Senior Site Reliability Engineer

About Bolt

Bolt is shaping a future where cities are built for people, not cars. What started as an ambitious project of a 19-year-old in 2013 has grown into a global mobility platform used by more than 200 million customers and 4.5 million driver and courier partners across 50 countries.

From ride-hailing and food delivery to scooters, e-bikes, and car-sharing, Bolt helps people move through cities every day. Small, autonomous teams drive this work, combining the speed and ownership of a startup with the scale of a global technology company backed by more than €1bn in funding.

And we're just getting started.

Why join Bolt?

• Build the future of mobility and help transform how people live and move in cities.
• Tackle challenges at scale that span technology, operations, regulation, and growth.
• Take real ownership early. Small, lean teams mean your decisions matter from day one, and you'll learn fast alongside some of the best people in the industry.
• Join one of Europe's leading technology companies, backed by world-class investors including Sequoia.

About the role

Bolt's SRE Database Reliability team plays a foundational role across all Bolt’s business verticals, directly impacting the quality, resilience, and performance of all services and product lines at scale. Working with a cutting-edge distributed database stack, the team operates in a high-load, high–data-volume environment where each member can make a significant, company-wide impact.

As a Senior Site Reliability Engineer at Bolt, you will lead the design, implementation, and maintenance of highly reliable and scalable systems infrastructure, collaborating with cross-functional teams to ensure system reliability, performance optimization, and continuous improvement. Given the scale and criticality of Bolt’s database infrastructure, your work will have a direct and far-reaching impact across the company, influencing the reliability and performance of products and services used across all business verticals.

Main tasks and responsibilities

• Lead the design, implementation, automation, and maintenance of highly reliable and scalable database systems infrastructure, planning for future growth and scalability.
• Participate in on-call activities for the most critical parts of the infrastructure, helping to solve incidents in a no-blame culture.
• Perform Root Cause Analysis (RCA), lead incident response, compile thorough postmortems, and implement preventive measures.
• Identify performance bottlenecks and implement solutions to optimize database configurations, SQL queries, and indexes.
• Work closely with engineering teams to design efficient schemas, perform query reviews, and provide guidance on database best practices.
• Enforce security best practices, manage access controls, and ensure compliance with data governance policies and industry standards.

About you

• You have a proven track record in systems engineering.
• You have solid experience with Relational Database Management Systems (e.g. MySQL); knowledge of NewSQL and NoSQL databases is a plus.
• You have strong Linux troubleshooting expertise, including networking, file systems, security, and the kernel, as well as a solid understanding of large-scale distributed systems.
• You are proficient in coding (preferably Python, Go, Rust, or Bash) with experience in cloud platforms (e.g. AWS) and infrastructure automation tools such as Terraform and Ansible.
• You have a good understanding of DevOps practices and Agile ways of working.
• You are a team player with a high level of empathy and strong communication skills.

Why you'll love it here

• Accelerate your professional growth with unique career opportunities.
• Enjoy a rewarding salary and stock options, knowing that as Bolt succeeds, so do you.
• Take care of your physical and mental health with our wellness perks.
• Celebrate 5 years at Bolt with a 1-month paid sabbatical to recharge.
• Connect with colleagues at annual company events and smaller team gatherings.
• Balance flexibility and in-person collaboration with our hybrid model, including at least 12 monthly in-office days.

Some perks may differ depending on your location and role.

At Bolt, using AI daily is a baseline expectation for everyone. If there’s a faster, smarter way to do your work, we expect you to find it. You’re still responsible for the output, so the standard stays high when using AI tools.

Experience is great, but what we really look for is drive, intelligence, and integrity. So even if you don’t tick every box, please consider applying!

Everyone is welcome

Bolt is an equal opportunity employer. We are committed to building a diverse and inclusive workplace where all qualified applicants are considered for employment without regard to race, colour, nationality, religion, gender or gender identity, sexual orientation, age, or disability.

We welcome applications from all backgrounds and are happy to make reasonable accommodations throughout our hiring process. If you require any adjustments, please let us know.