diff --git a/.github/workflows/test.yml b/.github/workflows/test.yml
index ae1f325..26ffdc2 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/test.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/test.yml
@@ -20,6 +20,7 @@ jobs:
       postgres:
         image: postgres:14-alpine
         env:
+          TEST_DATABASE_URL: postgres://postgres:postgres@postgres:5432/postgres?sslmode=disable&pool_max_conns=2
           POSTGRES_PASSWORD: postgres
         options: >-
           --health-cmd pg_isready
@@ -41,7 +42,6 @@ jobs:
       - name: test
         run: make mod test coverage
         env:
-          TEST_DATABASE_URL: postgres://postgres:postgres@postgres:5432/postgres?sslmode=disable
           TEST_REDIS_URL: redis:6379
       - name: upload results
         uses: actions/upload-artifact@v3
diff --git a/backends/postgres/postgres_backend.go b/backends/postgres/postgres_backend.go
index 7889ea5..f582c6e 100644
--- a/backends/postgres/postgres_backend.go
+++ b/backends/postgres/postgres_backend.go
@@ -133,7 +133,7 @@ func Backend(ctx context.Context, opts ...neoq.ConfigOption) (pb neoq.Neoq, err
 		return
 	}
 
-	if p.pool == nil {
+	if p.pool == nil { //nolint: nestif
 		var poolConfig *pgxpool.Config
 		poolConfig, err = pgxpool.ParseConfig(p.config.ConnectionString)
 		if err != nil || p.config.ConnectionString == "" {
@@ -419,9 +419,9 @@ func (p *PgBackend) enqueueJob(ctx context.Context, tx pgx.Tx, j *jobs.Job) (job
 	}
 
 	p.logger.Debug("adding job to the queue")
-	err = tx.QueryRow(ctx, `INSERT INTO neoq_jobs(queue, fingerprint, payload, run_after, deadline)
-		VALUES ($1, $2, $3, $4, $5) RETURNING id`,
-		j.Queue, j.Fingerprint, j.Payload, j.RunAfter, j.Deadline).Scan(&jobID)
+	err = tx.QueryRow(ctx, `INSERT INTO neoq_jobs(queue, fingerprint, payload, run_after, deadline, max_retries)
+		VALUES ($1, $2, $3, $4, $5, $6) RETURNING id`,
+		j.Queue, j.Fingerprint, j.Payload, j.RunAfter, j.Deadline, j.MaxRetries).Scan(&jobID)
 	if err != nil {
 		err = fmt.Errorf("unable add job to queue: %w", err)
 		return
@@ -480,7 +480,7 @@ func (p *PgBackend) updateJob(ctx context.Context, jobErr error) (err error) {
 		return fmt.Errorf("error getting tx from context: %w", err)
 	}
 
-	if job.Retries >= job.MaxRetries {
+	if job.MaxRetries != nil && job.Retries >= *job.MaxRetries {
 		err = p.moveToDeadQueue(ctx, tx, job, jobErr)
 		return
 	}
diff --git a/backends/postgres/postgres_backend_test.go b/backends/postgres/postgres_backend_test.go
index 5412617..17692e2 100644
--- a/backends/postgres/postgres_backend_test.go
+++ b/backends/postgres/postgres_backend_test.go
@@ -18,10 +18,13 @@ import (
 	"github.com/acaloiaro/neoq/jobs"
 	"github.com/acaloiaro/neoq/logging"
 	"github.com/acaloiaro/neoq/testutils"
-	"github.com/jackc/pgx/v5"
+	"github.com/jackc/pgx/v5/pgxpool"
 )
 
-var errPeriodicTimeout = errors.New("timed out waiting for periodic job")
+var (
+	errPeriodicTimeout = errors.New("timed out waiting for periodic job")
+	conn               *pgxpool.Pool
+)
 
 func flushDB() {
 	ctx := context.Background()
@@ -30,7 +33,16 @@ func flushDB() {
 		return
 	}
 
-	conn, err := pgx.Connect(context.Background(), dbURL)
+	var err error
+	var poolConfig *pgxpool.Config
+	poolConfig, err = pgxpool.ParseConfig(dbURL)
+	if err != nil {
+		fmt.Fprintf(os.Stderr, "unable to parse database url: '%s': %v", dbURL, err)
+		return
+	}
+	poolConfig.MaxConns = 2
+
+	conn, err = pgxpool.NewWithConfig(ctx, poolConfig)
 	if err != nil {
 		// an error was encountered connecting to the db. this may simply mean that we're running tests against an
 		// uninitialized database and the database needs to be created. By creating a new pg backend instance with
@@ -43,7 +55,6 @@ func flushDB() {
 			return
 		}
 	}
-	defer conn.Close(context.Background())
 
 	_, err = conn.Query(context.Background(), "DELETE FROM neoq_jobs") // nolint: gocritic
 	if err != nil {
@@ -61,6 +72,7 @@ func TestMain(m *testing.M) {
 // most basic configuration.
 func TestBasicJobProcessing(t *testing.T) {
 	const queue = "testing"
+	maxRetries := 5
 	done := make(chan bool)
 	defer close(done)
 
@@ -95,7 +107,8 @@ func TestBasicJobProcessing(t *testing.T) {
 		Payload: map[string]interface{}{
 			"message": "hello world",
 		},
-		Deadline: &deadline,
+		Deadline:   &deadline,
+		MaxRetries: &maxRetries,
 	})
 	if e != nil || jid == jobs.DuplicateJobID {
 		t.Error(e)
@@ -106,11 +119,32 @@ func TestBasicJobProcessing(t *testing.T) {
 		err = jobs.ErrJobTimeout
 	case <-done:
 	}
+	if err != nil {
+		t.Error(err)
+	}
+
+	// ensure job has fields set correctly
+	var jdl time.Time
+	var jmxrt int
 
+	err = conn.
+		QueryRow(context.Background(), "SELECT deadline,max_retries FROM neoq_jobs WHERE id = $1", jid).
+		Scan(&jdl, &jmxrt)
 	if err != nil {
 		t.Error(err)
 	}
 
+	jdl = jdl.In(time.UTC)
+	// dates from postgres come out with only 6 decimal places of millisecond precision, naively format dates as
+	// strings for comparison reasons. Ref https://www.postgresql.org/docs/current/datatype-datetime.html
+	if jdl.Format(time.RFC3339) != deadline.Format(time.RFC3339) {
+		t.Error(fmt.Errorf("job deadline does not match its expected value: %v != %v", jdl, deadline)) // nolint: goerr113
+	}
+
+	if jmxrt != maxRetries {
+		t.Error(fmt.Errorf("job MaxRetries does not match its expected value: %v != %v", jmxrt, maxRetries)) // nolint: goerr113
+	}
+
 	t.Cleanup(func() {
 		flushDB()
 	})
diff --git a/jobs/jobs.go b/jobs/jobs.go
index 6a6c012..5ad628a 100644
--- a/jobs/jobs.go
+++ b/jobs/jobs.go
@@ -42,7 +42,7 @@ type Job struct {
 	RanAt       null.Time      `db:"ran_at"`      // The last time the job ran
 	Error       null.String    `db:"error"`       // The last error the job elicited
 	Retries     int            `db:"retries"`     // The number of times the job has retried
-	MaxRetries  int            `db:"max_retries"` // The maximum number of times the job can retry
+	MaxRetries  *int           `db:"max_retries"` // The maximum number of times the job can retry
 	CreatedAt   time.Time      `db:"created_at"`  // The time the job was created
 }