Is there a way to use Oracle XE as an easy-rollback "proxy" to regular Oracle For development, we're currently connecting to shared dev databases that are way too big for XE (some are 100s of GB). Is there a way to set it up so that we can have a local XE on each developer's machine that acts as a proxy to the shared server for reads, but stores both DDL and DML changes in the local XE schema, so that it can easily be reset by the developer without requiring intervention from a DBA (after initial set up)?

It may be that Oracle has another product that does what I want, rather than XE? This is a big (non tech) company you've all heard of, so (AFAIK) we have a "whole site + whole suite" license.

Any thoughts? Am I dreaming?
Oracle 12c Snap Clone feature would probably fit your bill. Via a self-service portal through OEM, your non-DBA users (i.e., developers) can spin up private thin clones DBaaS-style. Since it uses copy-on-write, it doesn't physically duplicate the source. Each clone just needs space for the deltas. End users can make snap clones off of a TB sized master in minutes and see when they are ready for use. The clones can quickly be deprovisioned and reprovisioned, which would take care of "refreshing" the private DBs when desired. Really cool stuff, but requires an experienced Oracle DBA and equally good &amp; patient Linux/Solaris admin to stand up this infrastructure, basically a private cloud.

UPDATE: although this requires OEM 12c, it works with Database 11gR2 &amp; 12c.  This 20-minute video from Oracle is illuminating:  http://youtu.be/J7fnfLS5Dxg