Role Summary
Own the target-state data architecture on Google Spanner, ensuring the new data model satisfies functional correctness, performance SLOs, and transactional semantics required by 1000+ applications before large-scale app rewrites occur.
This role is not a schema converter. It is a distributed systems architect role.
Key Responsibilities
Data Architecture & Modeling
Define the Logical Canonical Data Model (LCDM) independent of physical storage.
Design Spanner-native physical schemas:
o Primary key strategy
o Row key distribution (hotspot avoidance)
o Interleaving decisions
o Secondary index strategy
Decide where denormalization, projections, or materialized views are required.
Transaction & Consistency Design
Define transaction boundaries under Spanner constraints:
o Single-partition vs multi-partition transactions
o Atomicity and consistency trade-offs
Classify workloads by strong consistency vs bounded staleness tolerance.
Define idempotency and retry-safe patterns.
Compatibility & Contract Validation
Work with QA and platform teams to validate:
o CRUD contracts
o Query semantics
o Transaction invariants
Review and sign off on schema compatibility scorecards.
Performance & Scalability
Participate in workload replay analysis.
Diagnose and resolve:
o Hot key risks
o Transaction conflicts
o Index amplification
Size Spanner instances and estimate cost envelopes.
Leadership
Act as final authority for Spanner data design decisions.
Mentor domain architects and engineers.
Provide executive-level architectural rationale.
Required Skills & Experience
10+ years in large-scale data architecture
Deep expertise in Google Spanner internals:
o TrueTime
o Distributed transactions
o Synchronous replication
Experience designing petabyte-scale, multi-region OLTP systems
Strong understanding of:
o Distributed consistency models
o Failure modes in globally distributed databases
Prior Oracle distributed DB migration experience strongly preferred
Key Deliverables
Canonical logical data model
Spanner physical schemas & index strategies
Transaction design guidelines
Performance readiness assessments
Migration readiness sign-off per domain
Role Descriptions: Key Responsibilities by Role TypeSoftware Engineer (Cloud Spanner Platform) Designs and implements features for distributed systems manages database storage infrastructure and improves performance.Site Reliability Engineer (SRE) Spanner Focuses on system reliability automating management processes and managing on-call rotations to maintain uptime for large-scale production databases.Engineering Manager Spanner Migration Leads teams to build tools for transitioning databases and drives adoption of Spanner providing high-performance SQL capabilities. Google CareersGoogle Careers 4Common Qualifications SkillsEducation Bachelors or Masters in Computer Science or related fields.Technical Skills Experience with distributed computing large-scale systems design networking and data storage.Databases Expertise in relational databases (SQL) and cloud infrastructure.Soft Skills Strong leadership collaboration and troubleshooting abilities. Google CareersGoogle Careers 3Core Focus AreasHigh Reliability Maintaining 99.999 availability and managing data replication across regions.Performance Optimization Optimizing query execution handling TB-scale data and refining transactional readswrites.Distributed Systems Working on complex systems that provide strong consistency globally. Google CloudGoogle Cloud 2These roles frequently involve working on cutting-edge database technology at Googles scale.
Essential Skills: Key Responsibilities by Role TypeSoftware Engineer (Cloud Spanner Platform) Designs and implements features for distributed systems manages database storage infrastructure and improves performance.Site Reliability Engineer (SRE) Spanner Focuses on system reliability automating management processes and managing on-call rotations to maintain uptime for large-scale production databases.Engineering Manager Spanner Migration Leads teams to build tools for transitioning databases and drives adoption of Spanner providing high-performance SQL capabilities. Google CareersGoogle Careers 4Common Qualifications SkillsEducation Bachelors or Masters in Computer Science or related fields.Technical Skills Experience with distributed computing large-scale systems design networking and data storage.Databases Expertise in relational databases (SQL) and cloud infrastructure.Soft Skills Strong leadership collaboration and troubleshooting abilities. Google CareersGoogle Careers 3Core Focus AreasHigh Reliability Maintaining 99.999 availability and managing data replication across regions.Performance Optimization Optimizing query execution handling TB-scale data and refining transactional readswrites.Distributed Systems Working on complex systems that provide strong consistency globally. Google CloudGoogle Cloud 2These roles frequently involve working on cutting-edge database technology at Googles scale.
Desirable Skills:
Keyword:
Skills: Google Security
Experience Required: 10 & Above
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