Senior PostgreSQL Database Reliability Engineer

This is a fully remote position, open to applicants in Virginia.

📋 Description

• Manage the production PostgreSQL infrastructure throughout its entire lifecycle: including architecture, deployment, replication, monitoring, performance tuning, backup/recovery, and capacity planning.

• Implement streaming replication and high-availability configurations that fulfill the uptime requirements of a regulated financial exchange.

• Conduct performance analysis at both query and system levels—identifying slow queries, optimizing execution plans, tuning shared_buffers, work_mem, and autovacuum, and proactively interpreting pg_stat output to take appropriate actions.

• Develop and validate backup and disaster recovery strategies utilizing tools such as Barman, including point-in-time recovery testing.

• Evolve data architecture by modernizing the data warehouse and reporting systems, constructing ETL pipelines, and designing scalable data flows to support business growth.

• Provide data services across the organization: managing test data, implementing data obfuscation, modeling data, and supporting data requirements for development, QA, and business teams.

• Offer operational support, including participating in on-call rotations for after-hours production database emergencies.

⛳️ Requirements

• Over 5 years of hands-on experience in PostgreSQL administration within production environments—not limited to development/testing or solely managed RDS.

• Comprehensive knowledge of PostgreSQL internals: including WAL mechanics, MVCC, vacuum processes, the query planner and optimizer, connection management, and lock handling.

• Demonstrated experience with both physical and logical replication: including setup, monitoring, failover procedures, and troubleshooting split-brain scenarios.

• Strong skills in SQL performance tuning: including interpreting EXPLAIN ANALYZE output, identifying effective indexing strategies, comprehending join algorithms, and resolving locking issues.

• Proficient in Linux systems administration (we utilize Ubuntu)—familiar with systemd, filesystem performance, memory management, and networking principles.

• Experienced with backup/recovery tools (Barman, pgBackRest, or similar) and tested disaster recovery protocols.

• Skilled in building and maintaining ETL pipelines and data transformation workflows.

• Capable of working independently within a small team, taking ownership of issues from identification to resolution.

• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Information Systems, Mathematics, or a related discipline.

🏝️ Benefits

• Nodal Employee Benefits and Perks: https://nodalexchange.pinpointhq.com

• Nodal Exchange participates in E-verify.