Senior Database Engineer

appian; McLean (VA); On-site; USD 120,000 - 190,000; Full time

Job summary

Appian is seeking a Senior Database Engineer in McLean, VA to design, develop, and maintain a complex data architecture supporting DoW initiatives. You will work with RDMS and NoSQL databases, migrate legacy data, and ensure high availability and performance for mission-critical systems.

You will join the Public Sector Customer Success team, collaborating across Appian to deliver scalable data solutions, implement ETL processes, and integrate database objects into modern DevOps pipelines.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in a technical field (CS/Engineering/IS/Math).
• 3+ years in data engineering designing/implementing tables, views, procedures, functions.
• Proficiency in SQL, NoSQL languages (SQL, MQL, CQL).
• U.S. citizenship with ability to obtain DoD Secret Clearance.

Responsibilities

• Design and develop database architectures and data models to support contract requirements.
• Assess legacy DB structures for incompatibilities and migration risks before cloud moves.
• Migrate legacy stored procedures, triggers, views, and functions to target languages (PL/SQL, SQL).
• Update hardcoded queries to be compatible with new engine.
• Establish ETL to transform legacy data into the new environment.
• Configure, implement, and monitor enterprise database clusters.
• Tune database objects and create indices for performance.
• Integrate database objects into CI/CD pipelines and source control.
• Develop data generation scripts for automated testing.

Skills

Relational databases

NoSQL databases

SQL

Data modeling

Education

Bachelor's degree

Tools

AWS Cloud

PostgreSQL

SQL Server

MariaDB

Oracle

Snowflake

Azure DevOps

Job description

Here at Appian, our values of Intensity and Excellence define who we are. We set high standards and live up to them, ensuring that everything we do is done with care and quality. We approach every challenge with ambition and commitment, holding ourselves and each other accountable to achieve the best results. When you join Appian, you'll be part of a passionate team dedicated to accomplishing hard things, together.

Database Engineers in Appian's Public Sector Customer Success department build the scalable foundation behind mission-critical systems that power the world's most demanding enterprises and government organizations.

Location: McLean, VA | Work Model: In-Office / Hybrid

About the Team

Appian's Customer Success Public Sector team builds mission driven solutions that ensure peak performance, high availability, and data security for key Department of War (DoW) initiatives. We empower government organizations to modernize legacy systems using AI-Powered Process Automation and Enterprise-Grade Orchestration, ensuring seamless data access at scale.

The Opportunity

As a Senior Database Engineer, you will design, develop, and maintain a complex data architecture to support our long-term DoW efforts. With extensive experience with Relational Database Management Services (RDMS) and NoSQL databases, you will architect a data architecture for the program that will be capable of handling extremely large datasets, migrate legacy data into the modern architecture, and ensure high availability and performance for the systems being implemented.

What You'll Do

• Design and develop database architectures and data models to support the customer's contract requirements by working closely with the Appian team to build logical and physical data models.
• Analyze legacy database structures to identify incompatibilities, data type mismatches, and migration risks before moving workloads to the cloud.
• Convert legacy stored procedures, triggers, views, and functions into target-compatible languages (such as PL/SQL or SQL), rewriting logic.
• Identify and update hardcoded SQL queries within application source code to ensure compatibility with the new database engine.
• Establish ETL functions to clean, transform, and transport legacy data into the new application environment.
• Configure, implement, and monitor enterprise database clusters
• Tune database objects for performance, and create indices on tables as needed.
• Integrate existing and new database objects into CI/CD pipelines to improve code reliability and consistency.
• Set up source control for database architecture code, stored procedures, and ETL objects.
• Develop complex data generation scripts used for automated functional and performance testing efforts.

Required Qualifications

• Bachelor's Degree: B.S. or B.A. in Computer Science, Engineering, Information Systems, Mathematics, or a related technical field. (Note: Degree is strictly required).
• Experience: 3+ years of professional experience in data engineering, including hands-on experience designing, planning, and implementing tables, views, stored procedures, and functions.
• Core Technical Skills: Deep proficiency in both relational (RDBMS) and NoSQL database technologies, along with mastery of query languages including SQL, MQL, and CQL.
• Database Platforms: Professional experience designing, planning, and implementing new stored procedures, views, tables, and functions specified by business requirements.
• Core Technical Skills: Strong proficiency in both SQL and NoSQL database languages including SQL, MQL, CQL, etc. Hands-on experience technologies such as Microsoft SQL Server, MariaDB, Postgres, Oracle and AWS Cloud, Snowflake, Data Bricks.
• Security & Clearance: Active DoD Secret Clearance (or ability to obtain). Must be a U.S. Citizen (required for Public Sector efforts).
• Travel: Willingness to travel up to 10% annually for customer engagement.

Preferred Qualifications

• Cloud & Security Certifications: AWS Certified Database Specialty, AWS Certified Solutions Architect, CompTIA Security+, or platform-specific certifications from Oracle or Microsoft.
• Migration Expertise: Demonstrated experience migrating complex schemas across database engines (e.g., Oracle to PostgreSQL/MariaDB or SQL Server to MySQL).
• DevOps & Code: Familiarity with Python, Java, C#, XML, JSON, Jenkins, Azure DevOps, and RHEL8.

#DataEngineering #DatabaseEngineer #AWS #DoW #EnterpriseSoftware

The base salary range provided represents a good faith and reasonable estimate of the range at the time of posting. In addition to the base salary, this position is eligible for a government clearance differential. Actual compensation will be dependent on a number of factors including, but not limited to, the candidate's relevant work experience, qualifications, internal peer equity, and market and business conditions that exist when extending an offer. A discretionary bonus may be awarded in recognition of individual and company performance.