Postgres SQL DBA

Location: Wokingham, UK - 2 days/week onsite (expenses covered)

Clearance: BPSS & SC required before start

Duration: 6 months (likely extension)

Sector: Critical National Infrastructure

Overview

We are supporting a critical infrastructure organisation in their search for an experienced PostgreSQL Database Administrator (DBA) to support and enhance a distributed, cloud-native EDB PGD environment. This is a highly sensitive role requiring both BPSS and SC clearance prior to onboarding. You'll play a central role in maintaining the performance, availability, and reliability of a geographically distributed Postgres setup, running on Kubernetes and OpenShift clusters. The system is part of a wider, business critical platform, demanding strong engineering focus and proactive operational excellence.

Key Responsibilities Database Reliability & Performance

• Proactively identify and resolve performance bottlenecks
• Enhance database high availability using EDB Postgres Distributed (PGD)
• Troubleshoot issues and outages across a multi cluster OpenShift setup
• Lead query tuning with tools like EXPLAIN, pg_stat_statements, and index optimisation
• Manage capacity planning for CPU, memory, storage, and IOPS

Observability & Operations

• Improve observability tooling: manage metrics, dashboards, and alerts
• Monitor database health and respond to issues (replication lag, disk I/O, memory pressure)
• Manage and test backup and disaster recovery strategies (DR playbooks, failover in ORT)
• Optimize connection pooling to support high volume applications
• Collaborate with DevOps and application squads during schema changes and deployments

Enhancements & Strategic Support

• Drive database enhancements aligned with platform upgrades and product evolution
• Ensure consistency and integrity across distributed database instances
• Support strategic data initiatives with deep PostgreSQL and Kubernetes expertise

Required Skills & Experience

• Strong hands on experience as a PostgreSQL DBA, ideally with EDB PGD or equivalent distributed Postgres set ups
• Experience running Postgres in Kubernetes/OpenShift environments
• Deep knowledge of PostgreSQL internals, performance tuning, and replication strategies
• Proven ability to work in high availability, high security environments
• Familiarity with observability stacks and database performance tooling
• Strong troubleshooting skills and an automation first mindset
• UK based with valid BPSS and eligible for SC clearance (or already cleared)

What's in It for You

Opportunity to support a high profile, mission critical platform. Influence modern database architecture in a multi cloud, containerised environment. Contract with strong extension potential and excellent day rate. Work alongside experienced engineering teams in a security conscious, forward thinking environment.