Technical Engineer Contractor: 10+ years (Expert) :: Dallas, TX & New Jersey

The ideal candidate is a hands-on PostgreSQL technical leader who combines deep database engineering expertise with strong team leadership and business collaboration skills. They should be comfortable making architectural decisions, developing complex database solutions, leading distributed teams, and taking end-to-end ownership of production stability, data quality, and analytical reporting delivery.

Job Title: Technical Engineer / PostgreSQL Technical Lead
Employment Type: Contract
Work Model: Hybrid / Onsite
Location: Dallas, TX, or New Jersey
Contract Duration: November 2, 2026 – May 1, 2027
Required Experience: 10+ years
Primary Skill: PostgreSQL (Expert Level)
 
Job Summary
We are seeking an experienced, hands-on PostgreSQL Technical Lead to manage and optimize an enterprise PostgreSQL data warehouse. The ideal candidate will possess deep expertise in PostgreSQL database architecture, advanced SQL and PL/pgSQL development, performance tuning, data warehousing, ETL/ELT pipelines, and production support.
This role will be responsible for leading onshore and offshore development and production support teams, making critical architectural decisions, resolving complex data quality issues, and ensuring the reliability and performance of analytical reporting solutions. The successful candidate will work closely with business stakeholders to translate requirements into scalable technical solutions while maintaining high standards for data integrity, availability, security, and operational efficiency.
Key Responsibilities
Technical Leadership and Team Management

• Lead onshore and offshore development and production support teams, providing technical direction, guidance, and mentorship.
• Oversee sprint planning, code reviews, development standards, release readiness, and production incident management.
• Establish best practices for PostgreSQL development, ETL/ELT processes, logging, data reconciliation, and deployment procedures.
• Coordinate with cross-functional teams to prioritize deliverables, resolve technical dependencies, and meet project timelines.

PostgreSQL Architecture and Database Development

• Own the end-to-end architecture, development, optimization, and maintenance of the PostgreSQL data warehouse.
• Design and implement scalable data models, including star schemas, snowflake schemas, Data Vault, and Operational Data Store (ODS) architectures.
• Develop complex PL/pgSQL procedures, functions, triggers, and advanced SQL queries to support business and analytical requirements.
• Build and maintain reporting datasets, aggregate tables, materialized views, and other analytical data structures.
• Define database partitioning, indexing, configuration, and performance optimization strategies.

Performance Tuning and Optimization

• Diagnose and resolve database performance bottlenecks using EXPLAIN ANALYZE, buffer analysis, pg_stat_statements, and other PostgreSQL diagnostic tools.
• Optimize complex queries, indexing strategies, bulk-loading operations, and high-volume batch and incremental ETL/ELT pipelines.
• Manage database bloat, autovacuum behavior, query execution plans, and database configuration parameters.
• Implement partitioning strategies and performance enhancements to improve throughput, scalability, and reporting efficiency.

Data Warehousing, ETL/ELT, and Data Quality

• Design, develop, and optimize data integration and transformation pipelines using PostgreSQL and orchestration tools such as Apache Airflow or equivalent platforms.
• Implement dimensional modeling, Slowly Changing Dimensions (SCD), Change Data Capture (CDC), and data reconciliation frameworks.
• Investigate upstream data issues, including delayed feeds, invalid records, and schema changes, and assess their downstream impact on reports and extracts.
• Conduct root-cause analysis and implement proactive data validation, monitoring, alerting, and remediation mechanisms.
• Support Oracle-to-PostgreSQL migration initiatives, including data conversion, validation, and performance optimization.

Production Support, High Availability, and Disaster Recovery

• Lead production incident resolution, troubleshoot complex database issues, and ensure timely restoration of services.
• Implement and maintain high-availability and disaster-recovery solutions using replication, failover, backup, and recovery mechanisms.
• Support point-in-time recovery (PITR), database upgrades, backup validation, and recovery testing.
• Establish monitoring and operational procedures to improve database availability, reliability, and resilience.

Security, Monitoring, and Governance

• Implement database security controls, including role-based access control (RBAC), row-level security, and auditing.
• Configure database monitoring, logging, and performance reporting using tools such as Prometheus, Grafana, pgBadger, and pgaudit.
• Support PostgreSQL deployments across managed cloud database platforms, including AWS RDS/Aurora, Azure, and Google Cloud SQL/AlloyDB.
• Maintain technical documentation, operational runbooks, database standards, and production support procedures.

Business and Stakeholder Collaboration

• Collaborate with business stakeholders, analysts, architects, and engineering teams to understand requirements and deliver reliable analytical reporting solutions.
• Translate business needs into technical designs, database models, and implementation plans.
• Communicate project progress, technical risks, production incidents, and remediation plans clearly to senior stakeholders.
• Promote a proactive, accountable, and ownership-driven approach to technical delivery and production operations.

Required Qualifications

• 10+ years of experience in database engineering, PostgreSQL development, data warehousing, or related technical roles.
• Expert-level knowledge of PostgreSQL architecture, internals, administration, and performance optimization.
• Strong hands-on experience with PL/pgSQL, advanced SQL, stored procedures, functions, triggers, materialized views, JSONB, and bulk data loading.
• Deep expertise in query optimization, indexing, declarative partitioning, database configuration, and bloat management.
• Experience designing enterprise data warehouses, dimensional data models, ETL/ELT pipelines, and analytical reporting layers.
• Strong knowledge of high availability, disaster recovery, replication, database backup and recovery, and production support.
• Experience with database security, auditing, monitoring, and managed PostgreSQL cloud services.
• Proven experience leading offshore development and production support teams.
• Excellent problem-solving, communication, stakeholder management, and incident management skills.
• Ability to work in a hybrid/onsite arrangement in Dallas, TX, or New Jersey.

Technical Skills Required
PostgreSQL Core and Development

• PostgreSQL internals: MVCC, Write-Ahead Logging (WAL), autovacuum, and query planner
• PL/pgSQL, dynamic SQL, exception handling, and cursors
• Advanced SQL, recursive CTEs, window functions, MERGE, ON CONFLICT, JSONB, triggers, and materialized views
• COPY and bulk data-loading techniques

Performance Tuning and Optimization

• EXPLAIN ANALYZE, buffer analysis, and pg_stat_statements
• B-tree, GIN, GiST, BRIN, and partial indexes
• Declarative partitioning and pg_partman
• Database bloat management and configuration tuning

PostgreSQL Extensions and Utilities

• postgres_fdw, file_fdw, pg_cron, pg_trgm, pgcrypto, and pg_repack

High Availability and Disaster Recovery

• Streaming and logical replication
• Patroni, repmgr, PgBouncer, and pgpool-II
• pgBackRest, Barman, point-in-time recovery (PITR), and pg_upgrade

Security and Monitoring

• Role-Based Access Control (RBAC), row-level security, and pgaudit
• pgBadger, Prometheus, and Grafana
• AWS RDS/Aurora, Azure PostgreSQL services, Google Cloud SQL, and AlloyDB

Data Warehousing and ETL/ELT

• Dimensional modeling, star and snowflake schemas, Data Vault, and ODS
• Slowly Changing Dimensions (SCD) and Change Data Capture (CDC)
• Data reconciliation and quality frameworks
• Apache Airflow or equivalent orchestration tools
• Oracle-to-PostgreSQL migration using Ora2Pg

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience managing enterprise-scale PostgreSQL data warehouses and high-volume analytical workloads.
• Experience with cloud-based database modernization and migration initiatives.
• Familiarity with Agile delivery methodologies, CI/CD practices, and production release management.
• Demonstrated success resolving complex upstream and downstream data issues while maintaining business reporting continuity.

Ideal Candidate Profile
The ideal candidate is a hands-on PostgreSQL technical leader who combines deep database engineering expertise with strong team leadership and business collaboration skills. They should be comfortable making architectural decisions, developing complex database solutions, leading distributed teams, and taking end-to-end ownership of production stability, data quality, and analytical reporting delivery.