Lead PostgreSQL Engineer

Lead Platform Engineer

The Database Engineering team is seeking a Lead Platform Engineer to lead the design, engineering, automation, modernization, and operational excellence of Mastercard's enterprise database platforms. This role combines deep expertise in PostgreSQL database technologies with Platform Engineering practices to build and operate secure, scalable, highly available database services that power Mastercard's global applications. The successful candidate will provide technical leadership, define engineering standards, drive automation initiatives, improve platform reliability, and advance cloud-native database capabilities across the organization.

The role partners closely with software engineers, architects, security teams, Site Reliability Engineers, and business stakeholders to deliver resilient database platforms while improving developer experience through automation, Infrastructure as Code, CI/CD enablement, and operational excellence. This aligns with the expectations of the Platform Engineering job family, including ownership of cloud infrastructure, distributed systems, security, automation, troubleshooting, and continuous platform improvement.

Key Responsibilities:

• Lead the design, implementation, operation, and continuous improvement of enterprise database platforms.
• Serve as the primary technical leader for PostgreSQL, including Open Source PostgreSQL, EnterpriseDB (EDB), and AWS Aurora PostgreSQL.
• Design highly available, secure, scalable, and resilient database solutions using modern platform engineering principles.
• Engineer and support cloud infrastructure and cloud-native database services across AWS and hybrid environments.
• Drive Infrastructure as Code (IaC) adoption and platform automation using Terraform, Cloud Formation, Ansible, Chef, XLR, and related technologies.
• Build and enhance CI/CD integration for database provisioning, deployments, upgrades, testing, and operational workflows.
• Develop automation solutions that improve platform velocity, reliability, consistency, and operational efficiency.
• Design and maintain database infrastructure supporting distributed systems, microservices-based applications, and cloud-native architectures.
• Perform advanced troubleshooting, root cause analysis, performance analysis, capacity planning, tuning, backup, recovery, and disaster recovery planning.
• Establish monitoring, observability, reliability, and operational health frameworks for database services.
• Collaborate with software engineering and platform teams to provide architecture guidance, technical consultation, and platform support.
• Define and implement database engineering standards, configuration management practices, governance processes, and operational procedures.
• Ensure database platforms meet security requirements, risk controls, audit standards, regulatory requirements, and compliance obligations.
• Evaluate emerging database technologies and contribute to platform roadmaps, proof-of-concepts, and modernization initiatives.
• Lead complex technical initiatives spanning multiple teams and regions.
• Mentor engineers and promote engineering excellence through coaching, knowledge sharing, and technical leadership.
• Champion Agile delivery practices, operational excellence, and continuous improvement across database engineering services.

Technical & Functional Skills:

• Deep expertise in PostgreSQL architecture, administration, replication, performance tuning, high availability, disaster recovery, and security.
• Strong experience with AWS Aurora PostgreSQL and EnterpriseDB (EDB).
• Expertise in cloud infrastructure engineering and enterprise-scale platform operations.
• Experience with CI/CD pipelines and automated deployment methodologies.
• Strong hands-on knowledge of Infrastructure as Code (IaC) and configuration management tools including Terraform, Cloud Formation, Ansible, Chef, and related technologies.
• Experience building and supporting distributed systems and cloud-native platforms.
• Working knowledge of container platforms such as Kubernetes and Open Shift.
• Strong Linux/Unix system administration and software scripting skills.
• Experience with software programming and automation development.
• Un…