Principal Performance Engineer (Database & AI Benchmarking)

TL;DR

Principal Performance Engineer (Database & AI Benchmarking): Building and maintaining repeatable end-to-end benchmarks for database and AI workloads with an accent on throughput, latency, concurrency, scalability, and stability. Focus on identifying systemic bottlenecks, optimizing GPU/CPU inference pipelines, model serving, and driving cross-team performance improvements.

Location: 100% remote for candidates based in EU/UK

Company

hirify.global provides a data and AI platform based on Postgres for transactional, analytical, and AI workloads across clouds, serving over 1,500 customers globally.

What you will do

• Design and execute benchmarks for database (OLTP/OLAP) and AI workloads.
• Evaluate and optimize performance metrics like throughput, latency, concurrency, and scalability.
• Develop tooling, automation, scripts, and dashboards for consistent benchmarking.
• Analyze results, identify bottlenecks, produce reports, and recommend fixes.
• Collaborate with engineering, product, and field teams to set performance goals and standards.
• Establish best practices for test hygiene, statistical rigor, and benchmark governance.

Requirements

• Based in EU/UK for 100% remote work.
• 8+ years in performance engineering, benchmarking, SRE, or systems engineering (databases/AI).
• Strong knowledge of performance concepts: latency percentiles, throughput, concurrency, queueing.
• Deep understanding of database internals (Postgres or equivalent).
• Hands-on experience with benchmarking tools (pgbench, HammerDB, TPC) and distributed systems.
• Proficient in Python/Go, Bash scripting, eBPF, Linux profiling (perf, flamegraphs).
• Ability to communicate findings and drive improvements with teams.

Nice to have

• Active benchmarking techniques.
• Vector databases/search benchmarking.
• PostgreSQL tuning (autovacuum, WAL, replication).
• RAG pipelines and AI stack (model serving, GPU profiling).
• Storage/networking performance (IO, filesystem, kernel tuning).

Culture & Benefits

• Support for work-life balance and wellness via CuraLinc and Wellness Fridays.
• Region-specific benefits; check career site for details.
• Inclusive environment celebrating diversity and unique skills.
• High availability (99.999%) with security, compliance, and observability built-in.