Manager, Software Engineering - Storage Platform

Figma is growing our team of passionate creatives and builders on a mission to make design accessible to all. Figma’s platform helps teams bring ideas to life—whether you're brainstorming, creating a prototype, translating designs into code, or iterating with AI. From idea to product, Figma empowers teams to streamline workflows, move faster, and work together in real time from anywhere in the world. If you're excited to shape the future of design and collaboration, join us!

Figma's Databases team owns the foundational data layer that powers every Figma file, component, comment, and collaboration session. We operate sharded Postgres clusters at scale, build the tooling that keeps database operations safe and fast (schema migrations, provisioning, operational guardrails), and develop higher-level data products like distributed caching and streaming infrastructure.

As the Engineering Manager of this team, you'll lead engineers who are the last line of defense for Figma's most critical stateful systems — and the first to build the next generation of database infrastructure as Figma scales. You'll partner closely with product engineering teams across the company, own reliability and performance for our data tier, and shape how we integrate AI into database operations.

This is a full time role that can be held from one of our US hubs or remotely in the United States. 

What you’ll do at Figma:

• Lead and develop engineers responsible for Figma's core database infrastructure, including sharded Postgres clusters, schema management, migrations tooling, and database provisioning
• Own the reliability and operational excellence of Figma's data tier — drive incident response, postmortem culture, and proactive investment in system resilience
• Set technical direction and roadmap for the area, balancing reliability investments with platform capabilities that accelerate product engineering teams
• Partner with product and engineering leadership to prioritize work across competing demands — this is a foundational platform team that every product team depends on
• Recruit, retain, and grow top infrastructure engineering talent — build a team culture where engineers do the best work of their careers
• Drive execution through clear planning, regular reviews, and transparent communication of progress and risks to stakeholders
• Collaborate with peer engineering managers across Infrastructure on shared operational standards and cross-cutting initiatives
• Champion the adoption of AI-assisted tooling to improve developer experience around database operations — from schema guidance to automated migration safety checks

We'd love to hear from you if you have:

• 4+ years of experience managing infrastructure, platform, or backend engineering teams
• Proven technical depth in distributed systems, stateful infrastructure, or data-intensive backend systems, with a track record of earning credibility with senior engineers and making informed technical tradeoffs
• Demonstrated ability to ramp quickly on unfamiliar technical domains and apply strong engineering fundamentals
• Track record of building or improving on-call culture, incident response processes, and reliability practices for production systems
• Experience developing engineers' careers — you've coached people through promotions, navigated difficult performance conversations, and built teams that people want to join
• Comfort leading distributed teams across multiple time zones

While it’s not required, it’s an added plus if you also have:

• Experience managing managers or leading multiple teams across related technical domains
• Experience defining org-wide technical vision and strategy across multiple work streams
• Hands-on experience operating relational databases at scale (Postgres or MySQL) — including sharding, replication, and migration strategies
• Familiarity with AI/LLM-assisted developer tooling and how it can transform infrastructure operations
• Background in adjacent infrastructure domains (caching, streaming/event processing, observability) that complement the database layer
• Experience at a high-growth product company where infrastructure needed to evolve rapidly alongside the product

At Figma, one of our values is Grow as you go. We believe in hiring smart, curious people who are excited to learn and develop their skills. If you’re excited about this role but your past experience doesn’t align perfectly with the points outlined in the job description, we encourage you to apply anyways. You may be just the right candidate for this or other roles.

Pay Transparency Disclosure

Job level and actual compensation will be decided based on factors including, but not limited to, individual qualifications objectively assessed during the interview process (including skills and prior relevant experience, potential impact, and scope of role), market demands, and specific work location. 

Figma offers equity to employees, as well as a competitive package of additional benefits, including health, dental, and vision coverage; retirement benefits with company contributions; parental leave and reproductive or family planning support; mental health and wellness benefits; and paid time off. Figma provides paid sick leave, holidays, and other leave benefits in compliance with applicable federal, state, and local laws, including the requirements of the Washington Minimum Wage Act and related regulations. Exempt employees are eligible for employer‑provided paid flexible PTO in addition to flexible paid sick leave. PTO is subject to manager approval. Additional benefits may include company recharge days, cell phone and home internet reimbursements, and a number of lifestyle spending accounts. Figma also offers sales incentive compensation for most sales roles and an annual bonus plan for eligible non-sales roles. All compensation and benefits are subject to applicable plan terms and may be modified by Figma at any time, consistent with applicable law.

Annual Base Salary Range:$258,000—$376,000 USD

At Figma we celebrate and support our differences. We know employing a team rich in diverse thoughts, experiences, and opinions allows our employees, our product and our community to flourish. Figma is an equal opportunity workplace - we are dedicated to equal employment opportunities regardless of race, color, ancestry, religion, sex, national origin, sexual orientation, age, citizenship, marital status, disability, gender identity/expression, veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by law. We also consider qualified applicants regardless of criminal histories, consistent with legal requirements.

We will work to ensure individuals with disabilities are provided reasonable accommodation to apply for a role, participate in the interview process, perform essential job functions, and receive other benefits and privileges of employment. If you require accommodation, please reach out to [email protected]. These modifications enable an individual with a disability to have an equal opportunity not only to get a job, but successfully perform their job tasks to the same extent as people without disabilities. 

Examples of accommodations include but are not limited to: 

• Holding interviews in an accessible location
• Enabling closed captioning on video conferencing
• Ensuring all written communication be compatible with screen readers
• Changing the mode or format of interviews 

To ensure the integrity of our hiring process and facilitate a more personal connection, we require all candidates keep their cameras on during video interviews. Additionally, if hired you will be required to attend in person onboarding.

By applying for this job, the candidate acknowledges and agrees that any personal data contained in their application or supporting materials will be processed in accordance with Figma's Candidate Privacy Notice.