- Career Roadmaps
- PostgreSQL DBA

PostgreSQL DBA Roadmap

You go deep on the database everyone else treats as a black box. Postgres is the default database of the 2026 stack, and people who can tune, back up and rescue it are scarce - indicative salaries
$75-100k US
, rising steeply with proven production scars.

By Carl Mills
- Last updated 10 July 2026
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Stage 1 - SQL Mastery 3 item(s)
- Advanced SQL: window functions, CTEs, lateral joins, transactions Critical
- psql fluency + system catalogs (pg_stat_*) - the DBA cockpit Critical
- Schema design: types, constraints, normalisation and when to break it Critical

Stage 2 - Performance 4 item(s)
- EXPLAIN ANALYZE fluency: scans vs indexes, joins, sorts Critical The core DBA interview skill: read a plan out loud and say what you would change.
- Indexing strategy: B-tree vs partial vs covering; the cost of too many Critical
- VACUUM,



autovacuum and bloat - why tables grow and queries slow Critical
- Locking & concurrency: deadlocks, long transactions, isolation levels

Stage 3 - Operations 5 item(s)
- Backups + PITR: pg_dump vs physical, and PROVEN restores Critical
- Replication & failover: streaming replicas, promotion drills Critical
- Configuration tuning: memory, connections, pooling (pgBouncer)
- Database security: roles, RLS, encryption, audit
- Upgrades & migrations with minimal downtime

Stage 4 - Job-Ready Proof 3 item(s)
- CV/LinkedIn target database roles naming Postgres + performance work Critical
- Passed a mock interview including reading a query plan aloud Critical
- Three published drills: a tuning case, a restore drill, a failover drill Critical

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