Senior PostgreSQL Database Reliability Engineer

Nodal Exchange

Database Reliability Engineer at Nodal Exchange ensuring PostgreSQL infrastructure supports critical trading operations. Responsible for overall database performance, reliability, and strategy for a financial marketplace.

Posted 5/2/2026full-timeRemote • Virginia • 🇺🇸 United StatesSenior💰 $170,000 - $210,000 per yearWebsite

Tech Stack

Tools & technologies

ETLLinuxPostgresSQL

About the role

Key responsibilities & impact

Production PostgreSQL infrastructure across the full lifecycle: architecture, deployment, replication, monitoring, performance tuning, backup/recovery, and capacity planning
Streaming replication and high-availability configurations that meet the uptime expectations of a regulated financial exchange
Query and system-level performance analysis—diagnosing slow queries, optimizing execution plans, tuning shared_buffers, work_mem, and autovacuum, not just reading pg_stat output but knowing what to do about it
Backup and disaster recovery strategy using tools like Barman, including point-in-time recovery testing and validation
Data architecture evolution: modernizing data warehouse and reporting infrastructure, building ETL pipelines, and designing data flows that scale with the business
Data services across the organization: test data management, data obfuscation, data modeling, and supporting data needs for development, QA, and business teams
Operational support including on-call rotation for after-hours production database emergencies

Requirements

What you’ll need

5+ years hands-on PostgreSQL administration in production environments—not just dev/test, not just managed RDS
Deep understanding of PostgreSQL internals: WAL mechanics, MVCC, vacuum processing, the query planner and optimizer, connection handling, and lock management
Proven experience with physical and logical replication: setup, monitoring, failover, and troubleshooting split-brain scenarios
Strong SQL performance tuning skills: reading EXPLAIN ANALYZE output, identifying indexing strategies, understanding join algorithms, and resolving locking contention
Solid Linux systems administration (we run Ubuntu)—comfortable with systemd, filesystem performance, memory management, and networking fundamentals
Experience with backup/recovery tools (Barman, pgBackRest, or equivalent) and tested disaster recovery procedures
Experience building and maintaining ETL pipelines and data transformation processes
Ability to work autonomously in a small team where you’re expected to own problems from identification through resolution
Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Information Systems, Mathematics, or a related field

Benefits

Comp & perks

Nodal Employee Benefits and Perks: **https://nodalexchange.pinpointhq.com****
Nodal Exchange is an E-verify participant.

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Hard Skills & Tools

PostgreSQL administrationperformance tuningbackup and recoveryETL pipelinesdata modelingSQL performance tuningLinux systems administrationreplicationdata architecturedisaster recovery

Soft Skills

autonomyproblem-solvingteam collaboration