Software Engineering -Backend Developer

About the role

The Physical Network Inventory team are reliable for maintaining the GIS inventory systems that are used to plan and build the Openreach network.

• These systems have been central in helping the Openreach rollout of full fibre to the UK.

• The role also involves futureproofing these critical systems to ensure they remain available, operational and well helped into the future.

What youll be doing

As a hands-on Backend Engineer with deep PostgreSQL expertise you will be reliable for application development with strong database engineering skills, including performance tuning, security (RLS), and DBA responsibilities. The role will contribute across backend development, database design, and DevOps-enabled delivery.

Backend Development

• Design and develop scalable backend services using Java (Spring Boot) or equivalent frameworks

• Build and optimize data-intensive APIs and services

• Collaborate with frontend and cross-functional teams to integrate backend systems.

• Ensure clean code, modular architecture, and maintainability

• Implement best practices for error handling, logging, and observability.

PostgreSQL Database Expertise (Primary Responsibility)

• Design and maintain robust, scalable, high-performance database schemas

• Write highly optimized complex SQL , functions and stored procedures (PL/pgSQL)

• Perform query tuning, execution plan analysis and performance optimization

• Should have worked on postGIS.

• Manage indexing strategies, partitioning, and data modelling

• Ensure data consistency, integrity, and efficient storage utilization.

DBA & Database Operations

• Monitor and troubleshoot database performance and reliability issues.

• Implement and manage backup, recovery, and disaster recovery (DR) strategies

• Configure and maintain replication, high availability (HA), and failover mechanisms.

• Tune database parameters (autovacuum, memory, connections, etc.)

Security & RLS (Critical Skill)

• Design and implement Row-Level Security (RLS) policies in PostgreSQL

• Manage role-based access control (RBAC) and fine-grained privilege.

• Ensure data protection standards (masking, encryption, auditing)

• Conduct periodic database security assessments and vulnerability reviews.

DevOps & Platform Contributions

• Integrate database changes into CI/CD pipelines (schema migrations, version control)

• Work with containerized environments like Docker/Kubernetes DB services

• Automate database deployments and monitoring

• Collaborate with DevOps teams for environment setup, performance tuning and release management.

Essential Skills / Experience

Required Skills & Experience

• Strong experience in backend development using Java/Spring Boot (or similar)

• Deep expertise in PostgreSQL (version 12+)

• Advanced knowledge of SQL, PL/pgSQL, postGIS and query optimization

• Hands-on experience with data base performance tuning and troubleshooting

• Strong understanding of RLS, RBAC, and data base security principles

• Experience with HA setups, replication (streaming/logical), and failover

• Familiarity with CI/CD pipelines and DevOps practices

• Experience working in Linux environments

Desirable Skills / Experience

Experience with cloud platforms (AWS RDS/Aurora, Azure Database for PostgreSQL, GCP Cloud SQL)

• Knowledge of CI/CD tools (Jenkins, GitHub Actions, Azure DevOps, etc.)

• Knowledge of containerization (Docker, Kubernetes etc)

• Experience with Infrastructure-as-Code is plus.