Senior Cloud Database Developer

The Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI), operated by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy (AURA), is NASA’s science operations center for missions including the Hubble and James Webb Space Telescopes. We are seeking a Senior Cloud Database Developer  to join our Catalog Science Branch. We’re looking for a talented and experienced professional to help manage the backend data pipelines, MPP database system and ensure high-performance, reliable data access for our advanced astronomical public data archive, the Mikulski Archive for Space Telescopes (MAST)—one of the world’s most advanced astronomical public data archives— serving missions such as HST, JWST, Roman, and TESS. This position can support hybrid work. Candidates must reside in or be willing to relocate to our local market. (MD, DE, VA, PA, DC & WV). This position requires US Citizenship or Permanent Residence in order to meet ITAR requirements.

What You will Do :

• Architect and evolve end‑to‑end scientific data solutions
• Lead the design, development, and optimization of scalable relational databases and cloud-based data Lakehouse
• Develop, maintain and optimize robust, fault-tolerant data pipelines using Apache Airflow (or similar tools) for data ingestion and data migration to process petabyte-scale datasets efficiently
• Deploy and manage, scale containerized data workloads using Kubernetes on prem and in cloud
• Develop and maintain CI / CD pipelines for reliable automated deployment
• Partner with scientific, engineering, and non‑technical stakeholders to ensure data performance, accessibility, and reliability
• Serve as a senior technical contributor, providing guidance on best practices for data engineering

Required Technical Skills :

Required Qualifications

8+ years of professional experience in Linux-based environments, with demonstrated expertise in data engineering, data management, and scalable data architectures.

Salary range is $125,000 - $150,000. Final compensation is based on experience, skills, internal equity, and market conditions.

Application link -

Applications received by 03 / 03 / 2026  will receive full consideration. Applications received after this date will be considered until the position is filled. Reference # : 0015514