Senior Database Administrator

Introduction To provide specialist administration, engineering and operational ownership for enterprise database platforms across on-premises, Microsoft Azure and Amazon Web Services. The role ensures database services meet agreed availability, resilience, security, performance and recovery requirements, while enabling safe change, modernisation, automation and cost-effective growth. The Senior DBA acts as an escalation point and trusted advisors to application, infrastructure, security, architecture and business stakeholders. Duties & Responsibilities

Service reliability and BAU operations

·       Administer, monitor and support production and non-production database services against agreed SLAs and operational controls.

·       Perform installation, configuration, patching, upgrades, backups, restores, integrity checks, capacity management and lifecycle maintenance.

·       Diagnose and recover routine and complex database availability, integrity, access and performance issues; escalate high-risk or highly complex incidents and vendor engagement to the Technical Lead - Database Platforms.

·       Maintain accurate platform inventories, support documentation, runbooks, standards and known-error records.

Performance and capacity

·       Monitor workload health, query performance, waits, blocking, execution plans, index health, storage utilisation and resource consumption.

·       Tune database configuration, queries, and physical design in partnership with application teams.

·       Forecast capacity and licensing needs, identify inefficient usage, and recommend right-sizing or service-tier changes.

Security, risk and compliance

·       Implement least-privilege access, role-based controls, privileged access processes, encryption and secrets management in line with approved standards.

·       Perform or support database security reviews, vulnerability remediation, transaction auditing and access recertification.

·       Ensure database changes follow change, release, testing and segregation-of-duties controls.

·       Support evidence collection for internal assurance, external audit and regulatory obligations.

Availability, backup and disaster recovery

·       Operate and test approved high-availability and disaster-recovery solutions and contribute to designs appropriate to workload criticality.

·       Support the Technical Lead and service owners in validating recovery objectives, and maintain backup retention, restore procedures and recovery evidence.

·       Coordinate planned resilience tests and ensure corrective actions are tracked to closure.

Cloud database engineering: Microsoft Azure

·       Administer Azure SQL Database, Azure SQL Managed Instance and SQL Server on Azure Virtual Machines using approved patterns, standards and runbooks.

·       Configure and review identity, network access, private connectivity, encryption, backup, geo-resilience, monitoring and alerting.

·       Contribute technical analysis and execution support for migrations between on-premises SQL Server and Azure services, including compatibility, performance and recovery validation.

·       Use Azure-native automation and monitoring capabilities to standardise routine administration and improve service visibility.

Cloud database engineering: Amazon Web Services

·       Administer SQL Server, PostgreSQL and potentially other Database workloads on Amazon RDS or Amazon EC2 using approved patterns, standards and runbooks.

·       Configure and review parameter and option settings, identity and access, network controls, encryption, backups, maintenance windows, monitoring and multi-AZ resilience where applicable.

·       Support and execute approved database migration and replication activities, with rollback, validation and data-protection controls.

·       Identify optimisation opportunities for instance classes, storage and licensing, and provide evidence-based recommendations to the Technical Lead and relevant cloud stakeholders.

Automation and observability

·       Automate repeatable DBA tasks using T-SQL, PowerShell, Python and approved infrastructure or workflow tooling.

·       Create actionable dashboards, alerts and health reports that reduce manual checks and improve early detection.

·       Use version control, peer review and controlled deployment practices for database administration scripts and configuration artefacts.

Change, projects and migration

·       Plan, document and execute database implementations, upgrades, deployments, migrations and decommissioning across development, test and production environments.

·       Provide database input to solution designs, project estimates and release-readiness reviews, escalating material architectural decisions to the Technical Lead - Database Platforms.

·       Validate data integrity, security, performance and recoverability before and after material changes.

Stakeholder service and technical leadership

·       Translate complex technical issues into clear business impact, risk and options for decision-makers.

·       Provide practical database guidance to developers, engineers, security teams and service owners within approved standards, and refer architectural exceptions to the Technical Lead - Database Platforms.

·       Share knowledge, maintain usable documentation and participate in team cross-skilling to reduce key-person dependency.

·       Work constructively with vendors under the direction of the Technical Lead and contribute technical input on database products and support practices.

Desired Experience & Qualification

Essential

·                Relevant IT degree, diploma or equivalent demonstrable professional experience.

·                Relevant Vendor Certifications (Microsoft, AWS, Azure, etc.)

·                5 to 10 years of hands-on database administration experience, including practical responsibility for production Microsoft SQL Server environments.

·                Strong T-SQL administration and troubleshooting capability.

·                Practical experience with backup and restore, high availability, disaster recovery, performance tuning, security, patching and change control.

·                Working knowledge of Windows Server, clustering, storage, networking, DNS, certificates and authentication concepts relevant to database services.

·                Practical exposure to at least one public cloud and a sound understanding of secure, reliable database operations.

·                Ability to participate in operational support and after-hours change or incident activities when required by the support model.

·                PowerShell, infrastructure as code, CI/CD or database deployment automation experience.

·                Experience in a highly regulated, high-availability or financial-markets environment.

·                Current role-relevant Microsoft Azure, AWS, SQL Server, PostgreSQL or IT service management certification.

Advantageous

·                Hands-on experience across both Microsoft Azure and AWS.

·                Azure SQL Database, Azure SQL Managed Instance, SQL Server on Azure Virtual Machines, Amazon RDS for SQL Server or PostgreSQL, and database workloads on EC2.

·                PostgreSQL administration experience, including managed cloud deployments.

Technical Competencies

Microsoft SQL Server:  Setup and configuration; engine internals; security; backup and restore; Always On and clustering; T-SQL; query and index tuning; capacity and licensing awareness.

Azure database services:  Azure SQL options; identity and network security; monitoring; resilience; migration; backup; performance and cost management.

AWS database services:  Amazon RDS and EC2 database patterns; IAM awareness; VPC connectivity; encryption; monitoring; resilience; migration; performance and cost management.

PostgreSQL exposure: Core administration, role and privilege management, backup and restore, performance diagnostics and managed-service constraints.

Operations and governance:  ITIL-aligned incident, problem and change practices; auditability; runbooks; lifecycle management; vendor support and service reporting.

Automation and engineering:   T-SQL and PowerShell; scripting discipline; source control; repeatable deployments; monitoring and alerting; configuration standardisation.

Behavioral Competencies

·                Decision-making grounded in evidence, risk and business impact.

·                Quality focus and attention to detail.

·                Calm, methodical troubleshooting and ownership through resolution.

·                Planning, prioritisation and disciplined execution.

·                Clear written and verbal communication for technical and non-technical audiences.

·                Collaboration, stakeholder management and constructive challenge.

·                Continuous learning, adaptability and knowledge sharing.

·                Innovation that improves reliability, control, efficiency or cost.