AWS PostgreSQL Database Administrator (SC Cleared)

Job Title: AWSPostgreSQL Database Administrator (SC Cleared)

Location: Remote (with ad-hoc travel to London office)

Contract Length: 12 Months (with scope to extend)

Start Date: ASAP

IR35: Inside

Interview Process: 1 Stage, MS Teams

Clearance: SC (with eligibility for higher levels of clearance)

We are supporting a public sector client in hiring a highly experienced AWS Aurora PostgreSQL DBA to join a large-scale, business-critical database programme within a regulated government environment.

This is a senior technical leadership role requiring deep hands-on expertise across AWS Aurora PostgreSQL, database performance tuning, schema design, resilience engineering, high availability, backup and recovery and disaster recovery planning. The successful candidate will operate as the technical authority for the database platform, working across multiple teams and stakeholders to provide strong technical direction, challenge assumptions constructively and resolve complex issues at pace.

This role suits a technically astute and confident DBA with proven enterprise-scale cloud database platform experience, comfortable working in a security-conscious, compliance-driven environment and able to lead and communicate effectively across both technical and non-technical audiences.

Key Responsibilities

• Own database design and optimisation, ensuring efficient schema design, indexing strategies and query optimisation to support platform performance and scalability
• Implement and maintain robust security controls including access management, encryption and auditing to meet compliance and government security requirements
• Develop and maintain automated backup routines and disaster recovery plans to guarantee data integrity, availability and business continuity
• Proactively monitor database performance using PostgreSQL tools and monitoring solutions, identifying and resolving bottlenecks before they impact service
• Manage patch management and upgrades for managed AWS PostgreSQL instances, ensuring all instances are maintained at appropriate and supported versions
• Provide technical leadership and direction across database workstreams, working across multiple teams and challenging assumptions constructively
• Engage with technical and non-technical stakeholders, communicating complex database concepts clearly and supporting informed decision-making
• Contribute to architecture and design discussions, ensuring database solutions align with programme objectives, security standards and operational requirements

Essential Skills

• Deep hands-on expertise with AWS Aurora PostgreSQL at enterprise scale
• Proven experience in database performance tuning, query optimisation and indexing strategies across large, complex database estates
• Strong understanding of schema design, data modelling and resilience engineering for high-availability database platforms
• Experience designing and implementing backup and recovery strategies and disaster recovery planning in AWS environments
• Solid knowledge of database security including access controls, encryption, auditing and compliance requirements in regulated environments
• Experience managing patch management and version upgrades for managed AWS PostgreSQL instances
• Proven ability to operate as a technical leader across multiple teams and stakeholder groups in complex, business-critical programmes
• Strong communication and stakeholder management skills with the ability to engage at both technical and senior leadership level

Desirable Skills

• Experience working within central government, public sector or similarly regulated and security-conscious environments
• Familiarity with PostgreSQL monitoring and observability tooling
• Experience with AWS RDS and managed database services beyond Aurora PostgreSQL
• Knowledge of DevOps practices and Infrastructure as Code in the context of database management