Senior PostgreSQL Database Administrator (DBA)

Role Overview 

• We are seeking an experienced and technically deep Senior PostgreSQL Database Administrator to join our Database Engineering team. In this role, you will be the primary custodian of our high-volume, mission-critical PostgreSQL databases, ensuring the availability, integrity, performance, and security of data infrastructure that processes millions of financial transactions every day. You will work closely with software engineers, DevOps/platform engineers, security teams, and business stakeholders to maintain an enterprise-grade database environment with zero tolerance for downtime or data loss.

Key Responsibilities 

Database Administration & Operations

• Manage, monitor, and maintain multiple high-transactional PostgreSQL database clusters in production, staging, and development environments.
• Oversee day-to-day DBA operations including database provisioning, schema management, user access control, and tablespace management.
• Implement and enforce database change management processes DDL reviews, migration scripts, rollback strategies.
• Ensure 99.99% database availability through proactive monitoring, alerting, and rapid incident response.
• Manage database patching, upgrades, and version migrations with minimal service disruption.

Performance Tuning & Optimization

• Continuously analyse and optimize query execution plans, indexing strategies, and table structures to sustain high throughput under peak transaction loads.
• Perform capacity planning and resource forecasting to ensure database infrastructure scales ahead of business growth.
• Tune PostgreSQL configuration parameters memory, connection pooling, WAL settings, autovacuum, checkpoints for optimal performance.
• Partner with development teams on query design, ORM usage, and schema reviews to prevent performance regressions before they reach production.
• Implement and manage connection pooling solutions PgBouncer, Pgpool-II to support high-concurrency workloads.

High Availability & Disaster Recovery

• Design, implement, and maintain HA architectures including streaming replication, logical replication, and failover clusters e.g., Patroni, Repmgr.
• Develop, test, and maintain disaster recovery DR plans with defined and validated RTO and RPO targets consistent with fintech regulatory standards.
• Manage and automate backup strategies physical, logical, PITR using tools such as pg_basebackup, pgBackRest, or Barman; ensure backups are regularly tested and restorable.
• Coordinate with infrastructure teams on multi-region and multi-AZ deployments for geo-redundancy.

Security & Compliance

• Enforce the principle of least privilege across all database roles and service accounts.
• Implement database activity monitoring, auditing, and alerting to detect and respond to anomalous access patterns or policy violations.
• Ensure compliance with CBN data governance directives, PCI-DSS, NDPR, and internal data security policies.
• Manage encryption at rest and in transit for all database environments.
• Collaborate with the security team on vulnerability assessments, pen test remediation, and security hardening of PostgreSQL instances.

Automation & DevOps Integration

• Develop and maintain automation scripts for routine DBA tasks using Python, Bash, or Ansible.
• Integrate database provisioning and schema migration workflows into CI/CD pipelines e.g., using Flyway, Liquibase, or custom tooling.
• Manage infrastructure-as-code definitions for database resources deployed on cloud AWS RDS/Aurora PostgreSQL, GCP Cloud SQL or on-premises.
• Build and maintain comprehensive monitoring dashboards and alerting using tools such as Prometheus, pgBadger, or Grafana.

Collaboration & Leadership

• Serve as the technical authority on PostgreSQL within the engineering organisation; provide guidance and mentorship to mid-level and junior DBAs.
• Collaborate with software engineers on data modelling, schema design, and database best practices from the earliest stages of product development.
• Participate in architecture reviews and technical design discussions involving data storage, access patterns, and scalability.
• Produce and maintain clear, thorough documentation for database architecture and standard operating procedures.
• Participate in supporting production database incidents, acting as the escalation point for critical database issues.

Required Qualifications & Experience 

• Minimum of 8 years of hands-on PostgreSQL DBA experience, with at least 3 years in a high-transaction-volume, enterprise production environment.
• Demonstrable experience managing PostgreSQL databases supporting financial services, payments, banking, or similarly regulated, high-stakes industries.
• Deep expertise in PostgreSQL internals: MVCC, WAL, VACUUM, query planner, locking mechanisms, and extension ecosystem.
• Proven track record designing and operating HA and DR architectures with streaming replication, Patroni, or equivalent tooling.
• Strong proficiency in performance tuning: EXPLAIN/EXPLAIN ANALYZE, index design B-tree, GIN, BRIN, partial indexes, partition strategies, and statistics management.
• Solid experience with backup and recovery solutions: pgBackRest, Barman, pg_basebackup, and PITR workflows.
• Proficiency in scripting and automation Python and/or Bash; experience integrating database tasks into CI/CD pipelines.
• Familiarity with containerisation and orchestration: Docker, Kubernetes, and running PostgreSQL in containerised or cloud-native environments.
• Experience with monitoring and observability stacks: Prometheus, Grafana, pgBadger, or equivalent.
• Working knowledge of PgBouncer or Pgpool-II for connection pooling at scale.
• Experience with data migration projects involving large-scale PostgreSQL databases multi-TB or higher.
• Familiarity with Citus distributed PostgreSQL, Timescale, or other PostgreSQL extensions for scalability.
• Bachelor's or Master's degree in Computer Science, Information Technology, or a closely related field.

Core Competencies 

• Technical Excellence: Exceptional depth in PostgreSQL and surrounding ecosystem; stays current with PostgreSQL releases and community developments.
• Problem Solving: Calm, methodical, and effective under pressure — especially during production incidents.
• Ownership Mindset: Takes full accountability for database health and acts proactively rather than reactively.
• Collaboration: Builds strong working relationships across engineering, product, and operations teams.
• Communication: Able to translate complex database concepts clearly for both technical and non-technical audiences.
• Security Consciousness: Treats data security and regulatory compliance as non-negotiable priorities.