Database Engineer – Journeyman

asmexternalcareersite; Washington (District of Columbia); On-site; USD 120,000 - 150,000; Full time

Job summary

ASM Research in Washington, DC seeks a Database Engineer/Administrator to design and optimize large PostgreSQL deployments on AWS, ensuring data integrity, performance, and high availability for DoD environments.

Requires 4+ years in DB engineering, DoD 8140 compliance, TS/SCI clearance, and US citizenship; responsibilities include backup/recovery, security, automation, and integration with data pipelines.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree or equivalent experience.
• 4+ years in database engineering or DBA in complex environments.
• Experience with design, performance tuning, backup/recovery, and security.
• Experience with data pipelines integration.
• Experience with database monitoring and lifecycle support.
• PostgreSQL administration on AWS.
• DoD 8140 compliance.
• Active TS/SCI clearance.
• U.S. citizenship.

Responsibilities

• Design logical and physical database structures to support performance, scalability, and data integrity.
• Tune database performance through indexing, query optimization, and resource configuration.
• Implement backup, recovery, and disaster recovery strategies.
• Manage database security controls, including access management, encryption, and auditing.
• Deploy high availability solutions such as clustering and replication.
• Automate routine DBA tasks through scripts and tools.
• Integrate databases with ETL pipelines and data processing frameworks.
• Conduct capacity planning and evaluate emerging database technologies.

Skills

Database design

Performance tuning

Backup & recovery

Security

Automation scripts

ETL integration

Capacity planning

Data governance

Education

Bachelor's degree or equivalent experience

Tools

PostgreSQL

AWS

Job description

Key Responsibilities

• Design logical and physical database structures that support performance, scalability, and data integrity.

• Tune database performance through indexing, query optimization, and resource configuration.

• Implement backup, recovery, and disaster recovery strategies to protect data availability.

• Manage database security controls, including access management, encryption, and auditing.

• Deploy and maintain high availability solutions such as clustering, replication, and failover configurations.

• Automate routine database administration and monitoring tasks through scripts and tools.

• Integrate databases with ETL pipelines, applications, and data processing frameworks.

• Conduct capacity planning and evaluate emerging database technologies for operational use.

Required Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree or equivalent experience.

• At least 4 years of database engineering or database administration experience in complex environments.

• Demonstrated experience with database design, performance tuning, backup and recovery, and security.

• Experience supporting database integration with data pipelines or application environments.

• Experience with database monitoring, troubleshooting, and lifecycle support.

• Candidates must have experience with PostgreSQL administration on an AWS platform

• Must meet DoD 8140 requirements.

• Active TS/SCI clearance.

• U.S. citizenship.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience with cloud-managed databases such as AWS RDS or Azure SQL.

• Working knowledge of both SQL and NoSQL technologies.

• Certification such as Oracle DBA, Microsoft Azure Database, or AWS Database Specialty.

• Experience supporting federal or government data environments.

Compensation Ranges

Compensation ranges for ASM Research positions vary depending on multiple factors; including but not limited to, location, skill set, level of education, certifications, client requirements, contract-specific affordability, government clearance and investigation level, and years of experience. The compensation displayed for this role is a general guideline based on these factors and is unique to each role. Monetary compensation is one component of ASM's overall compensation and benefits package for employees.

EEO Requirements

It is the policy of ASM that an individual's race, color, religion, sex, disability, age, sexual orientation or national origin are not and will not be considered in any personnel or management decisions. We affirm our commitment to these fundamental policies.

All recruiting, hiring, training, and promoting for all job classifications is done without regard to race, color, religion, sex, disability, or age. All decisions on employment are made to abide by the principle of equal employment.

Physical Requirements

The physical requirements described in "Knowledge, Skills and Abilities" above are representative of those which must be met by an employee to successfully perform the primary functions of this job. (For example, "light office duties' or "lifting up to 50 pounds" or "some travel" required.) Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with qualifying disabilities, who are otherwise qualified, to perform the primary functions.

Disclaimer

The preceding job description has been designed to indicate the general nature and level of work performed by employees within this classification. It is not designed to contain or be interpreted as a comprehensive inventory of all duties, responsibilities and qualifications required of employees assigned to this job.