Manager, Software Engineering - Databases

Figma is growing our team of passionate people on a mission to make design accessible to all. Born on the Web, Figma helps entire product teams brainstorm, design and build better products — from start to finish. Whether it’s consolidating tools, simplifying workflows, or collaborating across teams and time zones, Figma makes the design process faster, more efficient, and fun while keeping everyone on the same page. From great products to long-lasting companies, we believe that nothing great is made alone—come make with us!

Databases are at the heart of Figma’s technology stack and powers all the data storage needs for our realtime multiplayer web and mobile experiences. In 2020, we started out running a single Postgres database hosted on AWS, and now we have built out a distributed architecture with caching, read replicas, and many vertically and horizontally sharded partitioned databases. 

We’re looking for an Engineering Manager to shape and build the next generation of Database services to accelerate Figma’s continued growth and meet the data storage needs for our expanding line of world-class design products. 

This is a full time role that can be held from one of our US hubs or remotely in the United States.

What you’ll do at Figma:

• Manage, support and grow a team of engineers who design and build scalable services to power Figma’s infrastructure.
• Build and execute on a long-term roadmap to evolve and scale our Database platform and capabilities.
• Partner with engineering leadership to set strategy, priorities, and mission for teams and projects. 
• Establish trust within and across teams by creating accountability and a positive work environment in partnership with other leaders in the organization.
• Grow your career in an engaged and creative engineering community
• Figma is committed to building an inclusive and diverse team and culture. We expect all of our leaders to play a role in helping to build and drive these initiatives through hiring, community events, and other programs in partnership with teams across all of Figma

We'd love to hear from you if you have:

• 3+ years of experience managing and leading a high output platform or product teams in a complex technical domain, such as on distributed data systems or database internals.
• 5+ years experience building and scaling distributed or storage systems as a technical hands on leader and/or as an individual contributor within a public cloud environment, such as AWS or GCP
• Experience with database systems, storage systems, distributed systems, language design, query optimization and performance
• Hands on experience with core data storage and streaming systems and technologies, such as Postgres, MySql, Memcache, Redis, Kafka, Kinesis etc
• Demonstrated leadership skills in building a high-performing and highly engaged engineering team. Proven track record of motivating, mentoring, and guiding senior engineers.
• Demonstrated experience with understanding the needs of our internal client teams and aligning roadmap to drive maximum business impact

While not required, it’s an added plus if you also have:

• A history of solving difficult engineering problems with novel, custom solutions
• Experience building horizontally or vertically sharded distributed database using public cloud technologies like AWS RDS, Aurora or similar offerings
• Experience managing managers

At Figma, one of our values is Grow as you go. We believe in hiring smart, curious people who are excited to learn and develop their skills. If you’re excited about this role but your past experience doesn’t align perfectly with the points outlined in the job description, we encourage you to apply anyways. You may be just the right candidate for this or other roles.

Pay Transparency Disclosure

If based in Figma’s San Francisco or New York hub offices, this role has the annual base salary range stated below.  

Job level and actual compensation will be decided based on factors including, but not limited to, individual qualifications objectively assessed during the interview process (including skills and prior relevant experience, potential impact, and scope of role), market demands, and specific work location. The listed range is a guideline, and the range for this role may be modified. For roles that are available to be filled remotely, the pay range is localized accor