Expert Database Administrator

Designation: Expert Database administrator (MongoDB specialty)

Location: Bangalore

Work Mode: Hybrid

Shift Timing: 11:00AM - 8:00PM IST

Introduction to the job:

We’re building a production-grade, self-managed Enterprise MongoDB platform running hybrid cloud infrastructure. Today, our estate is a mix of single instances and replica sets. Over the next 12-18 months, we will standardize operations, expand automation/monitoring, and design the path toward a global standard with multi-site resiliency. This IC-track role is the expert technical owner who sets platform standards, leads complex production problem-solving, and mentors a developing operations team while partnering directly with internal customers and application teams.

Scope & Authority (What you will own)

• Define and own MongoDB platform standards (build/config baseline, backup & restore validation, patch/upgrade strategy, monitoring & alert thresholds, and incident runbooks).
• Lead technical direction for the roadmap to global standardization for MongoDB products (design decisions, operational model, and migration approach).
• Act as the senior escalation point for complex MongoDB incidents and performance bottlenecks; drive post-incident RCA and systemic fixes.
• Coach junior operations specialists and administrators to safely execute common tasks through documentation, checklists, and mentorship.

Some of the things you’ll be doing

Platform Engineering & Operations (Self-Managed MongoDB on Nutanix VMs)

• Own day-to-day production administration for single instances and replica sets: provisioning, configuration, upgrades, maintenance, and operational hygiene.
• Define and enforce repeatable server build standards (naming, sizing, filesystem layout, access patterns, and environment parity across DEV/QA/UAT/PROD).
• Partner with virtualization/infrastructure teams to ensure MongoDB VMs align with required OS/VM configuration guidance and operational constraints.
• Implement a durable change process: risk assessment, rollback planning, communications, and CAB/change record readiness as required.

Backup, Recovery, and Operational Tooling

• Own backup and recovery strategy including routine restore tests and documented RPO/RTO expectations.
• Operationalize tooling (e.g., MongoDB Ops Manager or equivalent) for monitoring, automation, and backup where appropriate; standardize agent deployment and backup configuration.
• Ensure backup/restore procedures are auditable, repeatable, and transferrable across the team.

Performance Engineering & Capacity Planning

• Lead advanced troubleshooting: slow queries, index strategy, aggregation pipeline performance, replication lag, storage/IO contention, and resource saturation.
• Partner with application teams on document model design, query patterns, and index alignment to prevent collection scans and recurring performance issues.
• Create evidence-based capacity plans and right-sizing recommendations (CPU/RAM/disk/IOPS/network) for MongoDB workloads on VMs.

Security, Governance & Compliance

• Implement and maintain MongoDB security controls appropriate to self-managed deployments (authentication, authorization/RBAC, TLS/transport security, audit posture).
• Drive least-privilege access, credential lifecycle hygiene, and secure operational practices aligned with enterprise security expectations.
• Partner with security stakeholders to support hardening baselines, evidence collection, and continuous compliance where required.

Documentation, Mentoring & Customer Interface

• Create and maintain runbooks, standards, and operational checklists to reduce key-person risk and enable safe delegation.
• Mentor junior ops specialists/admins via structured enablement (pairing, lab walkthroughs, on-call coaching, and knowledge shares).
• Provide crisp, customer-ready communications during incidents and major changes; translate deep technical decisions into clear plans.

What success looks like (first 90 days)

• Complete a current-state assessment (top reliability/security/performance risks; backup validation posture; upgrade/patch cadence; operational gaps).
• Publish v1 platform standards (replica set baseline, backup/restore validation cadence, monitoring thresholds, incident/runbook library).
• Deliver a 6-12 month roadmap toward automation maturity and sharding value and readiness (prereqs, design decisions, and operational requirements).

What success looks like (6-12 months)

• Reduced production incidents via systemic fixes, better monitoring, and operational standardization (lower toil, faster MTTR).
• Clear, repeatable upgrade and change management motions with reliable rollback plans and stakeholder communications.
• A trained support bench: multiple team members can execute routine operations safely using documented procedures.
• A validated design and phased plan for sharding/multi-site resiliency, with readiness criteria and operational guardrails.

What technical skills, experience, and qualifications do you need?

Required Qualifications (Day-1)

• 12+ years in database engineering/administration with significant, recent hands-on MongoDB production ownership.
• Strong experience operating self-managed MongoDB on Linux, including single instances and replica sets (elections/failover, replication health, recovery).
• Demonstrated ownership of backup/restore, disaster recovery thinking, and routine restore validation.
• Deep performance engineering capability (index strategy, query/aggregation analysis, replication lag triage, capacity planning).
• Strong Linux/systems fundamentals relevant to running databases on VMs (storage, IO, CPU/memory, OS services, troubleshooting).
• Excellent written and verbal communication; able to produce high-quality runbooks/standards and lead incident communications.

Required Soft Skills

• Comfort mentoring and leveling up junior administrators through structured coaching and documentation.
• Strong customer/stakeholder orientation; sets expectations, explains tradeoffs, and drives work to closure.
• Calm incident leadership and bias toward measurable outcomes.

Preferred Qualifications (Bonus / Nice-to-have)

• Experience with MongoDB Ops Manager (automation/monitoring/backup), including agent rollout and backup configuration.
• Experience planning or executing a move toward sharded clusters and developing an operational model for sharding.
• Infrastructure-as-code / automation experience (e.g., Ansible/Terraform) and CI/CD patterns for operational workflows.
• Observability tooling experience (metrics/log pipelines, alert tuning, dashboards) across database and host layers.
• MongoDB certifications (optional): Associate Database Administrator / related credentials, or equivalent demonstrated expertise.