Database Administrator - PostgreSQL (HIOS)
About Pluribus Digital
Join us and do work that matters: use your skills to improve how your government serves the public! Pluribus Digital partners with our government customers to design, develop, and deliver useful and impactful digital products. We are a hands-on digital services consultancy – part technologists, part change agents, and all heart. We employ modern best practices in all that we do as we work to solve problems in public health, financial industry regulation, granting citizenship and asylum, and identity and access management.
About the Role
The Database Administrator (DBA) is responsible for the availability, performance, security, and recoverability of the PostgreSQL and MySQL databases on AWS that support the CMS Health Insurance Oversight System (HIOS). This role works with increasing independence on daily operations, patching and upgrades, and backup and recovery, with guidance from senior technical staff on major changes. The DBA also contributes to ETL development and data modeling as a secondary responsibility, alongside the data architecture team.
What you will do:
Administer PostgreSQL and MySQL databases on Amazon RDS across Dev, Test, Impl, and Prod environments, including daily health checks, capacity and storage management, log review, and lock and connection troubleshooting.
Plan and execute minor and major version upgrades and quarterly operating system patching in AWS, including blue/green deployments, pre-cutover validation, rollback planning, and retirement of the old environment.
Own backup and recovery: AWS Backup plans, snapshots, point-in-time recovery, and scheduled restore tests with retained evidence.
Monitor and tune database performance using pg_stat_statements, Performance Insights, query plans, indexes, and vacuum and bloat management; maintain parameter baselines under change control.
Manage database access and security, including role-based and time-bound access, IAM authentication support, and audit trails (pgaudit) that support compliance evidence.
Support application deployments by reviewing and running Liquibase changes, monitoring the database during releases, and executing rollback plans when needed.
Build and maintain monitoring, alarms, and automation using CloudWatch, SNS, pg_cron, Ansible, and Jenkins.
Contribute to ETL development and data modeling alongside the data architect, using tools such as Talend and Erwin Data Modeler.
Write and maintain runbooks and technical documentation so that database operations can be shared and covered.
Collaborate with developers, testers, DevOps engineers, and security staff, and participate in Agile planning, estimation, and on-call triage.
Minimum Qualifications:
Must be able to obtain and maintain a Public Trust clearance.
Bachelor's degree in a related technical field or equivalent experience.
Three years of experience administering production relational databases.
Experience as a PostgreSQL DBA, including backup and recovery, replication, performance tuning, vacuum and bloat management, and parameter configuration.
Hands-on experience with Amazon RDS for PostgreSQL.
Strong SQL skills, including PL/pgSQL, and working knowledge of MySQL.
Experience with on call / triage rotations.
Understanding of change control and production change management practices.
Strong problem-solving and communication skills.
Preferred Qualifications:
Experience performing database upgrades in the AWS ecosystem (RDS or Aurora), including blue/green major version upgrades.
Exposure to ETL development with Talend or a similar tool (for example Informatica, SSIS, or AWS Glue).
Experience with Erwin Data Modeler or a similar data modeling tool.
Experience with Amazon Aurora PostgreSQL, including read replicas and migration from RDS.
Familiarity with Liquibase, pg_cron, pgaudit, and logical replication.
Familiarity with CloudWatch, SNS, AWS Backup, and IAM database authentication.
Familiarity with CI/CD pipelines, Ansible, Jenkins, and DevSecOps practices.
Experience in a Scrum or SAFe Agile environment.
Experience supporting federal government programs, including NIST 800-53 / FISMA controls.
Relevant technical certifications (for example, AWS Certified Solutions Architect or a PostgreSQL certification).
Why Pluribus May Be a Fit for You
We are purpose driven. We support missions and products that serve the public good, and where our focused capabilities positively impact those mission outcomes. We bring a consultative approach to partner with our government customers and help them succeed as change makers.
Pluribus is a calm company. We are knowledge workers. People do their best work when they are not rushed by artificial urgency or drained by a culture of facetime and workaholism. By having confidence in our people, we can get more done at better quality. When real crunch time comes, we are not already stretched to the limit.
We are stronger because of the variety of skills and personal backgrounds of our team. We hold ourselves accountable with annual reporting on diversity statistics. As a woman owned and led company, diversity, equity, and inclusion is woven into all aspects of the organization.
Compensation & Benefits
Pluribus Digital offers a competitive salary that is determined at the time of offer. We are hiring for multiple levels under this job posting. Compensation will be based on experience and qualifications, with salary ranges aligned accordingly. If a candidate is a strong fit at a more junior or senior level to what is outlined here, we will assess them accordingly and apply the appropriate salary range during the hiring process. The range for this specific role is from $110,000 to $127,000 depending on experience. Salary is augmented with opportunity to earn annual bonus and medical/dental/vision benefits, PTO, company paid life insurance and a generous 401k match program. Details on benefits can be found here: https://pluribusdigital.com/content/join/benefits.