Senior Database Engineering Lead

Job Description

Innovation Hub Overview

Jefferies is creating a Technology Innovation Hub in Pune, a greenfield opportunity to build the systems that power global markets. As our first India technology center, this hub brings together hands on builders who engineer the platforms behind Jefferies growth across capital markets, investment banking, and institutional securities. We're scaling toward an elite team of 500 engineers while maintaining the agility, ownership, and meritocratic spirit that defines Jefferies. From cloud and data to AI, risk, and core business technologies, teams in Pune will lead high impact work with a global mandate.

IT Infrastructure Technology

Jefferies IT Infrastructure Technology team builds and runs the core technology backbone that enables the firm to operate globally. It covers enterprise infrastructure engineering and operations while driving modernization initiatives such as Cloud Adoption and Network Resiliency. The group supports critical platforms including networking, end-user computing, cloud, databases, server/Unix engineering, communications, and global data centers (including low-latency colocations near exchanges).

Key Functions

• Networking / Telecom / Multimedia Engineering
• Windows / Desktop / Messaging Engineering.
• Private / Public Cloud / Database / Unix Engineering.
• Data Centers.
  
  

Senior Database Engineering Lead

SQL Server, MySQL Postgres & Snowflake

Role Overview

We are seeking a Senior Database Engineering Lead to own the performance, reliability, and evolution of our global database platforms. This is a senior individual contributor role with a technical leadership mandate: you will set the engineering direction for the database team, mentor junior DBAs, and serve as the go-to authority for database architecture and optimization across the firm.

You will operate across SQL Server, MySQL, Postgres, and Snowflake in production environments spanning US, UK, and India. A core expectation of this role is partnering directly with application owners to diagnose performance bottlenecks, optimize query execution, improve schema design, and drive architectural decisions that make applications faster and more resilient at the database layer.

This is not a ticket-queue DBA role. We need someone who thinks like an engineer, takes ownership of problems end-to-end, and proactively drives improvements without being asked.

Key Responsibilities

Performance Optimization & Application Partnership

• Own database performance across SQL Server, MySQL, Postgres, and Snowflake production environments.
• Partner with application owners and development teams to diagnose slow queries, identify execution plan inefficiencies, and implement targeted fixes.
• Drive query tuning, index optimization, and statistics management to reduce application latency and improve throughput.
• Evaluate and improve database schema design — identify normalization issues, partitioning opportunities, and architectural debt that limits application performance.
• Use server-level and query-level telemetry (PerfMon, SQL Server DMVs, wait statistics, query store) to proactively identify and resolve performance issues before they become incidents.
  
  

Database Administration & Operations

• Provide senior-level (L3/SME) administration and production support for Microsoft SQL Server in large, business-critical environments.
• Administer MySQL and Snowflake platforms, including provisioning, upgrades, patching, and security hardening.
• Implement and maintain HA/DR capabilities including Always On Availability Groups, mirroring, replication, and clustering.
• Manage SQL Server SSIS packages and the BI stack (Integration Services, Reporting Services, Analysis Services).
• Own SQL Server security fundamentals: permissions, roles, auditing, and security policies.
• Resolve day-to-day production issues including application upgrades, patches, performance analysis, disaster recovery implementation, and capacity planning.
  
  

Cloud Database Platforms

• Manage and optimize database workloads on AWS RDS (SQL Server and MySQL) and Azure SQL.
• Evaluate and implement cloud-native database features to improve scalability, cost-efficiency, and operational simplicity.
• Support migration of on-premises database workloads to cloud platforms where appropriate.
  
  

Automation & Engineering Practices

• Develop and maintain automation through scripting (T-SQL, PowerShell, Python) to reduce manual effort, improve reliability, and enforce consistency.
• Build tooling for automated health checks, performance baselines, and proactive alerting.
• Integrate data across SQL and non-SQL database systems; identify migration and consolidation opportunities.
  
  

Technical Leadership & Cross-Functional Coordination

• Serve as the technical authority for database engineering decisions across the team.
• Mentor junior DBAs, conduct code/design reviews, and raise the technical bar for the group.
• Work with onsite client teams and application owners in US/UK to support application migrations, database builds, and decommissioning.
• Drive service improvement initiatives and own the database team's operational reporting and documentation (Confluence/SharePoint).
• Execute change implementations during UK/US business hours and weekends in line with change management processes.
• Participate in on-call and weekend support rotations for SQL Server and MySQL, rotated across DBA teams in US, UK, and India.
  
  

Mandatory Skills & Experience

Database Platforms

• 8+ years of SQL Server DBA experience across implementation, production support, and project work in large, critical environments.
• 3+ years of MySQL administration in production environments.
• 2+ years working with Snowflake (data warehousing, query optimization, access management).
• 3+ years managing database workloads on AWS RDS (SQL Server and/or MySQL).
• Working experience with Azure SQL Database or Azure SQL Managed Instance.
  
  

Performance & Optimization

• Strong performance tuning expertise at both server and query level; proficiency with PerfMon, SQL Server DMVs, wait statistics, and query store.
• Deep knowledge of SQL Server internals: memory management, locking/blocking, tempdb contention, I/O subsystem behavior.
• Hands-on experience with SQL partitioning, compression, and indexing strategies.
• Proven ability to work with application teams to diagnose and resolve database-driven performance issues.
  
  

High Availability & DR

• Hands-on experience with Always On Availability Groups, mirroring, replication, and SQL Server clustering.
• Experience designing and testing DR strategies for business-critical database environments.
  
  

Automation & Scripting

• Strong automation and scripting capability: T-SQL, PowerShell, and/or Python.
• Experience building automated monitoring, alerting, and maintenance workflows.
  
  

General

• 10+ years experience in an IT services organization.
• 5+ years in an L3/SME support role.
• 5+ years in global client-facing roles.
• Experience working in financial services or a regulated environment.
• Working knowledge of ITIL processes and change management disciplines.
• Strong documentation skills (Confluence, SharePoint).
  
  

Highly Desirable Skills

• Microsoft certifications on current SQL Server versions.
• AWS certifications (Database Specialty or Solutions Architect).
• Linux administration skills (for MySQL environments).
• Experience with SQL Server BI stack (SSIS, SSRS, SSAS).
• Exposure to PostgreSQL or other relational database platforms.
• Knowledge of Kubernetes or containerized database deployments.
  
  

Education

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Information Technology, or related field (or equivalent experience).
  
  

What We Expect

• Own your domain end-to-end. You identify problems and drive solutions without waiting to be told.
• Think about databases as a lever for application performance, not just an operational dependency to keep alive.
• Take responsibility and ownership instead of waiting to be assigned work.
• Communicate clearly in writing and verbally — you can explain a complex performance issue to an application owner who isn't a DBA.
• Work independently and effectively across global teams and time zones (US, UK, India).
• Raise the bar for the people around you through mentorship, code reviews, and leading by example.
  
  

We have been made aware of bad actors falsely claiming to be associated with Jefferies Group soliciting individuals to attend virtual job interviews, complete online tests or courses and sending fictitious employment offer letters.

Please note that any email contact with Jefferies personnel will come from an @jefferies.com email address. Further, Jefferies will not notify shortlisted candidates through social media platforms (e.g. WhatsApp or Telegram) or ask candidates to make payment to participate in the hiring process.

About Us

Jefferies is a leading global, full-service investment banking and capital markets firm that provides advisory, sales and trading, research, and wealth and asset management services. With more than 40 offices around the world, we offer insights and expertise to investors, companies, and governments.

At Jefferies, we believe that diversity fosters creativity, innovation and thought leadership through the infusion of new ideas and perspectives. We have made a commitment to building a culture that provides opportunities for all employees regardless of our differences and supports a workforce that is reflective of the communities where we work and live. As a result, we are able to pool our collective insights and intelligence to provide fresh and innovative thinking for our clients.

Jefferies is an equal employment opportunity employer, and takes affirmative action to ensure that all qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, creed, color, national origin, ancestry, religion, gender, pregnancy, age, physical or mental disability, marital status, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, veteran or military status, genetic information, reproductive health decisions, or any other factor protected by applicable law. We are committed to hiring the most qualified applicants and complying with all federal, state, and local equal employment opportunity laws. As part of this commitment, Jefferies will extend reasonable accommodations to individuals with disabilities, as required by applicable law.