Senior Database Engineer (PostgreSQL)

Job Description:

Senior Database Engineer (PostgreSQL) — Cloud-Native .NET / AWS (HIPAA)

Computrition - Jonas Software (https://www.computrition.com/)

Location: Remote (U.S.) or Hybrid •

Team: Engineering •

Reports to:Senior Director of Engineering • Partners with: Lead Software Architect and Lead Software Engineer

About this role

We’re building a cloud-native SaaS platform for hospitals and healthcare providers. You’ll be the PostgreSQL expert partnering with our Lead Software Architect to design, build, secure, and scale a multi-tenant data platform that powers our .NET services and React + Fluent UI applications—running on AWS and operating under HIPAA.

What you’ll do

• Own the database architecture for a multi-tenant SaaS: select and implement tenancy model(s) (e.g., RLS per tenant, schema-per-tenant, or database-per-tenant), design schemas, and define migration/versioning strategies for safe, zero-downtime releases.

• Raise the performance ceiling: index strategies, partitioning, connection pooling (e.g., PgBouncer), query tuning (EXPLAIN/ANALYZE), caching patterns, and workload isolation for noisy-neighbor control.

• Build for reliability: set RTO/RPO targets; design backup, PITR, DR, and blue/green or expand-migrate-contract rollout patterns.

• Embed security & compliance: encryption in transit/at rest, least-privilege access, secrets management, audit logging, PHI handling, and HIPAA-aligned controls and documentation.

• Productionize on AWS: stand up and tune Aurora/RDS for PostgreSQL; integrate VPC, subnets, SGs, KMS, CloudWatch/CloudTrail; advise on ECS/EKS/Fargate service patterns that affect DB workload.

• Level-up developer experience: define database interfaces for .NET services (EF Core/Dapper), enforce SQL and migration conventions, and enable efficient local/dev/test workflows (containers, seed data).

• Test like you mean it: establish automated database testing—pgTAP or equivalent for unit tests, migration tests in CI, and load/perf testing harnesses (e.g., pgBench/k6) tied to release criteria.

• Observability & SLOs: build dashboards and alerts for latency, throughput, autovacuum, bloat, locks, and error budgets; drive incident reviews and continuous tuning.

• Partner & influence: work shoulder-to-shoulder with our architect, app engineers, QA, and security to ship features that are correct, fast, and safe—while advocating best practices.

• AI First Mentality: Use modern AI tools to draft queries/migrations/tests, explain query plans, generate fixtures, and accelerate root-cause analysis—responsibly and securely.

Tech you’ll touch

• Database: PostgreSQL (JSONB, RLS, partitioning, logical replication), PL/pgSQL, pg_stat_statements, extensions as needed.

• AWS: Aurora PostgreSQL / RDS, KMS, Secrets Manager/Parameter Store, CloudWatch, CloudTrail, IAM, S3; (nice: Lambda, ECS/EKS/Fargate).

• Platform & CI/CD: Docker, GitHub Actions/CodeBuild/CodePipeline, IaC (Terraform or CloudFormation), feature flags.

• Testing/Perf: pgTAP (or similar), pgBench, k6/Gatling/JMeter, EXPLAIN/ANALYZE, pgbouncer/pgpool.

What you’ll bring

Must-haves

• 7+ years owning PostgreSQL in production at scale for a SaaS product.

• Demonstrated expertise in multi-tenant design (RLS, schema or DB-per-tenant), with opinions on trade-offs.

• Proven track record of query and schema optimization, indexing, partitioning, and connection management.

• Hands-on experience running PostgreSQL on AWS (Aurora or RDS) and tuning for throughput & cost.

• Strong security mindset: access control, secrets, encryption, auditing; experience operating under compliance frameworks (HIPAA preferred, but experience within any regulated industry).

• Experience enabling .NET services to use Postgres effectively (EF Core, Dapper, migrations).

• Habit of building automated testing for databases and performance/load gating in CI/CD.

• Excellent communicator who can write clear design docs, propose standards, and influence cross-functional teams. Ability to speak up and express opinions or concerns in a positive and constructive manner.

• AI First Mentality on developing schema design, migration strategies and automated testing for performance.

Nice-to-haves

• Healthcare/HIPAA domain experience or any regulated industry (BAAs, audit readiness, PHI data handling).

• Experience with zero-downtime migration patterns, logical replication, change data capture.

• Exposure to data warehousing/analytics pipelines or near-real-time eventing.

• PostGIS, TimescaleDB, or other Postgres extensions in production.

• Oracle experience as current database schema resides within Oracle

• Migration experience from one database system to another.

Soft skills we value

• Technologist at heart: curious, pragmatic, and energized by learning—and by applying new tech and AI tools to deliver value faster.

• Security & quality advocate: champions best practices without slowing the team.

• Ownership & bias for action: you sweat the details, unblock yourself, and ship.

• System thinker: balances correctness, performance, and operability; designs for the “2 a.m. page.”

• Collaborative & kind: brings others along—mentors, documents, and gives/receives feedback well.

What success looks like (first 90–120 days)

• A documented tenancy and migration strategy aligned with product roadmap.

• Baseline performance SLOs and dashboards with actionable alerts.

• CI/CD checks that run DB unit tests, migration tests, and load tests per PR/release.

• Measurable latency/throughput improvements on critical paths and a plan for continuous tuning.

• A clear security posture: role model, secrets rotation plan, audit logging, and DR runbook.

Business Unit: