• Define the roadmap for database engineering, ensuring our database infrastructure scales with Upstart’s growth. • Lead, mentor, and grow a team of Database Engineers, fostering a culture of technical excellence and collaboration. • Partner with application and data engineering teams to establish standards for database design, schema governance, and query optimization. • Drive initiatives to improve availability, security, and performance across all production and non-production database environments. • Champion automation and tooling that reduce operational overhead, increase observability, and improve developer self-service. • Act as a thought partner to engineering leadership on database strategy, scaling, and cost efficiency.