Senior Database Developer (PostgreSQL, AWS)

Peregrine Advisors; Washington (District of Columbia); Hybrid; USD 150,000 - 210,000; Full time

Job summary

Peregrine Advisors seeks a seasoned Database Engineer to own the database layer of a federal agency's enterprise data platform. You will design physical models for Amazon Aurora (PostgreSQL-compatible), DynamoDB, and Iceberg on S3, optimize performance, and ensure auditability in a regulated environment.

You will implement schema migrations, loading patterns, and access controls, while shaping scalable data architectures and governance practices.

Qualifications

• Deep ownership of a database layer across multiple platforms.
• Experience tuning large data platforms for performance and auditability.

Responsibilities

• Own physical design, partitioning, indexing, and storage layout at scale.
• Tune queries and plans for large datasets.
• Implement schema migrations and access controls (Apache Ranger).
• Collaborate to shape new capabilities and data tools.

Skills

Database design

Query tuning

Data modeling

AWS

PostgreSQL

Tools

Amazon Aurora PostgreSQL-compatible

DynamoDB

Apache Iceberg

S3

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

U.S. citizenship (this initial engagement may be staffed by U.S. citizens only) and the ability to obtain a Public Trust determination.

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.

Peregrine Advisors is an equal opportunity employer.