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DBA / Senior Storage Infrastructure Engineer

Encord

Encord

Other Engineering
London, UK
Posted on Mar 11, 2026
About us
Encord is the universal data layer for AI that helps 300+ AI teams train and run models on the right data. Our platform indexes, curates, annotates, and evaluates data across the full AI lifecycle, from development through production.
Trusted by Woven by Toyota, AXA, UiPath, Zipline, and more. We're an ambitious team of 100+ working at the frontier of AI and have raised $60M in Series C funding from Wellington Management, CRV, Next47 and Y Combinator.
The role

We're looking for a great engineer to join a small, highly collaborative team building the backbone of a highly performant, large-scale data platform. You'll join us at a crucial stage of accelerated development, with end-to-end ownership of core product infrastructure — from design and architecture through to deployment and measuring impact.

What you'll do

  • Build and maintain highly performant, reliable systems that handle billions of items of structured data at scale
  • Take end-to-end ownership of projects — from product, design, and architectural decisions through to deployment, monitoring, and measuring user impact
  • Operate with a high degree of autonomy while collaborating closely with a lean, high-trust team
  • Tackle complex technical problems and solve them with simple, maintainable solutions
  • Take initiative, be proactive in problem-solving, and continuously seek improvement

Who we're looking for

  • A highly experienced engineer who has personally built and maintained systems from scratch, with a deep understanding of the trade-offs involved in building reliable, performant software at speed
  • Demonstrated experience building and maintaining relational DB systems like PostgreSQL at large scale (10⁸+ rows) in mission-critical settings
  • Bonus: prior experience with large-scale columnar storage systems such as ClickHouse and/or vector stores like Vespa
  • Someone who seeks high impact — you want your work to have a tangible outcome and aren't satisfied by work that doesn't move the needle
  • Comfortable with uncertainty — happy to tackle problems without a predefined solution and excited to make decisions autonomously
  • A team player who helps others contribute their best and enjoys levelling up those around them

Experience requirements

  • Strong experience with a proven track record building and scaling high-performance backend systems
  • Strong experience with relational databases at scale (PostgreSQL preferred)
  • Familiarity with Python and/or TypeScript; experience with Rust a plus
  • Experience with Kubernetes and cloud infrastructure (GCP preferred)
  • Prior experience at a fast-paced startup or high-growth tech environment preferred

Tech stack

    We are technology agnostic at Encord and not looking for experience across all of these — as long as you're open to learning, please apply.

  • Backend: Python
  • Frontend: TypeScript and React
  • Deployment: Kubernetes
  • Infrastructure: GCP
  • Machine Learning: PyTorch, CUDA, Ray

Why Encord

  • Competitive salary and meaningful equity in a high-growth startup
  • Strong in-person culture — most of the team works from our London office 4+ days/week
  • 25 days annual leave + UK public holidays
  • Annual learning & development budget
  • Travel for customer visits, events, and conferences across the UK and Europe
  • Company lunches twice a week
  • Monthly socials & bi-annual team offsites