Quick Summary
Laravel is the most popular PHP framework in the world, boasting 500M+ lifetime downloads and thousands of packages. It's supported by a vibrant developer community active in conferences, forums, Twitter, Discord, and online discussions about framework choices.
Beyond a framework, Laravel functions as a complete platform, covering stack selection, application building, deployment, monitoring, and scaling. Laravel Cloud, our managed PaaS, often encounters a significant hurdle for enterprise customers: database migration. We are seeking a dedicated professional to directly address this challenge.
Why This Job Is Unique
You will engage directly with enterprise customers, leading and executing database migrations alongside them. This role involves hands-on technical execution, not just ticket routing or remote advice, which is crucial for delivering on large, impactful contracts.
This is an established, ongoing function. You will assume ownership of existing database migration responsibilities, including managing the PlanetScale relationship and streamlining recurring ad-hoc requests. You will not be starting from scratch.
Your mandate is to develop and refine the migration process in practice. Instead of waiting for a fully defined database offering, you will learn customer needs, productize repeatable migration patterns, and advocate for future enhancements.
You will be instrumental in knowledge dissemination. The approach is "immediate pain relief, then the whole team gets better," involving documentation, runbooks, and lightweight training to empower Sales, Customer Success, and engineering teams, fostering expertise rather than dependency.
What the Database Migrations Engineer Will Do
- Execute database migrations for enterprise and Private Cloud customers, primarily involving MySQL and Postgres. This includes participating in calls, owning technical execution, and ensuring successful customer onboarding to Laravel Cloud.
- Assume full ownership of the PlanetScale relationship and associated migration work, transitioning this function from an ad-hoc state to a clean, autonomous operation.
- Productize repeatable migration patterns by identifying common downtime-tolerant migrations and packaging them with comprehensive documentation, decision logic, and edge case considerations. The goal is repeatability over heroics, with an eventual aim to integrate this knowledge into the product via documentation, wizards, or self-serve flows for product-led customers.
- Automate recurring migration requests by mapping frequently surfacing one-off requests across various channels and eliminating manual effort.
- Serve as a generalist migration resource for broader application and service migrations onto Private Cloud, as database migration workload permits.
- Distribute acquired knowledge effectively through clear writing, runbook creation, and developing reference materials to enhance the capabilities of Sales, Customer Success, and engineering teams without creating dependency.
- Maintain the competitiveness of the database offering by closely monitoring market alternatives such as PlanetScale, Aurora, and Percona for pricing, instance classes, and capabilities. Proactively flag discrepancies and advise on necessary adjustments to our offering.
Requirements
What We Are Looking For
- Demonstrated strength in both MySQL and Postgres, with an emphasis on achieving approximately 80% capability in each rather than 100% in a single database, ensuring broad coverage.
- Direct, customer-facing experience with database migrations, including leading processes alongside engineers and customers, and confidently owning technical execution.
- A strong productization instinct, capable of identifying repeatable patterns within bespoke tasks and packaging them efficiently without over-engineering.
- Excellent written and asynchronous communication skills, essential for a fully remote environment where documentation is key to knowledge compounding.
- Comfort operating in a role where a portion of the scope is self-defined, addressing immediate needs while also shaping the future direction of the function.
Nice to Have
- Experience working at a database tooling or infrastructure company (e.g., PlanetScale, Percona, Vitess).
- Experience in building tooling or automation specifically for migration workflows.
- Familiarity with AWS-based infrastructure or Platform as a Service (PaaS) environments.
- Experience with AWS DMS or similar migration tooling, as prior use indicates hands-on production database migration expertise.
- A proven track record of public writing, speaking, or teaching on database-related topics.
- Some familiarity with PHP applications.
Benefits
- Work From Home
- Health Care Plan (Medical, Dental & Vision)
- Paid Time Off (Vacation, Sick & Public Holidays)
- Family Leave (Maternity, Paternity)
- Stock Option Plan