Software Developer for Database-to-Database delivery system

Software Developer/Database Applications

Purpose of Position:
Join a team developing cutting-edge systems for distribution of weather data and other time-critical information.  We are creating a comprehensive, continuously-updating database within our central facility, and then replicating subsets of this database at many remote locations.  The central database will contain weather, aviation, and other timely data that are decoded, quality controlled, and processed to increase their value over commodity data sources.  Using database replication techniques, transactions on the central database will be serialized and logically filtered into groups for distribution.  An intelligent distribution system will deliver the appropriate subsets of the serialized transactions to a large number of remote systems using a combination of satellite broadcast and internet point-to-point delivery.  Through this process, a large number of dynamically-updated databases are maintained, each with unique subset of the total content, to support our suite of market-specific applications.

In this position, you will be responsible for implementation of significant portions of the database replication system.  Due to many of its specific requirements, the replication cannot be achieved solely through commercially available software.  This provides an opportunity to create and apply replication techniques in a new way.

You will also be responsible for design and implementation of testing suites to simulate real world loads, revealing bottlenecks and breaking points before the system is deployed.  To enable monitoring of the system by operational staff, you will also develop and/or customize tools for detecting irregularities and diagnosing problems.  

WSI, the premier provider of weather data and software to industry, is located in a state-of-the-art facility north of Boston. A wholly-owned subsidiary of Landmark Communications, we are a sister company to The Weather Channel.

Requirements:

• Good knowledge of SQL and fundamentals of relational database design.
• Experience with database server-side programming, e.g. use of triggers and stored procedures
• Experience writing database client applications in perl, C/C++, or .NET.
• Experience with administration and configuration of database servers.   Knowledge of PostgreSQL is particularly desired.
• Experience with complex database systems such as one of the following:
  • databases with large transaction rates and highly perishable data,
  • database replication that involves logical filtering to replicate partial tables,
  • integration of database systems separated over wide-area networks.
• Appreciation for the rigor required to thoroughly test complex systems for real-world environments.
• A thirst to tackle and solve difficult problems.
• BSCS or related degree.
• At least 5 years professional experience with complex systems using relational databases.

Additional Skills (desired):

• Ability to refactor software for optimization or improved fault tolerance.