Database Engineer

We’re working with a growing data and technology business looking for a Database Engineer to take ownership of improving the PostgreSQL databases behind its live, data-intensive platforms.

This is not a traditional DBA position. You’ll work closely with software developers and DevOps engineers to improve database performance, optimise the way applications access data and help shape better database solutions as the platform continues to scale.

The business processes large volumes of time-sensitive, high-throughput data, so performance, efficient retrieval and latency really matter. There is also a substantial archive of historical data that needs to become easier and more efficient to organise, search and retrieve.

This would be a great opportunity for someone who enjoys finding database problems, understanding why they are happening and implementing practical solutions.

What you’ll be doing

• Reviewing and improving PostgreSQL schemas, indexes, constraints and SQL queries
• Investigating slow queries using execution plans, database statistics, logs and monitoring
• Optimising joins, repeated lookups and application data-access patterns
• Working closely with developers to improve database design before new features are released
• Improving how large volumes of historical data are organised, archived, indexed and retrieved
• Designing views, materialised views and reporting structures where appropriate
• Investigating locking, transaction and concurrency issues
• Planning safe schema changes and data migrations
• Measuring database performance, query load and storage growth
• Helping establish practical SQL and database design standards across the engineering team
• Working alongside DevOps on monitoring, backup and recovery, This is a newly created position, giving you the opportunity to become the dedicated database specialist within a growing engineering team.

You’ll have the chance to:

• Take genuine ownership of PostgreSQL performance and database engineering
• Solve interesting problems involving live, time-sensitive data
• Improve access to a substantial historical dataset
• Work closely with an experienced development and DevOps team
• Influence database standards and future technical decisions
• See measurable results from the improvements you introduce
• Work fully remotely anywhere in the UK

You’ll need strong hands-on experience with PostgreSQL in a production environment, alongside excellent SQL skills.

We’d particularly like to speak with people who have:

• Strong PostgreSQL and SQL experience
• Practical query optimisation and performance-tuning experience
• Experience working with indexes and execution plans
• Good knowledge of relational data modelling, constraints and data integrity
• Experience working with large datasets and designing efficient ways to search and retrieve information
• Knowledge of transactions, locking and concurrency
• Experience making safe database changes in production
• Worked closely with software developers to improve application database access
• The ability to independently investigate problems and recommend practical solutions

Experience with AWS RDS, partitioning, materialised views, data archiving, S3, Redis or DynamoDB would be useful, but these are not essential requirements.

Experience working with real-time data, low-latency systems, high-throughput platforms, trading, gaming or other data-intensive environments would also be particularly interesting.

The environment

The engineering team is 100% remote across the UK, so you’ll need to be comfortable working independently while remaining closely connected with developers and other engineers.

The company values people who are proactive and comfortable taking ownership. You won’t simply be given a list of database tasks to complete. You’ll be encouraged to investigate the existing environment, identify opportunities for improvement and bring forward your own solutions., If you’re a PostgreSQL-focused engineer who enjoys performance optimisation, solving complex data problems and taking ownership of improvements, we’d be keen to hear from you.

£50,000 Fully Remote, UK Permanent