Performance Engineer

About the role

Join Supabase as an early member of a new performance engineering team. You will identify and resolve performance issues across our entire platform, from the database to cloud infrastructure. This role focuses on delivering measurable improvements to our systems as they scale. You will act as a performance specialist embedded within engineering workflows, diagnosing issues that impact reliability and user experience. Your work will establish the foundation for long-term platform scalability and efficiency. You will partner closely with cross-functional teams to ensure performance is treated as a first-class requirement. This position is ideal for someone who thrives on solving complex, systemic problems rather than isolated tasks.

Key facts

What you'll do

Investigate live production systems to uncover performance bottlenecks and document findings in a clear, actionable format for engineering teams.

Collaborate with database and infrastructure teams to design and implement targeted performance enhancements based on empirical data.

Develop and refine performance analysis methodologies and tooling to transform raw production data into strategic insights.

Partner with the observability team to build a unified and comprehensive view of platform performance metrics across all layers.

Enable engineering teams to conduct independent performance analysis and embed performance thinking into their standard development workflows.

Analyze query execution paths and storage mechanisms to identify inefficiencies within the database engine and related components.

Examine operating system behaviors related to memory allocation, process scheduling, network I/O, and disk access to pinpoint resource contention.

Evaluate network protocols and traffic patterns to understand latency, throughput limitations, and congestion points under varying loads.

Assess the performance characteristics of cloud infrastructure, particularly within AWS, to validate configuration choices and service behavior.

Translate technical performance observations into clear recommendations that drive product and architectural improvements.

Influence engineering decisions by demonstrating the impact of performance issues through data-driven presentations and documentation.

Construct and maintain reusable tools that automate the collection and interpretation of performance signals for recurring analysis.

Champion a tool-first mindset, prioritizing automation and observability to reduce manual effort in performance investigations.

Work across product, infrastructure, and database boundaries to resolve complex performance challenges that span multiple systems.

Requirements

Possess extensive experience in performance engineering with a demonstrated focus on analyzing complex distributed systems in production environments.

Be able to trace performance issues across the full technology stack, connecting database queries to operating system behavior and network effects.

Maintain in-depth knowledge of either Linux kernel internals, including memory management, scheduling, networking, and I/O, or database internals, such as query planning, storage engines, buffer management, and write-ahead logging.

Showcase a solid understanding of networking principles and cloud infrastructure performance, including TCP behavior under load and the performance characteristics of AWS services.

Prove a history of successfully translating performance findings into concrete product and architectural changes that improve system behavior.

Demonstrate excellent written communication skills, producing precise, compelling, and technically sound problem descriptions for diverse audiences.

Adopt a practical, tool-focused approach and feel comfortable collaborating with product, infrastructure, and database engineering teams.

Meet the hard bar of owning the full performance stack without requiring constant guidance on foundational concepts.

Apply strict analytical rigor when correlating metrics, logs, and traces to form a complete picture of performance degradation.

Nice to have

Have contributed to open-source projects, especially those related to databases, networking, or systems tooling.

Practical notes

This is a fully remote position. Supabase offers a co-working space allowance, equity ownership through an ESOP, a technology allowance for your workspace, 100% health insurance coverage for employees at 80 percent for dependents, annual company off-sites, flexible work hours, and an annual education allowance for professional development. The role requires consistent availability to collaborate effectively with distributed teams across overlapping working hours. There may be travel expectations for team gatherings or observability events as the program develops. Visa sponsorship details are not available at this time, so candidates should review eligibility based on their location. The position demands long-term commitment to building performance practices within the organization, so candidates should be prepared for a sustained impact journey.