Staff Software Development Engineer – Data Platform (postgresql Specialist)

Staff Software Development Engineer – Data Platform (PostgreSQL Specialist)

ID.me is the next-generation digital identity wallet that simplifies how individuals securely prove their identity online. Consumers can verify their identity with ID.me once and seamlessly login across websites without having to create a new login and verify their identity again. Over 152 million users experience streamlined login and identity verification with ID.me at 20 federal agencies, 45 state government agencies, and 70+ healthcare organizations. More than 600+ consumer brands use ID.me to verify communities and user segments to honor service and build more authentic relationships. ID.me's technology meets the federal standards for consumer authentication set by the Commerce Department and is approved as a NIST 800-63-3 IAL2 / AAL2 credential service provider by the Kantara Initiative. ID.me is committed to "No Identity Left Behind" to enable all people to have a secure digital identity.

Role Overview

ID.me is seeking a Staff Software Development Engineer (SDE-V) to lead the design, evolution, and operation of our PostgreSQL-based data platform. This role will focus on building and scaling the databases, APIs, and automation that form the foundation of ID.me's core identity systems.

As a Staff Engineer, you will serve as the organization's technical expert in PostgreSQL administration, development, and performance engineering at scale. You will drive improvements in database reliability, observability, schema design, and query optimization. You'll work across engineering, infrastructure, and compliance teams to ensure that ID.me's data platform is secure, resilient, and capable of supporting mission-critical workloads and regulatory requirements.

This is a highly technical and hands-on role that combines deep database expertise with strong software engineering skills to build scalable, high-performance systems.

This role is based out of our Mountain View, CA or McLean, VA offices and requires full-time in-office attendance.

Responsibilities

• Architect, build, and optimize PostgreSQL databases that power high-volume identity, authentication, and analytics workloads.
• Develop automation, tooling, and APIs for provisioning, scaling, and managing PostgreSQL instances in a cloud-native environment.
• Drive improvements in query performance, indexing strategies, and schema design for operational and analytical systems.
• Design and implement replication, sharding, and partitioning strategies to ensure scalability and fault tolerance.
• Partner with Platform and SRE teams to enhance monitoring, observability, and alerting for database health, latency, and throughput.
• Build guardrails and automation around data retention, governance, and compliance (e.g., GDPR, FedRAMP).
• Guide engineers in best practices for database access patterns, connection management, and transactional consistency.
• Collaborate with product teams to support data-intensive application development through well-structured APIs and data services.
• Evaluate and extend PostgreSQL using extensions, PL/pgSQL functions, triggers, or custom tooling to meet product needs.
• Mentor other engineers and provide architectural leadership on data-intensive projects.

Minimum Qualifications

• Bachelor's or Graduate degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering, or a related technical field.
• 8+ years of professional software development experience, including 3+ years working extensively with PostgreSQL in production at scale.
• Proficiency in a systems programming language such as Go, Java, Ruby, or Python.

Preferred Qualifications

• Deep expertise in PostgreSQL architecture, query planning, replication, indexing, and tuning.
• Hands-on experience managing PostgreSQL in cloud environments (AWS RDS, Aurora PostgreSQL, GCP Cloud SQL, or self-managed Kubernetes).
• Proven experience implementing high-availability and disaster recovery solutions.
• Strong understanding of data security, encryption, and compliance controls.
• Experience extending PostgreSQL through custom extensions or PL/pgSQL procedures.
• Familiarity with event-driven architectures and data pipelines (e.g., Kafka, Debezium, or CDC frameworks).
• Experience automating database lifecycle management with Terraform, Ansible, or Kubernetes Operators.
• Strong leadership and mentorship skills, with a track record of influencing data and infrastructure strategy.
• Passion for reliability, observability, and building clean abstractions that simplify database operations at scale.

Mountain View, CA Pay Range $217,565 - $260,000 USD