Role Description
As a Senior PostgreSQL Database Administrator, you will be responsible for the design, implementation, management, and optimization of our PostgreSQL database environments that power Vimo's mission-critical SaaS platform. You will serve as the subject matter expert for all things PostgreSQL, ensuring high availability, performance, security, and scalability of our database infrastructure. You will work closely with development, DevOps, and infrastructure teams to support production systems that serve millions of users across state government health and human services programs.
What You'll Do:
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Design, deploy, and maintain PostgreSQL database clusters in production, staging, and development environments.
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Ensure high availability and disaster recovery through replication (streaming, logical), failover strategies, and backup/restore procedures.
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Monitor database performance, identify bottlenecks, and implement query optimization, indexing strategies, and configuration tuning. Implement best practices of DB maintenance.
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Plan and execute database upgrades, migrations, and major version transitions with minimal downtime.
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Implement and enforce database security best practices including role-based access control, encryption at rest and in transit, and audit logging.
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Automate routine DBA tasks (backups, monitoring, alerting, provisioning) using scripting (Bash, Python) and infrastructure-as-code tools (Terraform, Jenkins, GitActions or similar).
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Collaborate with application development teams on schema design, data modeling, and query performance reviews.
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Manage PostgreSQL in cloud environments (AWS RDS, Aurora PostgreSQL, or equivalent).
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Establish and maintain database standards, documentation, and operational runbooks.
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Participate in on-call rotation for production database incidents and lead root cause analysis for database-related outages.
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Evaluate and implement PostgreSQL extensions (e.g. PostGIS, pg_partman, Citus, pgvector, etc.) as needed.
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Capacity planning and storage management to support business growth.
Qualifications
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Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Information Technology, or a related field, or equivalent practical experience.
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7+ years of hands-on experience as a PostgreSQL DBA in production environments.
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Deep expertise in PostgreSQL internals including MVCC, WAL, vacuum, replication, and connection pooling (PgBouncer, Pgpool-II or similar).
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Strong experience with performance tuning, query optimization, and EXPLAIN/ANALYZE interpretation.
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Proficiency in backup and recovery tools (pg_dump, pg_basebackup, pgBackRest, Barman).
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Experience with high-availability architectures (Patroni, repmgr, or equivalent).
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Strong fundamentals of Disaster recovery scenarios and maintaining DR databases across multiple AWS regions.
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Solid Linux/Unix administration skills.
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Scripting proficiency in Bash, Python, or similar languages for automation.
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Experience with cloud-hosted PostgreSQL (AWS RDS/Aurora, GCP Cloud SQL, or Azure Database for PostgreSQL).
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Strong understanding of database security, compliance, and access management.
Bonus Skills
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Experience supporting databases in regulated industries (healthcare, government, or financial services).
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Familiarity with HIPAA, FedRAMP, or SOC 2 compliance requirements as they pertain to data management.
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Experience with database CI/CD pipelines and schema migration tools (Flyway, Liquibase, or Alembic).
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Knowledge of containerized deployments (Docker, Kubernetes) for PostgreSQL.
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Experience with monitoring and observability tools (Datadog, Prometheus/Grafana, pganalyze, pg_stat_statements).
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Hands-on experience with infrastructure-as-code tools such as Terraform or Ansible.
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PostgreSQL certification or contributions to the PostgreSQL community.
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Experience with data warehousing, ETL pipelines, or analytical workloads on PostgreSQL.
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Familiarity with other database systems (MySQL, MongoDB, Redis) is a plus.
Benefits
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Health, dental, life, disability, and vision insurance
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Health care spending or reimbursement accounts (FSA)
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Retirement benefits (401k)
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Paid time off
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Education assistance or tuition reimbursement
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Employee discounts for gym memberships and commuting/travel assistance
Information Security & Data Protection
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This role may involve access to sensitive or regulated information. The candidate is expected to handle all data in accordance with company security, privacy, and data protection policies.
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Compliance with access control, data classification, and applicable legal and regulatory requirements is required.
