Database SME

Role & responsibilities

Own enterprise database operations across Microsoft SQL Server, PostgreSQL, MySQL and Azure database services covering availability, performance, backup and recovery, disaster recovery, security, audit compliance, modernization, cost governance, incident management and vendor-managed services. The role requires a strong L3 database professional who can take command during critical incidents, challenge delays, enforce accountability and drive technical teams and partners to closure while maintaining professional stakeholder relationships.

Leadership Expectations

• Assertive, commanding and outcome-oriented leadership style.
• Confidence to challenge stakeholders, enforce ownership and demand fact-based recovery plans.
• Ability to take control during P1 incidents, database outages, project delays, audit observations and vendor escalations.
• Firm and decisive communication without becoming confrontational or damaging working relationships.
• Strong follow-through until actions are closed with accepted evidence.

Preferred candidate profile

Database Operations & Administration

• Administer enterprise databases across Production, DR, UAT, QA and Development environments.
• Manage provisioning, configuration, upgrades, patching, migrations, decommissioning and routine maintenance.
• Ensure high availability, stability, data integrity and operational readiness of database platforms.

Performance Monitoring & Optimization

• Monitor database health, resource utilization, query performance, blocking, long-running sessions, transaction throughput, failed jobs and storage growth.
• Identify bottlenecks and implement query, index, configuration and workload tuning actions.
• Publish proactive database health, utilization and forecast reports with remediation tracking.

Backup, Recovery & Business Continuity

• Design and govern backup, restoration, retention, replication and recovery processes.
• Conduct restoration tests, recovery drills and failover readiness reviews aligned to approved RPO and RTO requirements.
• Investigate backup failures, implement preventive actions and maintain recovery evidence.

Capacity Planning & Database Growth

• Forecast storage, compute, performance and database growth requirements.
• Drive partitioning, archiving, compression, purge and data lifecycle initiatives.
• Recommend capacity changes before service impact and track utilization and cost benefits.

Database Security, Audit & Compliance

• Govern database access, privileged controls, encryption, secure configuration and audit logging.
• Support access reviews, ITGC, internal and external audits, risk assessments and cybersecurity reviews.
• Drive audit and security observations to closure with complete supporting evidence.

Incident, Problem & Change Management

• Act as the L3 escalation point for database incidents, major outages and service degradation.
• Lead troubleshooting, restoration, root-cause analysis and permanent corrective actions.
• Govern database changes with impact assessment, testing, approvals, implementation evidence and rollback plans.

Architecture, Cloud & Modernization

• Lead cloud migration, platform upgrades, consolidation, open-source evaluation and database modernization initiatives.
• Support Azure SQL, Azure Database for PostgreSQL, Azure Database for MySQL and database integrations for Kubernetes/AKS.
• Design resilient architecture covering high availability, DR, monitoring, backup, security and automation.

Project & Vendor Governance

• Own database project plans, milestones, risks, dependencies, actions and stakeholder updates.
• Coordinate with managed service providers, OEMs, cloud partners and implementation vendors.
• Review architecture, sizing, BOQ, assumptions, commercials and vendor deliverables; escalate delays and quality gaps.

Operations Leadership & Governance

• Coordinate daily operations, task priorities, SLA adherence, technical escalations and management reporting.
• Mentor junior DBAs and operations resources and ensure effective knowledge transfer.
• Maintain SOPs, runbooks, support matrices, inventories, dashboards and architecture records