Senior PostgreSQL Database Engineer - Active TS/SCI required

Riptide Technology • Washington, DC

4d • Hybrid

About The Position

Riptide Technology is seeking a Senior Database Design Engineer (Level V) to support research and development, data analysis, and cloud migration initiatives in a hybrid role at the Naval Research Laboratory in Washington, D.C. The subject matter expert will lead the design, implementation, and operation of high-performance PostgreSQL and Oracle Enterprise database infrastructure supporting programs within the Naval Center for Spacecraft Technology. The role focuses on future-state data models, tracking algorithms, data migration strategies, and resilient cloud and on-premises database ecosystems, alongside database administration.

The engineer will modernize Oracle and PostgreSQL environments; develop data fusion, geolocation, and object aggregation capabilities; build data ingestion, archiving, and query services; and support cloud transitions across IC/DoD and commercial government cloud environments. The work also includes UI and web-service prototyping, systems engineering and lifecycle support, operations and maintenance, documentation, operator training, and configuration management. The position requires an active DoD Top Secret/SCI clearance and U.S. citizenship.

Requirements

• Bachelor of Science degree in Mathematics, Engineering, or Computer Science.
• Certifications meeting DoD 8570/8140 Information Assurance Technical (IAT) Level II requirements.
• 12 or more years applying software development methodologies and practices, including structured and object-oriented programming and use of software development tools across multiple environments.
• 12 or more years of relational database planning, design, development, testing, installation, and maintenance for complex technical software systems, including PostgreSQL, Oracle, SQL Server, or Sybase.
• At least 4 years of proficiency with spatial databases, such as PostGIS or equivalent relational spatial extensions.
• Experience across the software-development lifecycle for complex software systems supporting Multi-INT processing, from planning and design through installation and maintenance.
• Enterprise computing and architecture design capability for ground-based analysis systems, including information modeling and database design.
• Ability to incorporate system architecture using enterprise design, business process modeling, workflow implementation, and web-based or semantics-based development methodologies.
• Experience designing and implementing scalable databases that ingest, integrate, and synthesize disparate, multi-source feeds and Multi-INT products, including structured streams, high-volume ingestion, raw telemetry, and imagery, for low-latency mission-critical use.
• Knowledge of terrestrial and space surveillance methodologies and sensor technologies and capabilities, and ability to envision new operational modes through evolutionary development.
• Experience producing technical and user documentation, providing training and system orientation, and consulting with related development teams throughout the SDLC.
• U.S. citizenship and an active DoD Top Secret/SCI clearance.
• At least 4 years of experience in an equivalent spatial technology environment may qualify, including cloud data warehouses, relational spatial databases, NoSQL/search spatial systems, or big-data spatial frameworks.

Nice To Haves

• At least 5 years of hands-on PostgreSQL administration or development experience.
• PostgreSQL Professional Certification or AWS/Azure Cloud Database Certification; equivalent production experience is also valued.
• Experience collaborating in multidisciplinary engineering environments and interfacing with infrastructure, security, application development, functional leads, and product or operations managers.
• Experience designing, deploying, and managing multi-node PostgreSQL clusters, high-availability configurations, and cloud-based PostgreSQL, such as AWS RDS/Aurora or Azure Cosmos DB for PostgreSQL.
• Expertise with large-scale, high-velocity spatiotemporal data, time-series datasets, and streaming event logs.
• Expertise in high-volume bulk loading, parallel data ingestion, and ETL/ELT optimization.
• Understanding of enterprise security models, including RBAC, RLS, multi-level secure access controls, and data security labeling or classification schemas.
• Database performance tuning, query optimization, and profiling using pgBench, EXPLAIN ANALYZE, Dynatrace, or native PostgreSQL statistics.

Responsibilities

• Design, implement, administer, and tune Oracle Enterprise Edition and PostgreSQL database infrastructure.
• Install and manage Oracle Enterprise Linux and Oracle software, and support workloads on bare-metal servers, Real Application Clusters (RAC), and Exadata servers.
• Configure and use Oracle Label Security, RAC, and Oracle Partitioning through complex SQL programming.
• Plan and engineer transitions of legacy Oracle databases to IC and DoD cloud data layers.
• Define and implement complex cloud object models, including Unified Object Model and Generalized Entity Model implementations.
• Support virtualized and bare-metal systems running Red Hat Linux, Oracle Enterprise Linux, CentOS, and limited Windows environments.
• Develop, modify, and improve data-fusion and geographic tracking algorithms for GEOINT, SIGINT, and OSINT data.
• Optimize track correlation, tracking algorithms, and database-level alerting and alarming.
• Analyze algorithm performance and long-term trends; detect, document, and report anomalies to the Government lead.
• Research and develop automated electronic-emission pattern data-tagging methodologies.
• Build and maintain architectures for maritime data feeds, schedules, and web-extractor software across hardware platforms and government or commercial cloud environments.
• Lead systems engineering efforts to transition existing capabilities into evolving cloud ecosystems.
• Implement long-term online archives indexing multi-domain positions and metadata; integrate open-source schedule data and build web services for historical archive queries.
• Provide Echelon 2 operations and maintenance support for tactical and strategic data feeds.
• Design UI prototypes and data-access web services for analysis capabilities in the Ozone Widget Framework or equivalent frameworks.
• Implement Object-Based Production and Object Management as a Service capabilities for collaborative regional and worldwide object profiles.
• Develop object-aggregation algorithms to support research and development.
• Assess system functionality, survivability, and performance; analyze and address design deficiencies through engineering analyses and quick-reaction studies.
• Prepare training documentation and instruct operators on data analysis products; support program deliveries, demonstrations, and customer presentations.
• Participate in system capability reviews, modify application codebases, and archive software changes in a configuration-management database.
• Support network technology implementations, routine equipment maintenance, account-creation scripts, and LAN/WAN connectivity using thin-client architectures.
• Produce technical and user documentation, provide training and system orientation, and consult with related development teams throughout the software development life cycle.

Benefits

• Six weeks of paid time off.
• Immediately fully vested 401(k).
• Company 401(k) contribution equal to 10% of salary.
• Paid training.
• Company-paid dental insurance.
• Company-paid vision insurance.
• Company-paid short- and long-term disability insurance.
• Company-paid life insurance.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Senior