DTRA-83-Database Specialist SME-Database Engineer

Defense Engineering Inc. (DEi) is seeking a database engineer SME to support, maintain and optimize critical mission operations across multiple geographic locations on our long-term contract located at the Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA) at Fort Belvoir, VA.

The I3TS program provides enterprise-wide IT support to enable DTRA’s Information Management & Technology Directorate (ITD) to consolidate, modernize, and continuously innovate the delivery of IT services and mission capabilities to DTRA’s internal and external mission partners operating in CONUS and OCONUS locations.

DEi is a leading small IT business leader in the Washington D.C. Metropolitan Area. DEi combines experience and innovative ideas to provide our clients with the right solution with the right people at the right time. We are a proven IT services and solutions provider for full-life-lifecycle engineering of network, storage, cyber security, communication and policy compliance needs. We focus on delivering IT solutions to meet complex technological and business challenges within mission-critical enterprises.

In addition to the traditional full-time employee benefits package (health, dental, vision, 401K, life insurance, short-term and long-term disability plans, vacation time and holidays, DEi also offers Education and professional Certification Reimbursement, and Gym Membership reimbursement benefits.

Job Category: Information Technology – SME database engineer

Salary: Negotiable

Location: Fort Belvoir, VA US

Clearance Level Must Currently Possess:

Active Top Secret/SCI

US Citizenship

Certifications (Baseline)

• 8540/8570 Baseline Active IAT Level II (Minimum of one)
  • Security+ CE
  • CCNA-Security
  • GSEC
  • SSCP
• Computing Environment Certification
  • Industry recognized certifications Oracle Certified Professional (OCP) and/or Microsoft Certified: Azure Database Administrator Associate

Education / Experience: Candidate must have a STEM bachelor’s degree with minimum 10-12 years of applicable Database Engineer experience. (Additional years of experience accepted in lieu of degree)

Location: Fort Belvoir, VA

Schedule: Daytime

Potential for Teleworking: Situational

Travel: None

Shift: Day Job

Job Description

The ideal candidate will be a technical expert responsible for performing tasks relating to Database Management System (DBMS) applications, including definition, design, structure, documentation, upgrades, long-range requirements, operational guidelines, and protection. Duties may include entering and reviewing data within the database, ensuring user data integrity, maintaining database support tools, database tables and dictionaries, recovery and back-up procedures, and making recommendations regarding enhancements and/or improvements.

Candidates must demonstrate a high degree of problem-solving ability in a complex environment and be able to communicate effectively, both to the customer and to team members.

Primary Responsibilities:

• Architect, deploy, and manage highly available and scalable database solutions across Oracle, PostgreSQL, MongoDB and MS SQL server environments.
• The candidate performs data management tasks including data design, data structure identification, database schema definition, data access privilege management, data query optimization, documentation, database instance upgrades, long-range requirements, operational guidelines, and data protection.
• Duties also include entering and reviewing data within the database, ensuring user data integrity, maintaining database support tools, database tables and dictionaries, recovery and back-up procedures, and making recommendations regarding enhancements and/or improvements.
• Develop relational and non-relational database models, data warehouses, and schema designs to meet organizational requirements.
• Implement strict access control, data encryption, and robust backup and disaster recovery (DR) plans.
• Design and implement scalable solutions to accommodate increasing data volumes and user loads.
• Analyze and tune database performance for high-volume, mission-critical applications
• Implement and maintain database security measures, including access controls and encryption etc.
• Design and implement robust backup, recovery and failover architectures (e.g., Oracle.

Basic Qualifications

• Expert-level, hands-on experience architecting, managing, and troubleshooting Oracle, PostgreSQL, MongoDB and MS SQL Server in enterprise environments.
• Deep, practical experience applying, mitigating, and auditing DoD STIGs for databases.
• Proven ability to remediate vulnerabilities and generate required compliance artifacts.
• Deep expertise in database management systems such as Oracle, PostgreSQL, MongoDB, MySQL, or MS SQL Server.
• Expert-level understanding of relational database internals, SQL, and query performance tuning.
• Knowledge of database tuning techniques.
• Experience with database design and modeling.
• Must hold a Top Secret/SCI Clearance.
• Strong experience implementing and maintaining Security Technical Implementation Guides (STIGs).
• Document STIG configurations and remediation actions to ensure audit readiness.
• Strong experience in conducting regular STIG compliance checks using tools like SCAP Compliance Checker and STIG Viewer.
• Familiarity with enterprise infrastructure (storage, networking, compute), Linux administration (Red Hat) and Windows Server.
• Experience negotiating complex scenarios and challenges and devising courses of action to resolve situations with predictable outcomes
• Excellent communication skills.
• Strong problem-solving, analytical skills, and ability to work independently or in a team.
• Industry recognized certifications Oracle Certified Professional (OCP) and/or Microsoft Certified: Azure Database Administrator Associate
• DoD 8570 IAT Level II or III certification (e.g., Security+ CE, CASP+, CISSP).
• Experience supporting IC or DoD/DoW classified environments.
• MSSQL certifications or Oracle Certification (OCP).

Desired Qualifications

• Experience negotiating complex scenarios and challenges and devising courses of action to resolve situations with predictable outcomes
• Advanced scripting skills in Python, Bash, or PowerShell. Experience with configuration management tools (e.g., Ansible) for automated database deployment and STIG applications.
• Experience migrating and managing databases in DoD authorized cloud environments (e.g., AWS GovCloud, Azure Government, or DoW IL4/IL5 environments).
• Previous experience in a CI/CD environment.
• Exposure to data warehousing and business intelligence environments.
• Exposure to Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning experience in data engineering is a plus.