Senior Database Developer, AWS/PostgreSQL

Peregrine Advisors; Washington; Hybrid; USD 140,000 - 180,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Medical, dental, and vision covered

Employer-paid life and disability

401(k) with company match

Unlimited paid time off

Sponsored professional certifications

Job summary

Peregrine Advisors seeks a database-focused engineer to own the database layer of a federal agency data platform. You will design physical models, optimize performance, and ensure scalable data governance across Aurora, DynamoDB, and Iceberg tables on S3.

You will implement migrations, S3 loading patterns, and access controls in a regulated setting, maintaining auditability and reliability for analysts and systems.

Qualifications

• 7+ years of database development and administration experience
• Bachelor’s degree
• Experience with Amazon Aurora (PostgreSQL-compatible), DynamoDB, and S3 with Apache Iceberg
• Physical design at scale: partitioning, indexing, and storage layout
• Query tuning and EXPLAIN-plan optimization on large datasets
• Logical and physical data modeling
• PL/pgSQL and S3 load patterns into relational and Iceberg stores
• Basic proficiency in writing, PowerPoint, and Excel

Responsibilities

• Own the database layer design, modeling, and performance tuning
• Implement schema migrations, S3 load patterns, and access controls
• Build scalable, auditable, and regulated data platforms

Skills

Database ownership

Aurora/DynamoDB/S3

Physical design

Query tuning

Data modeling

PL/pgSQL

Stored procedures

S3 data loading patterns

Governed access controls

Excel/PowerPoint

Education

Bachelor’s degree

Tools

AWS Schema Conversion Tool

Apache Ranger

Iceberg on S3

Neptune/Neo4j (preferred)

Job description

Peregrine Advisors is a firm founded on a simple conviction: the best solutions come from the people closest to the problem, given real ownership and the tools to deliver. We are a data and technology innovation hub and a Benefit Corporation working at the center of the federal government's mission to deliver for client stakeholders and the US public, looking for highly motivated contributors who thrive when trusted to own a hard problem and equipped to deliver the solution.

Your first assignment

Your first assignment is to own the database layer of a federal agency's enterprise data platform: the physical design, the models, and the performance that let analysts and systems trust it at scale. You will shape how a large, high-volume platform is structured and tuned across Amazon Aurora, DynamoDB, and Apache Iceberg tables on S3. The work is real, hard, and it matters. It is also where you start, not the shape of your career here: we hire people, not seats, and we move our best to where the hardest problems are.

What you'll build

• A database layer that performs: physical design (partitioning, indexing, and storage layout at scale), query and plan tuning on large datasets, and data models that hold up.
• The pipes and guardrails around it: schema migrations, S3 load patterns into the relational and Iceberg stores, stored procedures, and Apache Ranger access controls.
• In time, the firm itself: new capabilities, tools, and lines of business you help spin up.

Who you are

You are the person who makes a database fast and keeps it honest, and you take that ownership seriously. You have designed and tuned large data platforms, and you know why the physical model matters. You experiment, fail, learn, and repeat quickly. You would rather own an outcome than be handed a task.

What you bring

• Deep, hands-on ownership of a database layer on Amazon Aurora (PostgreSQL-compatible), DynamoDB, and S3 with Apache Iceberg tables: physical design, tuning, and modeling.
• The craft around it: stored procedures, schema migration, S3 load patterns into the platform stores, and governed access.
• The judgment to build in a regulated environment where accuracy and auditability are not optional.

What you'll need

Sole United States citizenship and the ability to obtain a Public Trust determination are required for this initial engagement. This is a hybrid role based in the Washington, DC metropolitan area, and it requires commuting into DC regularly. Everything else, the years, the certifications, the specific tools, we ask in the application and get into during the interview.

What we offer

A high-performing team of developers, engineers, data scientists, architects, and strategists solving complex, real-world problems, with work that runs from strategy formulation to hands-on implementation. We develop people across roles and clients, with extensive onboarding and sponsored training and professional development. And Peregrine has been a Benefit Corporation from day one: public value is built into the work itself, not bolted on afterward. Work worth your best years.

What we commit to

As a Benefit Corporation, our commitment runs three ways: real, measurable value for our clients; government that works better for the public; and a team that makes everyone in it better.

We hire people who want to help build the firm, not just work at it. If that is you, apply.

Peregrine Advisors is an equal opportunity employer.

Peregrine exclusively works with OPEN Data Jobs to recruit our team. Register with OPEN Data Jobs to be considered for this opening and future roles.

• 7+ years of database development and administration experience
• Bachelor’s degree
• Amazon Aurora (PostgreSQL-compatible), DynamoDB, and S3 with Apache Iceberg tables
• Physical design at scale: partitioning, indexing, and storage layout
• Query and EXPLAIN-plan tuning on large datasets
• Logical and physical data modeling
• PL/pgSQL stored procedures and S3 load patterns into the relational and Iceberg stores
• Basic proficiency in writing, PowerPoint, and Excel
  

Preferred

• Schema migration tooling (AWS Schema Conversion Tool)
• Apache Ranger access controls
• Neptune or Neo4j
• Federal information technology or high-volume transaction experience
• Familiarity with AI-assisted developer tooling

• Medical, dental, and vision with the employee premium fully paid and half of dependent premiums;
• employer-paid life, accidental death, and short-term and long-term disability insurance;
• a 401(k) matched 100% up to 4% of salary, vesting immediately;
• unlimited paid time off;
• and sponsored professional certifications and continuing education.