Database Engineer

The Database Engineer plays a key role in designing, implementing, administering, and maintaining robust enterprise database platforms that support T-Mobile's large-scale applications and analytics. This position is responsible for the full lifecycle administration of MS SQL Server environments, while also driving modernization through cloud-native database services, automation, and observability. You will collaborate with software engineers, cloud architects, and DevOps teams to deliver secure, scalable, and high-performance database solutions across on-premises and cloud environments. The role combines strong hands-on SQL Server administration expertise with strategic thinking and continuous improvement of mission-critical systems.

Responsibilities:

• Design, implement, and administer enterprise-grade database architectures for transactional and analytical workloads.
• Provide full lifecycle MS SQL Server administration, including installation, configuration, patching, version upgrades, and decommissioning.
• Support and automate database provisioning, schema management, configuration management, and upgrades through CI/CD pipelines across on-premises and cloud-native environments.
• Design, implement, and support High Availability and Disaster Recovery (HA/DR) solutions using Always On Availability Groups, Failover Cluster Instances, log shipping, and replication.
• Implement and maintain backup, recovery, and data protection strategies, ensuring alignment with defined RPO/RTO and compliance standards.
• Support cloud database platforms such as Azure SQL Database, Azure SQL Managed Instances, and AWS RDS for SQL Server.
• Monitor and optimize database performance through query tuning, indexing strategies, execution plan analysis, and capacity planning.
• Implement observability, monitoring, and alerting for database health, performance, and availability using industry-standard tools.
• Troubleshoot complex database issues and perform root cause analysis to improve reliability and resilience.
• Participate in 24/7 on-call support rotation and contribute to operational excellence initiatives.

Requirements:

• Bachelor's or master's degree in computer science, information systems, or a related technical field.
• 4+ years of experience in database engineering and MS SQL Server administration in enterprise environments.
• Strong expertise in MS SQL Server full lifecycle support, including HA/DR, performance tuning, and security best practices.
• Hands-on experience with cloud database services (Azure and/or AWS).
• Working knowledge in scripting and automation using PowerShell, Python, and Ansible.
• Strong understanding of data modeling, indexing, partitioning, replication, and scalability concepts.
• Familiarity with containerization technologies (Docker, Kubernetes).
• Excellent analytical, troubleshooting, and communication skills.

Preferred Skills:

• Experience with Infrastructure as Code (IaC) practices and tools.
• Exposure to observability platforms such as Prometheus, Grafana, Splunk, and Open Telemetry.