Senior Member Technical Staff ( Postgres DBA)

Our entertainment metadata and connected IDs deliver advanced content navigation and discovery to connect consumers to the content they love and discover new ones.As a Lead Data Science Engineer on the Gracenote Media team, you will be responsible for defining the AI/ML strategy, overseeing large-scale data science projects, and leading teams to build cutting-edge machine learning solutions that scale content understanding and generation, entity linkage, and more to achieve the scale that matches our customer’s demands. We are seeking a highly autonomous and strategic Senior MTS (P3) to architect, scale, and take full ownership of our PostgreSQL database infrastructure. At this level, you will not just maintain databases; you will drive our data architecture, define best practices for High Availability (HA) and Disaster Recovery (DR), and lead cross-functional initiatives to ensure our systems are resilient, performant, and scalable. This role requires a proactive problem-solver who bridges the gap between complex application logic and optimal database design, while leveraging modern cloud infrastructure and AI technologies to future-proof our stack.

About The Nielsen Company

• Gracenote, a Nielsen company, is dedicated to connecting audiences to the entertainment they love, powering a better media future for all people.
• Gracenote is the content data business unit of Nielsen that powers innovative entertainment experiences for the world’s leading media companies.
• Our talented, global workforce is dedicated to capturing audience engagement with content - wherever and whenever it’s consumed.
• Together, we are proudly rooted in our deep legacy as we stand at the forefront of the media revolution.
• When you join Nielsen, you will join a dynamic team committed to excellence, perseverance, and the ambition to make an impact together.
• We champion you, because when you succeed, we do too.
• We enable your best to power our future.

Responsibilities

• Lead the design and deployment of highly scalable, distributed database architectures that support complex, high-throughput application requirements.
• Design, implement, and manage High Availability (HA) architectures.
• Configure and maintain streaming & logical replication, clustering, and automated failover mechanisms.
• Proactively identify single points of failure and engineer automated failover mechanisms.
• Develop, execute, and test robust disaster recovery plans.
• Ensure data durability through automated backup strategies and rapid point-in-time recovery (PITR) procedures.
• Perform deep-dive performance tuning.
• Analyze complex execution plans, optimize locking behaviors, and design and implement advanced partitioning and indexing strategies.
• Drive the deployment, security, and cost-optimization of PostgreSQL within modern cloud environments (AWS, GCP, or Azure), utilizing infrastructure-as-code (IaC).
• Take full accountability for database health, migrations, and data integrity from the development phase through production deployment.
• Act as the ultimate owner of database health.
• Collaborate closely with software engineering teams to influence backend code, guide API data access patterns, and mentor junior engineers on database best practices.
• Lead the evaluation and integration of emerging technologies, including NoSQL data stores and AI/ML vector databases (e.g., pgvector), to solve complex business problems.
• Act as a key technical escalation point.

Requirements

• Leverage strong analytical skills to diagnose deep systemic issues, perform rigorous root-cause analysis (RCA), and implement highly scalable, permanent solutions for production bottlenecks.
• 8 - 12+years of proven, hands-on professional experience working extensively with PostgreSQL in production environments.
• Expert-level knowledge of replication strategies, HA architectures, and DR planning.
• Proven track record managing cloud-based/on-prem (e.g., RDS, Aurora, Cloud SQL) data infrastructure Core Database Expertise: Deep command of relational database design, ACID transactions, MVCC (Multi-Version Concurrency Control), and advanced SQL querying.
• Solid proficiency in at least one backend or scripting language (Python, Node.js, Java, Go, or Bash) to build automation tools and integrate with CI/CD pipelines.
• Demonstrated ability to independently manage large-scale projects from conception to production, making high-level architectural decisions and defending them with data.
• Exceptional troubleshooting skills with a proven track record of deconstructing complex, ambiguous infrastructure challenges and delivering elegant, data-backed solutions.
• & EC2 Hands-On Expertise: Deep, practical experience using Terraform to provision and manage cloud infrastructure.
• Must have strong hands-on experience deploying, tuning, and managing self-hosted PostgreSQL clusters directly on AWS EC2 instances, including storage optimization (EBS volume types, IOPS tuning), network configuration (VPCs, Security Groups), and custom AMIs.
• Familiarity with NoSQL databases (e.g., MongoDB, Redis, Cassandra, DynamoDB) and a solid understanding of when to leverage NoSQL versus relational data models.
• Hands-on experience integrating database systems with AI pipelines, or utilizing AI-driven tools to enhance developer productivity and database operations..

Modern Tech Adaptability

A strong appetite for exploring new tech stacks and frameworks, with a history of successfully introducing new, impactful technologies to a team.

Please be aware that job-seekers may be at risk of targeting by scammers seeking personal data or money. Nielsen recruiters will only contact you through official job boards, LinkedIn, or email with a nielsen.com domain. Be cautious of any outreach claiming to be from Nielsen via other messaging platforms or personal email addresses. Always verify that email communications come from an @ nielsen.com address. If you're unsure about the authenticity of a job offer or communication, please contact Nielsen directly through our official website or verified social media channels.

At Nielsen, we are passionate about our work to power a better media future for all people by providing powerful insights that drive client decisions and deliver extraordinary results.