A Testament to Craft, Community, and the Future of Open Source
At EDB, we believe the best way to predict the future of Postgres is to build it. We are proud to celebrate a milestone that reflects that philosophy: Jacob Champion, EDB Senior Staff Software Development Engineer II, has been officially invited by the PostgreSQL community to become a PostgreSQL Committer. This honor places him among an esteemed group of global experts entrusted with guiding the evolution of the world’s most loved database.
"Becoming a committer is a huge accomplishment,” says EDB VP and Postgres Evangelist Bruce Momjian, a co-founder and core team member of the PostgreSQL Global Development Group. “It requires years of community involvement, major contributions to multiple Postgres releases, and the creation of many high quality patches. The community is excited to welcome Jacob as a valuable member of the committers team."
EDB is proud to be part of the vibrant open source ecosystem and we are committed to working alongside the Postgres community to continue building Postgres to support the workloads of the future.
Jacob’s journey to this moment—shaped by curiosity, commitment, and community—isn’t just a personal achievement. It’s a reflection of the power of the Postgres community. EDB VP, Chief Architect, Database Servers Peter Eisentraut says, “I have gotten to know Jacob as a highly skilled and experienced database and security engineer. He has now been contributing to PostgreSQL community development for several years, and I have been able to collaborate with him on several projects. He has established himself as a respected member and leader in the PostgreSQL developer community. I'm happy that he has now gotten the formal recognition and has been elevated to committer status, and I wish him much success and few reverts. As the PostgreSQL project grows, it is important that we are able to bring in new developers and distribute the responsibilities, and we will continue to focus on growing the community in this way and others.”
An open source Postgres journey
Jacob’s path began more than a decade ago when he was just a Postgres user building web stacks. But his deeper immersion started nearly seven years ago during his time at Pivotal, working on Greenplum—a PostgreSQL fork.
“That was my first jump into a Postgres-adjacent sort of thing,” Jacob recalls. “From there, it’s kind of been progressing steadily away from the fork and more towards vanilla Postgres.”
That progression took Jacob into the core of the PostgreSQL open source world. Over time, he became a fixture in the community, joining the mailing list, contributing code, and more recently, pioneering work in OAuth 2 authentication for PostgreSQL 18.
Jacob’s talent and years of dedication to Postgres are certainly well regarded among his EDB colleagues. Principal Engineer Euler Taveira says “Jacob has a bright mind. He has made some substantial contributions to Postgres over the past few years. His ability to fix bugs and pursue innovative features are important assets to the project. He was definitely a right choice to the group of committers.”
The Invitation: A Moment of Trust
As members of the Postgres community know, becoming a PostgreSQL committer isn’t something you apply for; it’s an invitation extended by fellow committers who recognize a peer’s impact, integrity, and readiness to help steward the project.
“I was very honored to be approached,” Jacob shares. “There’s a lot of trust that goes into being a committer… it means taking a longer-term view—helping the community continue moving, accepting code from around the world, and caring for it even if the original contributor moves on.”
Jacob’s meticulous approach to code and thoughtful contributions to areas like authentication and security earned the respect of his peers, many of whom are luminaries in the Postgres world, such as EDB Senior Principal Engineer, Director of Postgres Development Andrew Dunstan.
“Jacob’s appointment as a PostgreSQL committer is a proud moment for all of us at EDB.” says Andrew. “It's a reflection of his meticulous and thoughtful approach to all he does, something clearly recognised by the PostgreSQL community. Jacob's deep technical expertise, particularly in security matters, is something we at EDB treasure, and his contribution of OAuth 2 authentication will have a lasting impact on PostgreSQL for years to come.”
Caring for the Code—and the People Behind It
For Jacob, open source isn’t just about shipping code—it’s about shared ownership.
“I love open source because it’s focused on a community moving a shared resource forward through time… not just caring about technical requirements, but about how the code affects people—how they use it, maintain it, and talk about it.”
His role as a committer will involve more than coding, and will certainly include helping contributors, especially newcomers, get involved, stay connected, and build with confidence.
As EDB Principal Engineer Amul Sul notes, “Being promoted to a Postgres committer is both a great honor and a testament to one's deep technical expertise and long-standing dedication to the community. Jacob Champion's thoughtful contributions have already left a lasting impact, and I'm excited to have one more PostgreSQL committer with us and to see how all of us -- committers and contributors alike -- continue to help shape the future of PostgreSQL.”
Lowering Barriers, Opening Doors
One of Jacob’s biggest motivations is helping people take their first steps in Postgres. He’s a vocal advocate for making the community more accessible, especially through newer platforms like Discord.
“We’re trying to expand the avenues of communication for the whole project so it’s easier for newcomers to feel comfortable starting from where they are right now,” he says. “Join the Discord and ask. That’s probably the very easiest way to jump in.”
The Discord channel was started as part of EDB Chief Database Scientist Robert Haas’s new mentorship program designed to support and nurture PostgreSQL code contributors. Efforts like these align with a broader push across the community to foster inclusion and bring in the next generation of Postgres leaders. As Jacob puts it, “Any community needs to figure out how it will grow and evolve. Postgres is no exception.”
As Peter Zaitsev’s presentation at PGConf India so eloquently pointed out, a “generational transition” is already underway in the Postgres community, as the senior leadership will eventually retire and step back from their work with Postgres, and a new class of innovators will need to step in and carry the torch. By opening doors (or Discord channels), the community can make it easier for new engineers to take part in the next evolution of Postgres.
Future-Proofing the World’s Most Loved Database
As the world around Postgres evolves—with surging interest in AI, growing demands for data sovereignty, and the complexity of hybrid/multi-cloud environments—the stakes are high. But Jacob is confident that the world's most-loved database will continue to evolve to meet the needs of the workloads of the future.
“Postgres has a track record of adaptability,” Jacob says. “I’m constantly pleasantly surprised by new use cases I’d never heard of a year ago. The community is resilient, and I’m excited to see where it goes.”
Jacob’s work on OAuth 2 is a prime example of how the open source community is working to help Postgres stay modern, secure, and relevant. “Jacob has done extensive work in authentication and other areas of PostgreSQL, consistently bringing great care and attention to his patches and proposals,” says EDB Principal Engineer Richard Guo. “It's great to see him recognized as a committer.”
When the news of Jacob’s PostgreSQL Committer status was announced, well wishes flooded in from the open source community. One look at the email thread of congratulations and it’s easy to see that Jacob is admired and respected by his Postgres peers.
A Celebration of Leadership, Craft, and Community
At EDB, we don’t just contribute to Postgres—we help lead its future. Jacob Champion becoming a committer is a powerful reminder of the trust this community places in its most dedicated members—and the responsibility that comes with it.
“As the stakes rise, with growing demand for data sovereignty, tighter integration between AI and data, and the need to operate seamlessly across hybrid and multi-cloud environments, sustaining Postgres’s relevance requires more than popularity or code-level contributions. This is where EDB stands apart,” says EDB CEO Kevin Dallas. “We are proud to lead in Postgres vitality, not just through top-tier engineering, but through our ongoing contributions to the ecosystem, our commitment to enterprise adoption, and our investment in the global PostgreSQL community. Jacob’s recognition reflects the bar we set to help guide the future of Postgres in ways that serve both the community and our customers.”
We’re incredibly proud of Jacob. His achievement reflects the highest standards of open source leadership, and it embodies the principles that define EDB’s role in the ecosystem: technical excellence, long-term stewardship, and a deep belief in the power of community.