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Database Engineer Resume

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Christopher Taylor

christopher.taylor@gmail.com • +1 (909) 417-3385 • github.com/christophert • linkedin.com/in/christopher-taylor

Education

University of Washington June 2017
Bachelor of Science in Computer Science GPA: 3.88/4.0

Technical Skills

Languages: SQL (PostgreSQL, MySQL), Go, Python, C++, Rust, Bash
Frameworks: Vitess, RocksDB, gRPC, Kafka, TiDB, Redis
Tools: Kubernetes, Terraform, Prometheus, AWS Aurora, Datadog, Ansible

Professional Experience

Senior Database Engineer August 2020 – Present
Dropbox San Francisco, CA
  • Led the migration of 800TB of metadata from a monolithic MySQL cluster to a sharded Vitess architecture, increasing write throughput by 4x without downtime.
  • Reduced P99 query latency for the core file-system API by 35% through custom PostgreSQL indexing strategies and query plan tuning for multi-tenant workloads.
  • Built an automated database failover testing framework using Go, reducing mean time to recovery (MTTR) by 60% during regional AWS outages.
Database Infrastructure Engineer July 2017 – July 2020
Shopify Ottawa, Canada
  • Managed a fleet of 2,500+ MySQL instances handling 15M+ requests per minute during high-traffic events like Black Friday and Cyber Monday.
  • Developed a custom monitoring agent in Python that identified and killed long-running 'rogue' queries, preventing 15+ potential site-wide outages per month.

Projects

LSM-Tree Implementation C++, Google Test, Bazel
  • Built a Log-Structured Merge-tree from scratch featuring Bloom filters and tiered compaction, achieving 12k writes/sec on commodity hardware.
✓ ATS-Optimized

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Quantifying Your Data Infrastructure Impact

Move beyond listing tools and start describing how you solved bottlenecks in distributed environments.

❌ Vague/Generic

Responsible for maintaining databases and making sure they stayed fast.

✓ Impact-Focused

Managed a fleet of 400+ PostgreSQL nodes, maintaining 99.99% availability and reducing P95 latency by 150ms through aggressive connection pooling and buffer cache tuning.

Copied!

Why it works: It uses concrete numbers (400 nodes, 99.99% uptime) and mentions specific technical levers like connection pooling.

❌ Task-Focused

Wrote SQL queries and optimized slow code for the backend team.

✓ Results-Driven

Refactored legacy analytical queries to use materialized views and window functions, reducing report generation time from 12 minutes to under 45 seconds.

Copied!

Why it works: It shows a clear 'before and after' metric and names the specific SQL features used to achieve the gain.

❌ No Metrics

Handled database migrations and schema changes.

✓ Quantified Achievement

Orchestrated 200+ zero-downtime schema migrations across 50 microservices using Gh-ost, ensuring data consistency for 10M+ active users.

Copied!

Why it works: It mentions the tool (Gh-ost) and the scale (10M users), which proves the candidate can handle production pressure.

❌ Passive Voice

Improvements were made to the backup system to prevent data loss.

✓ Action-Oriented

Redesigned the disaster recovery pipeline using S3 and Point-in-Time Recovery (PITR), reducing potential data loss window from 24 hours to 5 minutes.

Copied!

Why it works: It starts with a strong action verb and highlights a massive reduction in Risk (RPO/RTO).

Common Questions on Database Engineering Resumes

Direct advice on how to show technical depth in storage engines and distributed consistency.

Should I list every database I've ever touched on my resume?

No. Focus on the ones where you understand the internals. If you put PostgreSQL, you should be able to talk about MVCC, WAL, and execution plans. Listing 15 different DBs makes you look like a surface-level user rather than an engineer.

How do I show I'm an engineer and not just a database administrator?

Highlight your coding work. Talk about building automation tools in Go or Python, contributing to open-source database drivers, or building CI/CD pipelines for schema changes. Show that you treat infrastructure as code.

Which metrics matter most for database roles?

Hiring managers look for latency (P99/P95), throughput (QPS/TPS), storage efficiency (compression ratios), and availability (uptime/MTTR). Always tie your technical work to one of these four pillars.

Is it worth mentioning NoSQL if I'm applying for relational DB roles?

Yes, but focus on the 'why.' Explain why you chose Cassandra over Postgres for a specific use case, or how you managed a migration between the two. It shows you understand the trade-offs in the CAP theorem.

What is the biggest mistake you see on senior database resumes?

Too much focus on manual tasks. If you spend your whole resume talking about 'creating users' or 'running backups,' you won't get hired at top tech companies. They want to see how you automated those tasks so they never have to be done manually again.

How can I stand out if I don't have experience with massive scale?

Talk about correctness and reliability. Describe how you implemented strict constraint checking, audit logs, or complex data migrations without corrupting state. Deep expertise in data modeling is often more valuable than just knowing how to run a large cluster.

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Database Engineer Resume LaTeX Code

Copy and paste into Overleaf or your LaTeX editor 

%-------------------------
% Database Engineer Resume
% LaTeX Resume Template - Jake's Resume Format
%-------------------------

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%-------------------------------------------
%%%%%%  RESUME STARTS HERE  %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%

\begin{document}

%----------HEADING----------
\begin{center}
    \textbf{\Huge \scshape Christopher Taylor} \\ \vspace{1pt}
    \small christopher.taylor@gmail.com $|$ +1 (909) 417-3385 $|$ github.com/christophert $|$ linkedin.com/in/christopher-taylor
\end{center}

%-----------EDUCATION-----------
\section{Education}
  \resumeSubHeadingListStart
    \resumeSubheading
      {University of Washington}{Location}
      {Bachelor of Science in Computer Science}{June 2017}
  \resumeSubHeadingListEnd

%-----------SKILLS-----------
\section{Technical Skills}
 \begin{itemize}[leftmargin=0.15in, label={}]
    \small{\item{
     \textbf{Languages}{: SQL (PostgreSQL, MySQL), Go, Python, C++, Rust, Bash} \\
     \textbf{Frameworks}{: Vitess, RocksDB, gRPC, Kafka, TiDB, Redis} \\
     \textbf{Tools}{: Kubernetes, Terraform, Prometheus, AWS Aurora, Datadog, Ansible}
    }}
 \end{itemize}

%-----------EXPERIENCE-----------
\section{Professional Experience}
  \resumeSubHeadingListStart
    \resumeSubheading
      {Senior Database Engineer}{August 2020 – Present}
      {Dropbox}{San Francisco, CA}
      \resumeItemListStart
        \resumeItem{Led the migration of 800TB of metadata from a monolithic MySQL cluster to a sharded Vitess architecture, increasing write throughput by 4x without downtime.}
        \resumeItem{Reduced P99 query latency for the core file-system API by 35\% through custom PostgreSQL indexing strategies and query plan tuning for multi-tenant workloads.}
        \resumeItem{Built an automated database failover testing framework using Go, reducing mean time to recovery (MTTR) by 60\% during regional AWS outages.}
      \resumeItemListEnd

    \resumeSubheading
      {Database Infrastructure Engineer}{July 2017 – July 2020}
      {Shopify}{Ottawa, Canada}
      \resumeItemListStart
        \resumeItem{Managed a fleet of 2,500+ MySQL instances handling 15M+ requests per minute during high-traffic events like Black Friday and Cyber Monday.}
        \resumeItem{Developed a custom monitoring agent in Python that identified and killed long-running 'rogue' queries, preventing 15+ potential site-wide outages per month.}
      \resumeItemListEnd
  \resumeSubHeadingListEnd

%-----------PROJECTS-----------
\section{Projects}
    \resumeSubHeadingListStart
      \resumeProjectHeading
          {\textbf{LSM-Tree Implementation} $|$ \emph{C++, Google Test, Bazel}}{}
          \resumeItemListStart
            \resumeItem{Built a Log-Structured Merge-tree from scratch featuring Bloom filters and tiered compaction, achieving 12k writes/sec on commodity hardware.}
          \resumeItemListEnd
    \resumeSubHeadingListEnd

%-------------------------------------------
\end{document}

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