As a Senior Software Engineer on the team, you will own capacity and efficiency for Robinhood's storage and database fleet, from Aurora clusters to S3 and the caches and volumes in between. You will build the systems that size this fleet to demand: Aurora reader counts and writer sizes set from market hours, declared events, and live load instead of fixed schedules; databases, caches, and volumes rightsized to what they actually use; and S3 data kept in the right storage class, with lifecycle rules that keep growth in check. You will take each from recommendations the Storage team validates to automation that safely applies its own changes in production. This is a 0-to-1 build with measurable impact on reliability at market peaks and on the AWS bill.
This role is based in our Bellevue, WA office, with in-person attendance expected at least 3 days per week.
At Robinhood, we believe in the power of in-person work to accelerate progress, spark innovation, and strengthen community. Our office experience is intentional, energizing, and designed to fully support high-performing teams.
What you’ll do
Build forecast-driven capacity planning for the storage and database fleet, turning traffic history, load tests, and known events (market open, earnings, IPOs, promotions) into plans that scale up ahead and back down after, with an expiry on every temporary capacity hold
Design and build a capacity planner for Aurora that sets reader counts and writer instance sizes from demand and load signals (IOPS, CPU, connections, replica lag), replacing fixed scaling schedules
Rightsize databases, caches, and block storage (RDS, ElastiCache, DynamoDB, EBS) on instance size, provisioned IOPS and throughput, and idle capacity, and keep them right-sized as load changes
Own S3 efficiency at scale: storage class and Intelligent-Tiering strategy, lifecycle and retention policies, noncurrent versions and incomplete uploads, and request costs, using Storage Lens and inventory data
Take every recommendation to closed-loop automation with guardrails, progressive rollout, and rollback, in partnership with the Storage infrastructure team, handling constraints such as AWS capacity shortages, fallback instance types, and connection pooling
Measure outcomes in cost and reliability (savings against baseline, forecast error, utilization, capacity left behind after events) and share our forecasts with the pod rightsizing system so compute and storage scale together
What you bring
Deep hands-on experience operating AWS storage and databases at scale, especially Aurora or RDS (MySQL or PostgreSQL) and S3, including replication, read scaling, storage classes, and lifecycle management
Capacity planning and forecasting experience: modeling time-series demand, load testing, and translating traffic into instance counts, sizes, and storage growth
A track record of rightsizing infrastructure from utilization data (CPU, memory, IOPS, throughput, bytes stored) without hurting latency or availability
Strong Python or Go engineering, with experience building automation that safely modifies production infrastructure (guardrails, progressive rollout, and rollback built in), not just systems that observe and report
Familiarity with AWS storage and database pricing (S3 storage classes and requests, Aurora I/O-Optimized vs. Standard, Reserved Instances) is a strong plus
Experience with bursty, event-driven workloads (trading, payments, ticketing) or with Spark, Airflow, or Kubernetes is a plus
What we offer
Challenging, high-impact work to grow your career.
Performance-driven compensation with multipliers for outsized impact, bonus programs, equity ownership, and 401(k) matching.
Best-in-class benefits to fuel your work, including 100% paid health insurance for employees with 90% coverage for dependents.
Lifestyle wallet — a highly flexible benefits spending account for wellness, learning, and more.
Employer-paid life & disability insurance, fertility benefits, and mental health benefits.
Time off to recharge including company holidays, paid time off, sick time, parental leave, and more!
Exceptional office experience with catered meals, events, and comfortable workspaces.
In addition to the base pay range listed below, this role is also eligible for bonus opportunities + equity + benefits.
Base pay for the successful applicant will depend on a variety of job-related factors, which may include education, training, experience, location, business needs, or market demands. The expected base pay range for this role is based on the location where the work will be performed and is aligned to one of 3 compensation zones. For other locations not listed, compensation can be discussed with your recruiter during the interview process.
Base Pay Range
Zone 1 (Menlo Park, CA; New York, NY; Bellevue, WA; Washington, DC)
$196,000—$230,000 USD
Zone 2 (Denver, CO; Westlake, TX; Chicago, IL)
$172,000—$202,000 USD
Zone 3 (Lake Mary, FL; Clearwater, FL; Gainesville, FL)
$153,000—$179,000 USD
Click here to learn more about our Total Rewards, which vary by region and entity.
If our mission energizes you and you’re ready to build the future of finance, we look forward to seeing your application.
AI Usage Disclosure: Robinhood uses artificial intelligence (AI) tools to support parts of our recruiting process. These tools enhance the efficiency and consistency of our hiring process; however, all hiring decisions are made by our hiring teams.
Robinhood provides equal opportunity for all applicants, offers reasonable accommodations upon request, and complies with applicable equal employment and privacy laws. Inclusion is built into how we hire and work—welcoming different backgrounds, perspectives, and experiences so everyone can do their best. Please review the Privacy Policy for your country of application.
