Senior Database Engineer

Senior Database Engineer

Location: Washington, DC Metro Area

Work Arrangement: Hybrid – 3 days/week onsite

Clearance: Ability to obtain a Public Trust

About the Role

We are seeking a Senior Database Developer / Database Engineer to support the development and modernization of an enterprise-scale federal data platform.

This is a hands-on database engineering role focused on PostgreSQL, Amazon Aurora PostgreSQL, AWS S3, database design, performance optimization, data modeling, and cloud-based data platforms. The ideal candidate will have strong database development and engineering experience rather than a traditional DBA/operations-only background.

You will work closely with application, cloud, data engineering, and architecture teams to design scalable database solutions, optimize performance, support data migrations, and build reliable cloud-native data platforms.

Key Responsibilities

• Design, develop, and maintain scalable database solutions using PostgreSQL and Amazon Aurora PostgreSQL.
• Develop and maintain logical and physical database models, schemas, tables, indexes, constraints, and storage structures.
• Perform database performance analysis, including query optimization, execution-plan analysis, indexing, partitioning, and workload tuning.
• Develop and maintain SQL, PL/pgSQL, stored procedures, functions, and database objects.
• Design and implement database schema changes and migration strategies across development, test, and production environments.
• Work with AWS S3 for data storage, ingestion, loading, and integration with database/data-platform workflows.
• Support cloud-native data architectures using AWS services such as Aurora, S3, DynamoDB, Glue, and related data services.
• Develop efficient data-loading and migration patterns for large datasets.
• Troubleshoot database performance, scalability, availability, and application/database integration issues.
• Analyze and improve database structures for high-volume transactional and analytical workloads.
• Collaborate with Data Engineers, Cloud Engineers, Software Developers, Solution Architects, and other technical stakeholders.
• Implement database security and access-control practices in accordance with federal requirements.
• Support schema evolution, database modernization, and migration from legacy platforms to AWS.
• Contribute to technical documentation, architecture decisions, and development standards.

Required Qualifications

• 7+ years of professional database development/engineering experience.
• Strong hands-on experience with PostgreSQL.
• Hands-on production experience with Amazon Aurora PostgreSQL.
• Strong experience with AWS, particularly Amazon S3.
• Experience with logical and physical database design and data modeling.
• Strong SQL development and database performance-tuning experience.
• Experience with indexing, partitioning, query optimization, and execution-plan analysis.
• Experience developing stored procedures, functions, and PL/pgSQL.
• Experience with database schema migrations and modernization.
• Experience working with cloud-based database platforms and data pipelines.
• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Information Technology, Engineering, or a related field.
• Ability to obtain a Public Trust.