AI Developer Experience Engineer

About the role

More and more PlanetScale databases are created, connected and queried by AI agents. Cursor, Claude Code, Codex and a growing list of other tools now sit between developers and their infrastructure.

You will own that experience end to end. You'll make sure PlanetScale shows up everywhere developers build with AI, that our MCP server and CLI work flawlessly in every agent, and that we can measure how well it all works. Then you'll show the world how to do it well through demos, docs, blog posts, videos, and conferences.

This is a hands-on role combining engineering, content creation, and a strong public voice. You'll work closely with the teams that build our MCP server, CLI, API and docs.

The landscape of how developers work with AI changes fast. You'll have the opportunity to move quickly, experiment, and take the lead on the future of AI use with databases and infrastructure.

Make PlanetScale great with AI tools

• Build and maintain the plugins for PlanetScale in every AI marketplace and directory: agent plugins, skill registries, MCP directories, IDE extension stores and AI app builders
• Own our integrations with AI coding tools, agent frameworks and platforms
• Stay current with AI tools as they launch and ensure our customers have a great experience from day one
• Test the PlanetScale MCP server and CLI across Claude Code, Cursor, Codex, VS Code and other clients, and catch regressions before users do
• Find friction in creating a database, connecting, running migrations and debugging queries from inside an agent, then fix it or drive the fix with the owning team
• Improve the context agents rely on: tool descriptions, skills, llms.txt, docs written for agents, and error messages agents can act on
• Attention to AEO (answer engine optimization): make sure agents find and recommend PlanetScale
• Build and maintain skills for working with Postgres, MySQL, Vitess, Neki, and PlanetScale

Measure how well we're doing

• Build evals that run real agent tasks against PlanetScale databases
• Benchmark how agents perform with PlanetScale and work towards continuous improvement
• Track how often AI assistants and agents recommend PlanetScale for database questions, and whether what they say about us is accurate
• Instrument and report on agent usage: databases created by agents, time to first connection, MCP versus CLI usage, and where sessions fail

Show people how to do it well

• Build demos and sample apps that show PlanetScale and AI tooling at their best
• Write docs, guides and blog posts on using databases effectively with AI, including safe access, branching and performance assessment
• Make videos and attend conferences to communicate with our audience how to build effectively with AI

These attributes best describe you

• Daily use of AI coding agents, with strong opinions about what makes a tool work well with them
• Experience building an MCP server, plugin, CLI or SDK that real developers use
• Software engineering background in languages like TypeScript and Go, and comfort with APIs, OAuth and the command line
• Experience with writing docs, blogs, and / or video content creation
• Good at communicating with a broad audience and customers alike on socials
• Experience working with relational databases (Postgres, MySQL, SQLite), schema design, migrations, connection handling, and Postgres or MySQL in production
• Data fluency: designing evals, writing the queries behind a dashboard, and telling a real trend from noise
• Clear communication of technical ideas in writing, on video and on stage
• Independence and speed: spotting a gap, shipping a fix, and telling people about it
• Genuine curiosity about the AI tooling landscape and a habit of keeping up with it

Bonus points

• Contributions to the MCP spec, SDKs or popular open-source MCP servers
• Experience writing agent skills, plugins or rules files for Claude Code, Cursor or Codex
• Experience with LLM eval tools and building benchmarks for agents
• Experience with AEO or GEO, or with tracking how LLMs surface and recommend a product
• A blog, YouTube channel or GitHub that developers already follow
• Experience with Vitess, database sharding, or running databases at scale

Why PlanetScale

We're redefining how high-growth companies manage data at scale - and we work with some of the most exciting brands in gaming, consumer tech, and B2B SaaS. As a Software Engineer, you'll be at the core of building the platform that powers world-class apps used by hundreds of millions of users worldwide. PlanetScale is a profitable company with a philosophy centered around building small teams of p99 individuals and is recognized as one of the fastest growing companies in America.

At PlanetScale we believe in supporting people to do their best work and thrive no matter the location. Our mission is to build a diverse, equitable, and inclusive company. We strive to build an inclusive environment where all people feel that they are equally respected and valued, whether they are a candidate or an employee. We welcome applicants of any educational background, gender identity and expression, sexual orientation, religion, ethnicity, age, citizenship, socioeconomic status, disability, pregnancy status, and veteran status.

If you have a disability, please let us know if there's any way we can make the interview process better for you; we're happy to accommodate!

Total Compensation and Pay Transparency

An employee's total compensation consists of base salary + variable comp where appropriate + benefits + equity. A member of our Talent Acquisition team will be happy to answer any further questions when we engage with you to begin the interview process.

Base Salary Range: $170,000 - $220,000