Software Engineer, Backend - Data Layer

This position is listed on behalf of a partner company, who manages all applications and next steps. Our partner is looking for a Software Engineer, Backend - Data Layer based in Portugal. As a Backend Software Engineer on the Data Layer team, you’ll help build and evolve the storage and query infrastructure behind a large-scale process orchestration platform. You’ll work across relational databases and Elasticsearch/OpenSearch to keep process data reliable, performant, and available. Your work will directly support capabilities ranging from process monitoring to emerging AI-driven automation experiences. You’ll tackle complex challenges around data storage, retention, streaming, secondary storage, and scalability. The role offers strong ownership, with opportunities to shape technical solutions from requirements through production delivery. You’ll collaborate closely with Product, QA, SRE, Support, and fellow engineers in a remote-first environment. It’s an opportunity to make a meaningful impact on a sophisticated backend platform while growing your expertise in data-intensive systems. Design, build, and maintain backend services responsible for storing and serving process data across relational databases and Elasticsearch/OpenSearch, with a strong focus on correctness, performance, reliability, and scalability. Own engineering initiatives end to end, translating product requirements into technical designs, breaking complex work into actionable tasks, and driving delivery to a high standard. Help evolve how process data is processed, retained, exposed, and streamed so customers can access and use their data effectively. Improve the performance and scalability of secondary storage systems as platform usage grows, while developing tooling that supports observability, troubleshooting, and safe production operations. Investigate and resolve complex data-layer production issues, including slow queries, indexing problems, and execution-plan challenges, as part of L3 support and on-call rotations. Partner with Product Management, Support, SRE, QA, and other engineering teams to ensure technical solutions meet customer needs and production requirements. Contribute to continuous improvement by bringing lessons from production incidents and customer feedback back into engineering practices and product development. Requirements: At least 4 years of professional experience as a Backend Software Engineer, with a strong focus on backend systems and production data stores. Hands-on experience with at least one major database or search technology such as PostgreSQL, MySQL, MariaDB, MSSQL, Elasticsearch, or OpenSearch. Practical understanding of query performance, indexing strategies, data modeling, execution plans, and the trade-offs involved in designing data-intensive systems. Demonstrated experience contributing to complex engineering initiatives, including requirements analysis, technical design, task decomposition, implementation, and reliable delivery. Ability to troubleshoot data-related production issues and investigate slow queries, index usage, and other performance bottlenecks. Strong communication and collaboration skills, particularly in a remote-first environment, with the ability to work effectively with Product and engineering stakeholders and provide and receive constructive code-review feedback. Willingness to use and understand the product as part of developing customer-focused solutions. Experience with workflow automation, process orchestration, or developer platforms is a plus. Experience working across both relational databases and Elasticsearch/OpenSearch is advantageous. Familiarity with CI pipelines and database migration or schema-evolution tools such as Liquibase or Flyway is beneficial. Benefits: Competitive, transparent, location-based compensation, with the applicable range determined by skills, experience, and location. Romania-based employees are supported through a global employment partner, with personaliz