Database Administrator – PostgreSQL Performance and Reliability

The Elite Job; Geneva Township (OH); Hybrid; USD 110,000 - 160,000; Full time

Job summary

The Elite Job is seeking a skilled PostgreSQL Database Administrator focused on performance and reliability. You will manage and optimize PostgreSQL environments, ensure availability, security, and data integrity, and collaborate with DevOps, developers, and IT ops to support business applications.

This role emphasizes proactive monitoring, query optimization, capacity planning, disaster recovery, and automation to improve reliability across production systems and enterprise workloads.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in CS/IT/Software Eng. preferred.
• PostgreSQL admin experience in production environments.
• Strong knowledge of replication, backups, DR, and performance tuning.

Responsibilities

• Install, configure, and maintain PostgreSQL servers across environments.
• Monitor performance, analyze queries, and optimize workloads.
• Manage backups, PITR, and disaster recovery planning.
• Design high-availability architectures and failover procedures.
• Collaborate with DevOps, security, and development teams.
• Create and maintain runbooks and operational procedures.

Skills

PostgreSQL administration

Performance tuning

Backup procedures

Linux/Unix

SQL optimization

Bash scripting

Replication and HA

Security and compliance

Monitoring

Education

Bachelor's degree in CS/IT/Software Eng.

PostgreSQL certifications (optional)

Tools

PgBouncer

Prometheus

Grafana

Cloud platforms

Job description

1. Job Summary

The Elite Job is seeking a skilled and detail-oriented Database Administrator – PostgreSQL Performance and Reliability to manage, maintain, optimize, and secure PostgreSQL database environments. The successful candidate will play a critical role in ensuring database availability, data integrity, performance efficiency, and operational reliability across business applications and enterprise systems.

This position is ideal for a database professional with strong PostgreSQL administration skills, experience in performance tuning, and a proactive approach to database monitoring, troubleshooting, backup management, and disaster recovery planning. The candidate will work closely with software developers, DevOps engineers, cloud infrastructure teams, data analysts, and IT operations professionals to ensure that databases support business applications efficiently and reliably.

The selected candidate will be responsible for identifying performance bottlenecks, improving query execution times, managing database capacity, implementing security controls, and maintaining high availability. The role also involves supporting database upgrades, automating routine administrative tasks, and establishing best practices for database maintenance and reliability.

At The Elite Job, we value technical excellence, accountability, continuous learning, and collaborative problem-solving. We are looking for a professional who can balance day-to-day database operations with long-term improvements in performance, scalability, and resilience.

2. Key Responsibilities

PostgreSQL Database Administration

• Install, configure, maintain, and administer PostgreSQL database servers across development, testing, staging, and production environments.
• Manage database instances, schemas, tablespaces, indexes, users, roles, permissions, and database configurations.
• Perform routine database maintenance, including vacuuming, analyzing, reindexing, and managing database statistics.
• Plan and execute PostgreSQL version upgrades, minor releases, security patches, and configuration changes.
• Maintain accurate database documentation, configuration records, operational procedures, and maintenance schedules.

Performance Tuning and Optimization

• Monitor database performance and identify bottlenecks affecting application response times and transaction throughput.
• Analyze SQL queries and execution plans using tools such as EXPLAIN and EXPLAIN ANALYZE.
• Optimize complex queries, indexing strategies, joins, table structures, and database configurations.
• Review slow-query logs, lock contention, transaction behavior, connection usage, and resource consumption.
• Tune PostgreSQL parameters related to memory allocation, query planning, parallel processing, checkpoints, and background maintenance.
• Collaborate with application developers to improve SQL coding practices and database interaction patterns.
• Establish performance baselines and capacity-planning practices to support increasing workloads.

Database Reliability and High Availability

• Design, implement, and maintain reliable database architectures that meet defined availability and recovery objectives.
• Configure and monitor streaming replication, replication slots, and standby databases where appropriate.
• Support high-availability solutions, failover procedures, and database recovery testing.
• Investigate database outages, connectivity failures, replication delays, and recurring operational incidents.
• Participate in root-cause analysis and implement preventive measures to reduce repeat incidents.
• Maintain operational runbooks and participate in incident response and post-incident reviews.

Backup and Disaster Recovery

• Develop and maintain database backup strategies using suitable PostgreSQL tools and backup solutions.
• Manage logical and physical backups, including point-in-time recovery where supported by the selected architecture.
• Regularly test backup integrity, restoration procedures, and disaster recovery plans.
• Monitor backup completion, retention policies, storage utilization, and recovery readiness.
• Document recovery time objectives (RTO) and recovery point objectives (RPO) in collaboration with relevant stakeholders.

Database Security and Compliance

• Implement role-based access controls, least-privilege permissions, and appropriate authentication mechanisms.
• Configure secure database connections, including TLS encryption where required.
• Monitor database access, review permissions, and support audit and compliance requirements.
• Apply security patches and remediate database configuration vulnerabilities.
• Protect sensitive business information through appropriate access restrictions, logging, and data-handling procedures.
• Work with security and infrastructure teams to maintain secure database environments.

Monitoring, Automation, and Capacity Planning

• Implement monitoring and alerting for database availability, CPU and memory usage, disk capacity, connection counts, query latency, and replication health.
• Use appropriate monitoring and diagnostic tools, such as PostgreSQL statistics views, pg_stat_statements, Prometheus, Grafana, or equivalent platforms.
• Automate repetitive database administration tasks using scripting and infrastructure automation tools.
• Forecast database storage and resource requirements based on workload trends and projected business growth.
• Identify opportunities to reduce operational overhead and improve consistency through automation.
• Maintain dashboards and operational reports that help teams understand database health and performance.

Collaboration and Technical Support

• Partner with software engineers, DevOps teams, cloud engineers, and application support teams to resolve database-related issues.
• Support database migrations from legacy systems or other database platforms to PostgreSQL.
• Participate in code reviews and architecture discussions involving database design and data access patterns.
• Provide technical guidance on schema design, indexing, transaction management, connection pooling, and query optimization.
• Contribute to continuous improvement initiatives, technical documentation, and database engineering standards.

3. Required Skills and Qualifications

Educational Qualifications

• Bachelors degree in Computer Science, Information Technology, Software Engineering, or a related technical discipline is preferred.
• Relevant professional training, certifications, or equivalent practical experience in PostgreSQL database administration may be considered.
• A strong technical background in database systems, operating systems, networking, and data management is desirable.

Technical Skills

• Strong hands‑on experience administering PostgreSQL databases in production or business‑critical environments.
• Good understanding of relational database concepts, normalization, schema design, indexing, constraints, and transaction processing.
• Proficiency in SQL, including complex queries, joins, common table expressions, window functions, and query optimization.
• Experience analyzing execution plans and diagnosing slow queries, locks, deadlocks, and inefficient database operations.
• Knowledge of PostgreSQL internals, including the write‑ahead log (WAL), MVCC, autovacuum, checkpoints, and replication.
• Experience with database backup, restoration, point‑in‑time recovery, and disaster recovery procedures.
• Familiarity with PostgreSQL replication, high availability, and failover mechanisms.
• Working knowledge of Linux or Unix environments and command‑line administration.
• Experience with Bash, Python, or another scripting language for automation.
• Familiarity with Git, CI/CD pipelines, and infrastructure‑as‑code practices is beneficial.
• Understanding of networking fundamentals, DNS, ports, TLS, and database connectivity.
• Exposure to cloud‑hosted PostgreSQL services, such as Amazon RDS for PostgreSQL, Amazon Aurora PostgreSQL‑Compatible Edition, Azure Database for PostgreSQL, or Google Cloud SQL for PostgreSQL, is an advantage.
• Familiarity with connection pooling solutions such as PgBouncer is desirable.

Professional Qualifications

• Strong analytical and troubleshooting abilities.
• Excellent attention to detail and a commitment to data integrity.
• Ability to prioritize incidents and maintenance activities according to business impact.
• Effective written and verbal communication skills.
• A collaborative mindset and willingness to share technical knowledge.
• Commitment to security, operational discipline, and continuous professional development.

4. Experience

• Mid‑Level Candidates: Typically 3–5 years of relevant database administration experience, including practical PostgreSQL support and performance tuning.
• Senior‑Level Candidates: Typically 5 or more years of database administration or database engineering experience, with demonstrated responsibility for production reliability, performance optimization, and recovery planning.
• Experience supporting business‑critical applications, transactional workloads, or high‑volume databases is highly desirable.
• Practical experience diagnosing performance degradation and implementing measurable improvements is preferred.
• Experience managing replication, database upgrades, backup validation, and recovery exercises is an advantage.
• Previous involvement in cloud migration, database modernization, or database automation projects will be beneficial.
• Candidates with equivalent hands‑on expertise and demonstrable technical capabilities may also be considered.
• Experience requirements may be adjusted according to the level and scope of the position.

5. Working Hours

Employment Type: Full‑time.

Standard Schedule: Typically 40 hours per week, subject to local employment requirements and the agreed employment contract.

Work Arrangement: Remote, hybrid, or on‑site, depending on the position and business needs.

Flexibility: Some flexibility may be available to support collaboration across time zones.

Maintenance Windows: Occasional planned evening or weekend work may be required for database upgrades, migrations, patching, or maintenance activities.

Incident Support: Participation in an on‑call rotation may be required for production database environments, with arrangements communicated in advance.

Work‑Life Balance: The team aims to coordinate maintenance and incident response responsibilities fairly while minimizing unnecessary disruption to personal time.

Specific working hours, on‑call expectations, and applicable compensation arrangements will be confirmed during the recruitment process.

6. Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities

Database Knowledge

• Comprehensive understanding of PostgreSQL architecture, query processing, indexing, transactions, and concurrency control.
• Knowledge of database consistency, durability, isolation levels, and transaction management.
• Understanding of WAL‑based recovery, replication, vacuum processes, and database storage behavior.
• Awareness of database scaling approaches, including vertical scaling, read replicas, partitioning, and workload separation where appropriate.

Performance and Reliability Skills

• Ability to interpret performance metrics and identify the root causes of slow queries and database resource constraints.
• Capability to balance query performance, resource utilization, maintainability, and data consistency.
• Understanding of connection management, transaction pooling, lock monitoring, and replication lag.
• Ability to plan and execute maintenance activities while minimizing service interruption.
• Competence in testing recovery procedures and evaluating database resilience.

Analytical and Problem‑Solving Abilities

• Strong diagnostic thinking and a systematic approach to technical investigations.
• Ability to evaluate complex database behavior using logs, metrics, execution plans, and system‑level information.
• Capacity to distinguish immediate symptoms from underlying technical causes.
• Confidence in making evidence‑based recommendations and documenting technical decisions.

Communication and Teamwork

• Ability to explain database performance issues and technical risks to both technical and non‑technical stakeholders.
• Willingness to collaborate with development, infrastructure, security, and business teams.
• Ability to prepare clear documentation, operational procedures, and incident reports.
• Professional approach to knowledge sharing, peer reviews, and constructive feedback.

Organizational Abilities

• Ability to manage multiple database environments and competing priorities.
• Strong commitment to change management, operational documentation, and repeatable procedures.
• Ability to work independently while escalating risks and incidents appropriately.
• Willingness to learn new database technologies, monitoring tools, and cloud services.

7. Benefits

• Competitive Compensation: Salary aligned with relevant experience, technical expertise, and role responsibilities.
• Flexible Work Options: Remote or hybrid working opportunities where the position permits.
• Professional Development: Access to relevant technical training, learning resources, and professional development opportunities.
• Certification Support: Potential support for approved PostgreSQL, cloud, Linux, or database‑related certifications.
• Career Advancement: Opportunities to progress into senior database engineering, database architecture, cloud database engineering, or technical leadership.
• Collaborative Environment: Opportunities to work with developers, DevOps engineers, cloud specialists, and other technology professionals.
• Modern Tooling: Exposure to database monitoring, automation, cloud platforms, and reliability engineering practices.
• Performance Recognition: Recognition for meaningful contributions to database stability, performance improvements, and operational excellence.
• Leave and Well‑Being: Applicable leave entitlements and other benefits according to company policy, employment location, and contract terms.
• All benefits are subject to the final employment offer, eligibility criteria, and applicable company policies.

8. Why Join The Elite Job?

Joining The Elite Job offers an opportunity to contribute to dependable, high‑performing database systems while developing expertise in modern database engineering practices.

As a Database Administrator – PostgreSQL Performance and Reliability, you will have the opportunity to make a direct impact on application performance, data availability, system resilience, and the overall user experience. Your work will help ensure that business applications operate efficiently and that critical information remains secure, accessible, and recoverable.

Build Your Technical Expertise: Strengthen your skills in PostgreSQL internals, advanced query optimization, replication, disaster recovery, and database automation.

Solve Meaningful Technical Challenges: Work on performance bottlenecks, reliability improvements, and operational issues that require structured analysis and practical engineering solutions.

Collaborate Across Technology Teams: Partner with software development, cloud infrastructure, security, and DevOps professionals to deliver dependable database services.

Improve Systems Continuously: Help establish monitoring standards, automation practices, maintenance procedures, and performance benchmarks that improve operational maturity.

Develop Your Career: Build a foundation for future opportunities in database architecture, cloud database engineering, platform engineering, site reliability engineering, and technical leadership.

Make Reliability a Priority: Contribute to an engineering culture that values data integrity, security, accountability, documentation, and long‑term system health.

We welcome professionals who enjoy understanding how systems work, solving challenging technical problems, and improving the reliability of the platforms that businesses depend on.