This is a remote position.
Senior Database Administrator (Oracle / PostgreSQL / AWS), U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP), Remote (East Coast)
Summary:
- Job Title: Senior Database Administrator (Oracle / PostgreSQL / AWS)
- Level: Senior (8+ years of database administration experience in production environments)
- Openings: 1–2
- Security Clearance: U.S. citizenship required. Must be able to obtain and maintain a CBP Public Trust background investigation. An existing DHS Public Trust (CBP, ICE, USCIS, CISA, or another DHS component) is preferred; other federal clearances, including Secret or Top Secret, will be reviewed and may require additional processing.
- Work Type: Remote: East Coast working hours, with travel approximately once per quarter; candidates in the Washington, DC area preferred
- Job Type: Full-time
- Agency name: U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP), Department of Homeland Security
- Start Date: Immediate. Start follows a favorable suitability determination and completion of customer onboarding.
BizFirst is assisting our client with recruiting a highly skilled and experienced Senior Database Administrator (DBA). This position supports a four-year U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) program to move the agency's applications to the cloud; our client is the prime contractor and incumbent. CBP has set a goal of moving all 276 of its applications to the cloud by January 2028, with about half of its database tier still to migrate. The DBA will help keep CBP's database platforms secure, available, and high-performing throughout that move, with primary responsibility for Oracle and strong hands-on support for PostgreSQL and AWS-managed database services.
Our client is an IT solutions and services company based in Alpharetta, Georgia, founded in 2000 to build mission-critical systems that run around the clock. Its cloud experts design and build cloud infrastructure on AWS, Azure, and Google Cloud, with work spanning cloud strategy and architecture, cloud modernization and engineering, security and compliance, cloud DevOps, and data and analytics. Federal civilian agencies are a core part of that work, supported through a GSA Multiple Award Schedule contract, and the company is an AWS Advanced Tier Services Partner.
What will you do
Keep CBP's database platforms running while they move to the cloud. You will administer production Oracle environments and AWS-managed databases, including PostgreSQL and MySQL; plan and execute migrations from on-premise data centers to AWS; tune database and application performance; and maintain backup, recovery, high availability, security, and monitoring. You will work with platform engineers, application teams, data teams, and cybersecurity staff and apply federal security controls to every database you support.
Responsibilities:
- Install, configure, patch, upgrade, administer, and troubleshoot Oracle databases (19c and later) across development, test, and production environments, along with PostgreSQL and MySQL workloads hosted in AWS.
- Administer and optimize AWS database services, including Amazon RDS for Oracle, RDS for PostgreSQL, RDS for MySQL, and Oracle on Amazon EC2 where applicable.
- Implement database permissions, policies, standards, and procedures to maintain secure connectivity, availability, and data integrity.
- Plan and execute database migrations from on-premise data centers to AWS, including migration runbooks, cutover and rollback planning, data validation, and post-migration verification. Support Oracle-to-Oracle and Oracle-to-PostgreSQL/open-source modernization where appropriate.
- Tune database and SQL performance using AWR, ASH, execution plans, indexing, memory and storage configuration, and PostgreSQL/MySQL performance tools. Work closely with application teams to optimize database interactions and, where applicable, NoSQL data-access patterns.
- Design and maintain backup, recovery, high availability, and failover strategies. Use Oracle RMAN, Data Guard, RAC, and ASM as well as AWS-native capabilities such as Multi-AZ, snapshots, automated backups, and replication; regularly test disaster recovery.
- Secure databases in line with NIST SP 800-53 controls and DISA STIGs, including least-privilege account and role management, auditing, logging, encryption, and Oracle TDE. Support ATO, vulnerability remediation, and compliance activities.
- Monitor database health, capacity, availability, replication, storage, backups, and performance using Oracle Enterprise Manager, AWS CloudWatch, and other enterprise monitoring tools; respond to incidents and lead root cause analysis.
- Manage and optimize Amazon Redshift and other supported data warehouse solutions for scalable and efficient storage, processing, and analysis of large datasets.
- Automate routine administration, operational checks, and database maintenance using Bash, Python, SQL, and PL/SQL scripts.
- Support application teams with schema changes, releases, data fixes, query optimization, and production troubleshooting through established change-control processes.
- Produce and maintain technical documentation, architecture information, migration and recovery runbooks, operating procedures, and inputs to system security plans.
Requirements:
- U.S. citizenship.
- Able to obtain and maintain a CBP Public Trust background investigation.
- At least eight (8) years of database administration experience supporting production systems, with deep hands-on Oracle DBA experience.
- Hands-on experience with Oracle 19c, RAC, Data Guard, RMAN, and ASM.
- Strong PostgreSQL administration experience and working knowledge of MySQL in production or AWS-managed environments.
- Proven database and SQL performance-tuning experience, including Oracle AWR/ASH analysis and query/index optimization.
- Experience with Amazon RDS and migrating databases between on-premise and cloud environments.
- Strong understanding of database backup, recovery, failover, disaster recovery, security, and high availability.
- Working knowledge of Linux/Unix administration and shell scripting; experience with database automation using Bash, Python, SQL, or PL/SQL.
- Experience troubleshooting complex production issues spanning databases, applications, operating systems, storage, networking, and cloud services.
- Bachelor's degree in a related field preferred; relevant experience is accepted in place of a degree.
- Able to work remotely on East Coast hours and travel approximately once per quarter.
Desired Skills
- Oracle Certified Professional (OCP); AWS certification a plus.
- Experience with Amazon RDS for Oracle, PostgreSQL, and MySQL; Oracle on Amazon EC2; AWS Database Migration Service (DMS); or Oracle GoldenGate.
- Experience migrating Oracle workloads to PostgreSQL or other open-source databases.
- Experience with Amazon Redshift, enterprise data warehouses, and large-scale data integration or analytics workloads.
- Experience with AWS CloudWatch and enterprise database monitoring and alerting platforms.
- Experience with NoSQL databases and optimizing application/data-access patterns across relational and NoSQL platforms.
- Experience supporting DHS or CBP systems, or other federal agencies under an ATO.
- A current DHS Public Trust (CBP, ICE, USCIS, CISA, or another DHS component).
