Lead Database Engineer

Here at Appian, our values of Intensity and Excellence define who we are. We set high standards and live up to them, ensuring that everything we do is done with care and quality. We approach every challenge with ambition and commitment, holding ourselves and each other accountable to achieve the best results. When you join Appian, you’ll be part of a passionate team dedicated to accomplishing hard things, together.

Database Engineers in Appian’s Public Sector Customer Success department build the scalable foundation behind mission-critical systems that power the world’s most demanding enterprises and government organizations.

Location: McLean, VA | Work Model: In-Office / Hybrid

About the Team

Appian’s Customer Success Public Sector team builds mission driven solutions that ensure peak performance, high availability, and data security for key Department of War (DoW) initiatives. We empower government organizations to modernize legacy systems using AI-Powered Process Automation and Enterprise-Grade Orchestration, ensuring seamless data access at scale.

The Opportunity

As a Database Engineer, you will design, develop, and maintain a complex data architecture to support our long-term DoW efforts. With extensive experience with Relational Database Management Services (RDMS) and NoSQL databases, you will architect a data architecture for the program that will be capable of handling extremely large datasets, migrate legacy data into the modern architecture, and ensure high availability and performance for the systems being implemented.

What You’ll Do

• Design and develop database architectures and data models to support the customer’s contract requirements by working closely with the Appian team to build logical and physical data models.

• Analyze legacy database structures to identify incompatibilities, data type mismatches, and migration risks before moving workloads to the cloud.

• Convert legacy stored procedures, triggers, views, and functions into target-compatible languages (such as PL/SQL or SQL), rewriting logic.

• Identify and update hardcoded SQL queries within application source code to ensure compatibility with the new database engine.

• Establish ETL functions to clean, transform, and transport legacy data into the new application environment.

• Configure, implement, and monitor enterprise database clusters

• Tune database objects for performance, and create indices on tables as needed.

• Integrate existing and new database objects into CI/CD pipelines to improve code reliability and consistency.

• Set up source control for database architecture code, stored procedures, and ETL objects.

• Develop complex data generation scripts used for automated functional and performance testing efforts.

Required Qualifications

• Bachelor’s Degree: B.S. or B.A. in Computer Science, Engineering, Information Systems, Mathematics, or a related technical field. (Note: Degree is strictly required).

• Experience: 5+ years of professional experience in data engineering, including hands-on experience designing, planning, and implementing tables, views, stored procedures, and functions.

• Core Technical Skills: Deep proficiency in both relational (RDBMS) and NoSQL database technologies, along with mastery of query languages including SQL, MQL, and CQL.

• Database Platforms: Professional experience designing, planning, and implementing new stored procedures, views, tables, and functions specified by business requirements.

• Core Technical Skills: Strong proficiency in both SQL and NoSQL database languages including SQL, MQL, CQL, etc. Hands-on experience technologies such as Microsoft SQL Server, MariaDB, Postgres, Oracle and AWS Cloud, Snowflake, Data Bricks.

• Security & Clearance: Active DoD Secret Clearance (or ability to obtain). Must be a U.S. Citizen (required for Public Sector efforts).

• Travel: Willingness to travel up to 10% annually for customer engagement.

Preferred Qualifications

• Cloud & Security Certifications: AWS Certified Database Specialty, AWS Certified Solutions Architect, CompTIA Security+, or platform-specific certifications from Oracle or Microsoft.

• Migration Expertise: Demonstrated experience migrating complex schemas across database engines (e.g., Oracle to PostgreSQL/MariaDB or SQL Server to MySQL).

• DevOps & Code: Familiarity with Python, Java, C#, XML, JSON, Jenkins, Azure DevOps, and RHEL8.

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The base salary range provided represents a good faith and reasonable estimate of the range at the time of posting. In addition to the base salary, this position is eligible for a government clearance differential. Actual compensation will be dependent on a number of factors including, but not limited to, the candidate’s relevant work experience, qualifications, internal peer equity, and market and business conditions that exist when extending an offer. A discretionary bonus may be awarded in recognition of individual and company performance.

In addition, Appian provides generous benefits offerings that include a 401(k) plan with company match, flexible time off, paid parental leave, medical, dental, and vision plans, life insurance, disability insurance, wellness programs, flexible spending accounts, health savings account contributions, an employee referral bonus program, and learning and development resources. Certain positions may be eligible for equity awards.

Pay and benefits are subject to change at any time, consistent with the terms of any applicable compensation, commission, bonus, or benefit plans.

Base Salary Range

$125,000—$250,000 USD

Tools and Resources

• Training and Development: During onboarding, we focus on equipping new hires with the skills and knowledge for success through department-specific training. Continuous learning is a central focus at Appian, with dedicated mentorship and the First-Friend program being widely utilized resources for new hires.

• Growth Opportunities: Appian provides a diverse array of growth and development opportunities, including our leadership program tailored for new and aspiring managers, a comprehensive library of specialized department training through Appian University, skills based training, and tuition reimbursement for those aiming to advance their education. This commitment ensures that employees have access to a holistic range of development opportunities.

• Community: We’ll immerse you into our community rooted in respect starting on day one. Appian fosters inclusivity through our 8 employee-led affinity groups. These groups help employees build stronger internal and external networks by planning social, educational, and outreach activities to connect with Appianites and larger initiatives throughout the company.

Benefits

Appian offers a comprehensive benefits package designed to support your health, wellbeing, and financial future. Benefits may include health coverage, Employee Assistance Program (EAP) with free mental health support, life and disability insurance, an Employee Stock Purchase Program (ESPP), a retirement/pension plan, wellness dollars, tuition reimbursement, family-forming benefits and more. Benefits vary by country—please ask your Talent Acquisition contact for details specific to the location you are applying to.

About Appian

Appian provides AI automation for the most important business processes at the world’s largest organizations. Our platform is known for its unique power, reliability, and scale. We’ve been automating processes for more than 25 years and have proven expertise in enterprise operations. For more information, visit appian.com.

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Appian is an equal opportunity employer that strives to attract and retain the best talent. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to any characteristic protected by applicable federal, state, or local law.

Appian provides reasonable accommodations to applicants in accordance with all applicable laws. If you need a reasonable accommodation for any part of the employment process, please contact us by email at ReasonableAccommodations@appian.com. Please note that only inquiries concerning a request for reasonable accommodation will be responded to from this email address.

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