-first. That’s why our customers are at the front and center of all we do. And in the spirit of sideways thinking, we’re by their side as well. Actively helping them solve their challenges. Collaborating. Sharing. And innovating. In other words, it really isn’t just about who we are. It’s about who our customers are – and where they want to be.

Our values

We want individuals who can embody our values of ownership, courage, and openness.

What does that mean in practice?

We take ownership of the problems we solve. What we do is about improving life for our customers, enabling them to meet their goals. So we own our decisions and mistakes. Sometimes that takes courage. But we don’t falter – we take on challenges with confidence. And right at our heart is openness. We’re always open to new ideas – from wherever and whoever they come.

About the role:

Support Engineers at Aiven love interacting directly with customers and are interested in solving technical problems. From triaging database performance degradation, researching logs, to helping customers migrate their data to the Aiven platform, we provide an expert level of care and support to customers.

Our customers are primarily developers with a good understanding of technology, and we are tightly integrated with SRE and Product Development teams. Depending on your interests, you can also participate in new feature development (we love Python), as well as improve our automation tooling. In Support, we love building technology to automate our repetitive tasks.

You will fit well as a Support Engineer if you are curious, not afraid of asking questions, patient, friendly, respectful and practice empathy in all your interactions with customers and team members.

What you'll be doing

• Ensure all customer cases are responded to within the SLAs, and that support requests are handled promptly, and in a professional and helpful manner
• Work with complex, open-source databases such as PostgreSQL, MySQL, Clickhouse, InfluxDB, Redis, as well as other technologies like Kafka, Flink, Opensearch, Cassandra and Grafana, deployed across multiple cloud providers (AWS, Google Cloud, Azure and others)

• Engage directly with customers and partners, working collaboratively via ticketing system, email, chat and occasionally by phone or remote sessions to diagnose and resolve customer issues.

• Dedicate time for projects, learning and personal improvement
• Collaborate with engineering and product teams to meet service levels, support quality, and user happiness goals
• Work closely with customers to provide comprehensive technical troubleshooting and recommend suitable workarounds and best practices
• Coordinate efforts and offer root-cause analysis on complicated technical issues (bugs, performance issues, backup & recovery, security)
• Research, reproduce and report product malfunctions
• Advocate on the customer's behalf and provide feedback to Aiven sales and product teams
• Identify and document feature requests while working cases
• Document solutions, playbooks, and standards for customers as well as for internal use
• Support and help build a team where diversity, inclusion, teamwork and openness inspire other team members

What we are looking for

Don’t worry if your experience doesn’t line up perfectly – we still encourage you to apply! We believe in investing in our crabs’ professional growth.

Must have:

• Strong experience with one or more of the following, PostgreSQL, MySQL or Redis, Kafka, Opensearch
• Interest in learning and mastering the Aiven cloud platform and the products we offer
• Experience supporting enterprise customers.
• Some experience in Linux and networking (we use Fedora as our work desktop environment and the Linux command line is our best friend)
• Ability to read and understand code.
• Excellent communication skills - clear, concise and effective communication with customers and colleagues
• Demonstrate a good level of self-motivation, autonomy, curiosity and positive attitude

Nice to have

• Previous experience as a software engineer with a background in software development, coupled with a passion for customer support. Proficiency in Python, our primary development language, is a plus
• Experience as a developer or support engineer with at least one of the following products: Apache Kafka, Apache Flink, PostgreSQL, MySQL, Redis Clickhouse and Opensearch and/or Elasticsearch
• Open source contributions (code, bug reports, community support, documentation)
• Support and operations experience in a SaaS environment
• Experience with at least one public cloud such as: AWS, Google Cloud, Azure Cloud

Our Offer

If you ask us what’s the best thing about working for Aiven, many will probably say it’s the high concentration of talent from around the world that we have here. Enjoy the agile environment of a hyperscale scale-up where you can truly make an impact and have fun while at it.

We invest in you

• Participate in Aiven’s equity plan.
• Dreaming of flexible work arrangements? Look no further. Work in one of our hubs, fully remote, or anything in between.
• Get the equipment you need to set yourself up for success.
• Step up your career game with real employer support (use one of our learning platforms, annual learning budget, and more).
• Get holistic wellbeing support through our global Employee Assistance Program.

Make a difference at Aiven

• Contribute to open source projects that you find meaningful outside of work - and get paid for it! Our Plankton program recognizes extra work to the open source ecosystem for developers and non-developers alike.
• Use up to 5 days per year to volunteer for a good cause of your choice.
• Join one of our team member resource groups - empower yourself and others in missions that resonate with you.

Amazing! What’s next?

If you think Aiven is the place for you, send us your CV and we’ll get in touch.

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Equal Opportunities

Aiven provides equal employment opportunities to all qualified employees and applicants for employment without regard to age, gender identity, national or ethnic origin, religion, sexual orientation, physical and mental ability, marital and family status or without regard to any other similar personal attributes. Aiven complies with applicable local laws governing non-discrimination in employment in every location in which the company operates. This policy applies to all terms and conditions of employment, including recruiting, hiring, placement, promotion, termination, layoff, transfer, leaves of absence, compensation, training and any other terms and conditions related to employment.

At Aiven we are committed to providing reasonable accommodations for qualified individuals with disabilities or special needs in our working environment and job application procedures. We make all reasonable accommodations for persons with disabilities or who otherwise need support to thrive in the workplace. We are committed to continuously improving workplace accessibility. There is an option to request a discussion in the application process but if you have any questions before applying please write to us at recruitment@aiven.io.