Senior PostgreSQL DBA / Platform Engineer

Location: Hybrid, 2 times a week minimum onsite

Job Summary

Hands-on senior PostgreSQL contractor responsible for establishing enterprise database architecture, operational standards, HA/DR, backup/recovery, monitoring, performance, security, automation, lifecycle management, and knowledge transfer.

1. Key Responsibilities

• Assess and remediate enterprise PostgreSQL environments across DEV, TEST, PROD, and DR.
• Design and implement PostgreSQL reference architectures and standardized database builds.
• Engineer and test HA using streaming replication, Patroni or equivalent, DCS quorum, HAProxy/service endpoints, PgBouncer, fencing, and failover/failback.
• Implement pgBackRest or equivalent enterprise backup, WAL archiving, PITR, retention, encryption, and automated restore validation.
• Design and test DR architectures, promotion/failback procedures, and RPO/RTO controls.
• Implement monitoring and alerting for PostgreSQL, replication, WAL, autovacuum/XID, queries, locks, storage, backup, HA/DCS, DR, OS, and capacity.
• Diagnose and tune SQL, execution plans, indexes, vacuum/bloat, memory, checkpoints, WAL, I/O, and concurrency.
• Establish security/IAM, TLS, pg_hba, role/privilege, secrets, logging, pgAudit, and SIEM integration standards.
• Lead minor patching and major-version upgrade planning/execution, including EOL remediation.
• Automate builds and operations with Git, Ansible, Terraform, Python/shell, and CI/CD.
• Create runbooks, architecture diagrams, standards, operational procedures, and conduct knowledge transfer.

2. Required Qualifications:

Education

• Minimum: Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Information Technology, Information Systems, Computer Engineering, or a closely related technical field.

Experience

• 8-10+ years in database administration with preferably 5+ years of substantial production PostgreSQL administration in enterprise environments.

PostgreSQL

• Strong hands-on expertise with architecture, configuration, WAL, MVCC, VACUUM/autovacuum, XID wraparound, locking, query plans, indexing, partitioning, statistics, extensions, replication, upgrades, migration, and troubleshooting.

HA

• Hands-on Patroni or equivalent HA framework; etcd/Consul; streaming replication; HAProxy; PgBouncer; quorum, fencing, split-brain prevention, failover and failback.

Backup/Recovery

• pgBackRest; WAL archiving; PITR; full/differential/incremental backup; encryption; retention; large-database recovery and restore testing.

Monitoring

• pg_stat* views, pg_stat_statements, exporters/Prometheus/Grafana or enterprise monitoring, alerting, centralized logging and SIEM integration.

Linux

• Strong RHEL/Linux skills including systemd, filesystem/LVM, networking, SELinux, firewall, kernel/sysctl, ulimits, storage/I/O diagnostics and shell scripting.

Automation

• Ansible, Git, Terraform, Python and/or shell, CI/CD, Infrastructure as Code, and automated database builds.

Operations

• Demonstrated 24x7 production troubleshooting, incident response, RCA, change management, performance analysis, patching and upgrade experience.

3. Preferred Qualifications

• Large enterprise or multi-TB PostgreSQL estates.
• Mission-critical / 24x7 database services.
• Client or enterprise virtualization and enterprise storage.
• OpenShift/Kubernetes PostgreSQL experience.
• Oracle-to-PostgreSQL migration experience.
• Active Directory / enterprise IAM integration.
• Regulated or critical-infrastructure environments.
• Experience with EDB, Percona, Crunchy Data, or upstream PostgreSQL.
• Cloud PostgreSQL services and hybrid architectures.
• PostgreSQL community contributions or relevant certifications.

4. Core Technical Competencies

Architecture

• Design resilient PostgreSQL services across compute, storage, network, HA, backup and DR layers.

Troubleshooting

• Diagnose failures across PostgreSQL, Linux, virtualization, storage and network boundaries.

Performance

• Use PostgreSQL statistics and EXPLAIN (ANALYZE, BUFFERS) to identify and remediate bottlenecks.

Recovery

• Recover to latest state or precise PITR target and produce recovery evidence.

Automation

• Turn manual build/operations procedures into repeatable version-controlled automation.

Documentation

• Produce clear architecture, standards, runbooks, diagrams and operational handoff materials.

Communication

• Work effectively with DBAs, infrastructure, application, security, management and vendor support teams.

5. Practical Interview / Technical Evaluation

Primary PostgreSQL VM disappears at 2 AM.

• Capability Being Assessed:
• • HA, failover, client routing, incident handling

Patroni cannot reach the DCS while PostgreSQL remains running.

• Capability Being Assessed:
• • Quorum, fencing, split-brain prevention

Replica is significantly behind primary.

• Capability Being Assessed:
• • Replication and WAL diagnostics

pg_wal is filling the filesystem.

• Capability Being Assessed:
• • Archive, replication slots, WAL and capacity troubleshooting

Database approaches XID wraparound.

• Capability Being Assessed:
• • MVCC, vacuum/freeze and emergency response

Backup job is green. Prove the database is recoverable.

• Capability Being Assessed:
• • Restore validation and recovery discipline

Recover the database to a specific timestamp yesterday.

• Capability Being Assessed:
• • PITR

Primary data center is unavailable.

• Capability Being Assessed:
• • DR declaration, fencing, RPO/RTO, promotion and routing

CPU rises from 30% to 95%.

• Capability Being Assessed:
• • Performance troubleshooting

Upgrade a multi-TB PostgreSQL database to a new major version.

• Capability Being Assessed:
• • Upgrade architecture, downtime minimization and rollback

6. Success Measures

• Documented and approved PostgreSQL standards.
• Production-ready HA, backup/PITR, DR and monitoring controls.
• Reduced manual configuration through automation.
• EOL/technical-debt remediation plan.
• Validated failure and recovery tests.
• Operational runbooks and dashboards adopted by internal teams.
• Successful knowledge transfer with no contractor-only operational dependency.