Senior Database Administrator

Database Administrator

Data Systems Practice | Engineering

Reports to

Data Systems Practice Lead

Role Overview

The Database Administrator (DBA) is a core member of the Data Systems Practice, responsible for the health, reliability, and standards of database platforms across the organization. DBAs serve as both operational stewards and engineering enablers — owning database infrastructure while partnering closely with delivery teams to stand up, migrate, and maintain database environments.

This role sits at the intersection of platform operations, database engineering, and delivery support. While not embedded in individual sprint teams, DBAs are active partners in the software delivery lifecycle, providing the database foundation upon which product teams build.

Core Responsibilities

Database Operations & Platform Health

Monitor performance, manage backups/DR, triage incidents, perform routine maintenance, and maintain patching cadences using Observe and Redgate Monitor.

Database Engineering & Delivery Enablement

Provision instances via Terraform and Octopus; define IaC standards; review schemas and query designs; support schema migrations and release coordination.

Database Engineering & Migration

Plan and execute version upgrades, cloud migrations, and cross-platform moves; design cutover plans; translate platform-specific SQL (T-SQL, PL/SQL) to target dialects.

Standards, Governance & Security

Establish naming, schema, indexing, and security standards; define RTO/RPO and encryption policies; participate in compliance reviews across managed environments.

Subject Matter Expertise

Advise delivery teams on query optimization and data modeling; produce internal documentation and architecture references; conduct knowledge-sharing sessions.

Technical Skills

Required

Preferred

• Database Platforms: Deep hands-on experience with SQL Server, PostgreSQL, MySQL, and Oracle
• Query Languages: Proficiency in T-SQL and ANSI SQL (optimization, stored procedures, execution plans); working knowledge of PL/SQL
• Automation & IaC: PowerShell scripting and Terraform for database infrastructure provisioning
• Tooling: VS Code, GitLab (CI/CD pipelines), and Octopus Deploy
• Monitoring: Observe and Redgate Monitor for performance monitoring and alerting
• Data Security: Access control, encryption, auditing, and least-privilege design
• Migrations: Version upgrades, server moves, cloud migrations, and cross-platform migrations
• Networking (Pref.): DNS, firewalls, VPCs, private endpoints, and connection pooling

Qualifications

• 7+ years of hands-on DBA experience across one or more of: SQL Server, PostgreSQL, MySQL, or Oracle
• Demonstrated experience with database infrastructure automation (Terraform, PowerShell) and CI/CD integration (GitLab, Octopus)
• Experience planning and executing database migrations, upgrades, or cloud lift-and-shift projects
• Solid grasp of database security fundamentals: access control, encryption at rest/in transit, auditing, and least-privilege principles
• Strong communication skills with ability to translate technical concepts for cross-functional delivery teams
• Preferred: Experience with AWS managed database services (RDS, Aurora) or Azure equivalents (Azure SQL, Flexible Server)

What Success Looks Like

Fast Delivery

Database environments provisioned quickly and consistently; teams unblocked with self-service IaC templates.

Platform Reliability

Database availability and performance SLOs met; proactive issue identification before teams feel impact.

Confident Migrations

Engineering efforts complete on time with documented plans, validated data integrity, and captured lessons learned.

Adopted Standards

Standards documentation is clear, current, and referenced by engineers; governance guides rather than slows delivery.

Security Posture

Regular access reviews, consistent encryption/auditing standards, and security findings remediated within SLAs.