Senior Database Design Engineer

The Role

At QuidelOrtho, we’re advancing the power of diagnostics for a healthier future for all. Join our mission as our next Senior Database Design Engineer to join our R&D Instrument Platforms organization.

This role serves as the subject matter expert for relational database design and tuning for Linux-based medical devices with on-device databases, with ongoing stewardship of the database architecture over the product lifecycle.

This is an opportunity to shape the data backbone of safety-critical systems that must operate reliably for years in the field, often without frequent upgrades or migrations.

The Responsibilities

• Design and implement robust applications for distributed Linux-based software systems while leading efforts in database schema and integration.
• Serve as the database architecture owner for PostgreSQL or equivalent database instances embedded within medical devices running Linux on workstation-class hardware.
• Own and maintain the database design over time, including governance of schema changes, technical debt management, documentation, and coordination of design evolution across releases.
• Design database interfaces and usage patterns that minimize the need for future migrations, while still enabling safe, versioned evolution when required.
• Lead query optimization and performance tuning, including execution plan analysis, indexing strategy, and long-term capacity planning.
• Define standards for database versioning, migration strategy, and backward compatibility suitable for regulated, fielded systems.
• Collaborate with system architects, middleware developers, and UI teams to ensure database access patterns are well-defined, testable, and stable.
• Provide technical leadership in design reviews related to data modeling, persistence strategy, and cross-process communication via the database.
• Support backup, restore, and recovery strategies appropriate for on-device databases in production medical equipment.
• Participate in requirements, architecture, design, verification, and validation activities within a regulated quality management system (FDA, IEC 62304, ISO 13485).

The Individual Required

• B.S. or M.S. Degree in Computer Science, Computer Engineering or a related discipline required. Minimum of 5 years required with bachelor’s or 3 years with master’s degree, preferably leading in a medical device environment or equivalent combination of education and experience.
• Demonstrated expertise in designing and evolving relational schemas; optimizing queries through execution plan analysis; and defining indexing, view, and data-access layers that support multiple consumers.
• Experience supporting on-device or embedded databases, where the database runs locally on a deployed system rather than as a managed cloud service.
• Strong understanding of data evolution strategies, including migrations, versioned schemas, and backward compatibility.
• Experience working in regulated or safety-critical environments (medical devices strongly preferred).
• Working knowledge of C++ or similar programming language sufficient to collaborate with application developers and review database interaction code.
• Strong analytical skills and ability to reason about system-wide performance and data integrity tradeoffs.
• Able to travel 5% or less, domestically.

Preferred Experience

• Tuning databases for non-cloud, appliance-style deployments.
• Familiarity with Linux-based embedded or semi-embedded systems (Yocto, Ubuntu, or similar).
• Experience designing database schemas that support concurrent access by multiple services or processes.
• Knowledge of database migration tools and strategies suitable for deployed products with limited upgrade windows.
• Prior experience executing database migrations (including planning, risk mitigation, validation, and rollback) and applying lessons learned to improve future migration practices.
• Familiarity with scripting or automation (SQL, Python, Bash) for diagnostics, profiling, and maintenance tooling.
• Understanding of observability concerns related to databases (logging, metrics, tracing).
• Experience collaborating across software, systems, quality, and regulatory teams.