Database Architect/Senior Database Engineer

Position Summary

Precise Software Solutions, Inc. is seeking an experienced Database Architect / Senior Database Engineer to support a large, mission-critical FDA modernization program. This individual will serve as a senior technical resource responsible for translating business and application requirements into scalable, secure, high-performing database architectures and data models.

This role requires more than traditional database administration. The successful candidate must be a strategic thinker and experienced application database architect who can participate directly in requirements analysis, engage with government customers and business stakeholders, visualize future-state data needs, and establish the logical and physical database architecture required to support modernized applications.

The Database Architect will work closely with Business Analysts, application architects, developers, infrastructure engineers, cybersecurity teams, DBAs, and government stakeholders to design database solutions that balance performance, scalability, security, reliability, maintainability, compliance, and cost.

The ideal candidate has successfully architected databases for multiple enterprise applications and understands the distinction between administering an existing database and designing the database architecture that applications will depend upon.

Successful candidates must be able to obtain and maintain a Public Trust background investigation.

This position is contingent upon a contract award

Key Responsibilities

Requirements Analysis and Solution Architecture

• Participate directly in requirements elicitation and analysis sessions with business users, Business Analysts, application teams, and government customers.
• Translate functional, technical, performance, security, and operational requirements into database and data architecture solutions.
• Help stakeholders visualize how application requirements translate into data entities, relationships, structures, interfaces, and processing requirements.
• Identify architectural considerations including:
  • Expected data volumes and future growth.
  • Transaction volumes and workload patterns.
  • Data latency requirements.
  • Availability and recovery requirements.
  • Concurrent processing requirements.
  • Parallel processing and multiple database instance requirements.
  • Integration and data exchange requirements.
• Evaluate technical alternatives and communicate architectural trade-offs to technical and non-technical stakeholders.
• Recommend the simplest architecture that satisfies current requirements while supporting anticipated growth and modernization.

Database Architecture and Data Modeling

• Develop conceptual, logical, and physical data models based on application and business requirements.
• Establish the logical database architecture first as the foundation for the physical database implementation.
• Design scalable, high-performance relational database architectures.
• Create and maintain database architecture diagrams using tools such as Erwin, Visio, or comparable modeling tools.
• Define database physical structures, schemas, relationships, constraints, partitioning, indexing, and storage strategies.
• Apply appropriate normalization and denormalization techniques based on application and performance requirements.
• Establish and enforce database naming conventions, modeling standards, metadata standards, and architectural guidelines.
• Design solutions supporting high availability, replication, disaster recovery, backup, business continuity, and data retention.
• Understand and design distributed database architectures and processing strategies where appropriate.
• Evaluate appropriate use of relational and NoSQL database technologies.

Oracle and Database Development

• Design and develop Oracle database solutions supporting enterprise applications.
• Develop and review:
  • PL/SQL
  • SQL queries
  • Stored procedures
  • Packages
  • Functions
  • Triggers
  • DDL scripts
  • Database deployment scripts
• Create database objects and scripts required to support application releases.
• Perform and support data migrations and database transformation activities.
• Troubleshoot application issues involving database logic, PL/SQL, SQL, stored procedures, UNIX shell scripts, scheduled jobs, or data processing.
• Support application developers with database design and development decisions.
• Document database deployment procedures for implementation by FDA database administrators in higher environments.

Performance, Scalability, and Capacity Planning

• Estimate database sizing based on expected data volumes, retention requirements, transaction patterns, and growth projections.
• Analyze latency and throughput requirements for database and application interactions.
• Design database architectures capable of supporting high-volume and parallel processing workloads.
• Conduct workload analysis and capacity planning.
• Monitor and evaluate database performance.
• Identify performance bottlenecks and recommend architectural or configuration improvements.
• Perform SQL and PL/SQL performance tuning.
• Develop effective indexing, partitioning, caching, and query optimization strategies.
• Optimize database solutions for performance, reliability, scalability, and cost.

Cloud and Modernization Architecture

• Design database solutions for cloud and hybrid environments.
• Support modernization and migration of legacy on-premises database solutions to cloud platforms.
• Experience with database services in one or more of the following:
  • AWS
  • Microsoft Azure
  • Google Cloud Platform
• Evaluate managed database services, traditional database platforms, and cloud-native database technologies based on application requirements.
• Design architectures that support modernization, scalability, automation, resiliency, and security.
• Support Infrastructure as Code and automated database provisioning using technologies such as Terraform, CloudFormation, ARM, or Bicep where applicable.

Security and Compliance

• Design database architectures consistent with federal security and compliance requirements.
• Implement or recommend controls for:
  • Encryption at rest and in transit
  • Role-based access control
  • Least-privilege access
  • Database auditing
  • Logging and monitoring
  • Backup and recovery
  • Data protection
• Support security documentation and vulnerability analysis activities.
• Work with cybersecurity teams to ensure database solutions meet applicable federal security controls.
• Experience with or understanding of frameworks such as:
  • FISMA
  • NIST SP 800-53
  • FedRAMP
• Ensure database integrity, confidentiality, availability, and audit readiness.

Data Governance

• Establish and maintain database and data architecture standards.
• Define and enforce naming conventions.
• Promote data quality, consistency, integrity, and traceability.
• Support metadata management and data dictionary development.
• Define database documentation standards, procedures, and data definitions.
• Support data lifecycle, retention, archival, and disposition requirements.
• Apply master data management principles where appropriate.

DevOps and Database Automation

• Integrate database changes into application CI/CD processes.
• Support source control of database objects, scripts, and configuration artifacts.
• Develop repeatable database deployment and rollback processes.
• Automate database provisioning, deployment, monitoring, and maintenance where appropriate.
• Collaborate with DevSecOps and infrastructure teams to improve consistency and repeatability across environments.

Technical Leadership and Collaboration

• Serve as a senior technical advisor for database architecture decisions.
• Lead or participate in architecture reviews and technical design sessions.
• Communicate database architecture concepts clearly to government customers, business users, developers, infrastructure teams, security teams, and project leadership.
• Work closely with Business Analysts to ensure database designs accurately reflect business requirements.
• Collaborate with application architects to ensure alignment between application and database architectures.
• Mentor database administrators, developers, and engineers.
• Review database designs and implementation approaches developed by other team members.
• Influence technical decisions through analysis, expertise, and collaboration rather than relying solely on authority.
• Anticipate future data, performance, integration, and technology needs.

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Information Technology, Engineering, Data Management, or a related discipline, or equivalent combination of education and relevant professional experience.
• 8+ years of progressive database experience.
• At least 5 years of database architecture or application database architecture experience.
• Demonstrated database architecture responsibility on at least two significant enterprise application or modernization projects.
• Experience designing databases rather than solely administering existing database environments.
• Experience working directly with customers and business stakeholders during requirements analysis and solution design.
• Strong experience developing conceptual, logical, and physical data models.
• Experience using data modeling and architecture tools such as Erwin and/or Microsoft Visio.
• Strong relational database architecture and design knowledge.
• Advanced knowledge of Oracle databases and PL/SQL.
• Experience with:

o SQL

o PL/SQL

o DDL

o Stored procedures

o Packages

o Functions

o Triggers

o Database scripting

• Strong understanding of database naming conventions and data modeling standards.
• Experience with application database development.
• Experience designing database solutions for mission-critical enterprise applications.
• Strong understanding of database performance tuning, indexing, workload analysis, and capacity planning.
• Experience estimating database size and growth based on projected data volumes.
• Understanding of database latency, concurrency, parallel processing, distributed processing, and scalability considerations.
• Knowledge of high availability, disaster recovery, replication, backup, and recovery strategies.
• Experience with at least one major cloud platform such as AWS or Microsoft Azure.
• Strong written and verbal communication skills.
• Ability to explain complex technical concepts to technical and non-technical stakeholders.
• Strong analytical, problem-solving, and strategic-thinking skills.
• Ability to obtain and maintain a Public Trust background investigation.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience supporting FDA, HHS, or other federal government programs.
• Experience modernizing legacy applications and database architectures.
• Experience migrating on-premises databases to cloud environments.
• Experience with Oracle Data Pump.
• Experience with Oracle 19c or other current enterprise Oracle releases.
• Knowledge of PostgreSQL, SQL Server, MySQL, or other relational database platforms.
• Experience with NoSQL technologies such as MongoDB, DynamoDB, Cassandra, or Cosmos DB when appropriate.
• Experience with data warehousing, ETL/ELT, and data lake architectures.
• Experience with UNIX/Linux shell scripting and scheduled processing.
• Experience supporting CI/CD pipelines for database deployments.
• Experience using Infrastructure as Code technologies such as Terraform, CloudFormation, ARM, or Bicep.
• Experience with enterprise integration and data exchange platforms.
• Experience implementing database auditing and monitoring solutions.
• Familiarity with federal security requirements including FISMA, NIST SP 800-53, and FedRAMP.
• Understanding of master data management, metadata management, and enterprise data governance.
• Experience with Oracle Forms, WebLogic, Exadata, or related Oracle enterprise technologies is beneficial.

Preferred Certifications

One or more of the following certifications is desirable but not required:

• Oracle Database certification
• AWS database or solutions architecture certification
• Microsoft Azure Database Administrator Associate
• Microsoft Azure Solutions Architect Expert
• Certified Data Management Professional (CDMP)
• TOGAF or comparable architecture certification

Key Competencies

The successful candidate will demonstrate:

• Strategic thinking
• Customer engagement
• Requirements analysis
• Database architecture judgment
• Strong data visualization and modeling skills
• Excellent communication
• Technical leadership
• Attention to detail
• Strong documentation skills
• Collaboration and stakeholder management
• Decision-making under uncertainty
• Ability to balance performance, security, cost, calability, and maintainability
• Ability to anticipate future architectural needs rather than addressing only immediate technical issues

ABOUT US

Precise Software Solutions, Inc. is a mission-focused technology services company delivering secure digital platforms, infrastructure, and operational IT services to government organizations. A CMMI Level 3-appraised company, Precise partners with agency technology leaders and solution providers to design, build, operate, and modernize enterprise IT solutions that support critical public missions combining agility, innovation, and performance to deliver measurable results.

Precise specializes in cloud and hybrid infrastructure, platform engineering, security operations and compliance, application modernization, and data platforms and analytics. The company is known for its agile, delivery-driven approach and innovative engineering practices, applying operational rigor and performance-focused execution to improve system resilience, security, and scalability across complex government environments.

BENEFITS AND PERKS

• Comprehensive Health Benefits (Medical, Dental and Vision)
• Flexible Spending Accounts (FSA) & Health Savings Account (HSA)
• Retirement Plan with 4% match and discretionary match at year end
• Paid Time Off (PTO): 15 days of PTO accrued per year; 7 holidays+ 3 Floating holidays; 2 Innovation days (paid training days)
• Short Term and Long-Term Disability
• Paid Parental Leave
• Paid Jury Duty leave
• Life and AD&D Insurance
• Critical Illness Insurance
• Training and Development
• Wellness Incentives & Discount programs
• Employee Referral Program
• Annual Charity Donation Match
• Awards and Recognition

Equal Employment Opportunity Statement

Precise Software Solutions is committed to providing a workplace free from discrimination and harassment. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, pregnancy, age, national origin, disability, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, marital status, genetic information, protected veteran status, or other legally protected status.

We are an inclusive organization and actively promote equality of opportunity for all with the right mix of talent, skills and potential. We expect every member of the Precise community to do their part to cultivate and maintain an environment where everyone has the opportunity to feel included and is afforded the respect and dignity they deserve.