SQL DBA II

VERSANT (Nasdaq: VSNT) is an industry-changing media and entertainment business and home to trusted brands that shape culture, inform audiences, and build lasting connections. It operates across four core markets: political news and opinion, business news and personal finance, golf, and sports and genre entertainment. These markets are served through a powerful portfolio of iconic and innovative brands, including CNBC, MS NOW, USA Network, Golf Channel, Oxygen, E!, SYFY, and Versant's sports division USA Sports, along with complementary digital assets including Fandango, Rotten Tomatoes, GolfNow and GolfPass.

Versant is seeking a SQL Database Administrator II to help ensure the reliability, performance, security, and ongoing improvement of our database environment across cloud and on-premises infrastructure.

In this Level 2 role, you’ll administer and troubleshoot SQL Server environments while also supporting relational database platforms such as MySQL and PostgreSQL. You’ll partner closely with Software Development, Data Engineering, QA, Infrastructure, and other technology teams to strengthen database operations through proactive monitoring, performance optimization, automation, observability, and resilient backup and disaster-recovery practices.

Success in this role means maintaining highly available database platforms, identifying and mitigating operational risks, resolving complex production issues, and continuously improving the tools and practices that support reliable database engineering.

Why This Role Matters: Our database platforms support critical applications and workflows across Versant. Your work will directly contribute to the stability, scalability, security, and recoverability of the systems our teams rely on to operate effectively.

This is a remote role based in Florida. While the position is primarily remote, employees should expect opportunities for in-person collaboration, team meetings, or company events approximately 10% of the time.

What You’ll Do

• Own the health and reliability of SQL Server environments across Production, Staging, and Development, including SQL Server hosted on AWS RDS, maintaining availability in accordance with established SLAs, SLOs, RTOs, and RPOs.
• Support and administer additional relational database platforms, including MySQL and PostgreSQL, as needed across cloud and on-premises environments, applying consistent standards for reliability, security, performance, backup, and recovery.
• Monitor and optimize database performance and capacity using execution plans, Query Store, wait statistics, Extended Events, indexing analysis, observability platforms, and other diagnostic tools to proactively identify and resolve issues.
• Strengthen database security and resilience by administering access and permissions using least-privilege practices and designing, implementing, testing, and validating backup, restore, high-availability, and disaster-recovery strategies.
• Partner with engineering teams throughout the development lifecycle to improve T-SQL, query and schema design, indexing, CI/CD workflows, automated deployments, data migrations, integrations, and post-deployment validation.
• Automate repeatable database operations and improve production support using infrastructure-as-code, PowerShell, and other scripting technologies while enhancing monitoring, alerting, dashboards, incident response, root-cause analysis, and technical documentation.

What You Bring

• 5+ years of hands-on SQL Server transactional database administration experience, including production database environments.
• Strong SQL Server administration expertise across configuration, security, permissions, maintenance, backups, restores, troubleshooting, and operational support.
• Strong experience with AWS database and infrastructure services, particularly RDS, Secrets Manager, S3, CloudWatch, and related technologies.
• Advanced SQL Server performance analysis and optimization capabilities, including execution plans, Query Store, index design, wait statistics, blocking analysis, query tuning, Extended Events, and related diagnostic technologies.
• Strong knowledge of SQL Server concurrency and transaction behavior, including isolation levels, locking, blocking, and deadlocks.
• Experience designing and supporting high-availability and disaster-recovery solutions, including Always On Availability Groups, backup and restore strategies, and RTO/RPO planning.
• Strong proficiency in T-SQL and PowerShell, with experience using automation to improve database administration and operational workflows.
• Working knowledge of MySQL and PostgreSQL administration, including configuration, monitoring, security, backup and restore, and troubleshooting in production environments.
• Experience with source control and database CI/CD practices using Git, GitHub, GitHub Actions, or equivalent technologies.
• Experience with monitoring and observability platforms such as Datadog, Prometheus, CloudWatch, or equivalent.
• Demonstrated ability to independently troubleshoot complex production database issues, perform root-cause analysis, manage assigned work, communicate risks and blockers, and escalate appropriately.
• An associate’s degree in Computer Science, Information Technology, a related field, or equivalent professional experience.

How We Do It

• Trust: Exercise sound judgment when managing production data, access, credentials, and critical database infrastructure.
• Teamwork: Partner effectively with Software Development, Data Engineering, QA, Infrastructure, and other teams to solve problems and improve shared systems.
• Transparency: Communicate database health, risks, incidents, blockers, and technical recommendations clearly and proactively.
• Agility: Adapt to changing operational priorities, respond effectively to production incidents, and continuously improve database environments as business and technology needs evolve.
• Entrepreneurial Spirit: Look for opportunities to automate manual work, improve database engineering practices, and build scalable solutions rather than relying on one-time fixes.

Bonus Points

• Experience with Python or Bash.
• Experience with MySQL or PostgreSQL in AWS-managed services such as Amazon RDS or Aurora.
• Experience operating and optimizing heterogeneous database environments that include SQL Server, MySQL, and PostgreSQL.
• Experience building infrastructure-as-code or other repeatable database provisioning and configuration workflows.
• Experience supporting data integration, migration, or replication across systems and environments.

Why You’ll Love It Here

You’ll have the opportunity to work on database platforms that support Versant’s portfolio of media and entertainment businesses while collaborating with experienced technology teams across multiple disciplines.

This role offers meaningful ownership of database reliability and engineering practices, with opportunities to improve automation, observability, performance, security, and operational resilience across SQL Server, MySQL, and PostgreSQL environments.

As a remote Florida-based employee, you’ll primarily work remotely while participating in in-person collaboration opportunities, team gatherings, or company events approximately 10% of the time.

As part of our selection process, external candidates may be required to attend an in-person interview with a VERSANT Media employee at one of our locations prior to a hiring decision. VERSANT Media's policy is to provide equal employment opportunities to all applicants and employees without regard to race, color, religion, creed, gender, gender identity or expression, age, national origin or ancestry, citizenship, disability, sexual orientation, marital status, pregnancy, veteran status, membership in the uniformed services, genetic information, or any other basis protected by applicable law.

For LA County and City Residents Only: VERSANT Media will consider for employment qualified applicants with criminal histories, or arrest or conviction records, in a manner consistent with relevant legal requirements, including the City of Los Angeles' Fair Chance Initiative for Hiring Ordinance, the Los Angeles County Fair Chance Ordinance for Employers, and the California Fair Chance Act, where applicable.

If you are a qualified individual with a disability or a disabled veteran and require support throughout the application and/or recruitment process as a result of your disability, you have the right to request a reasonable accommodation. You can submit your request to [email protected].

VERSANT Media is committed to fair and equitable compensation practices. We include a good faith pay range for each position to comply with applicable state and local pay transparency laws and to promote equity across our organization. Actual compensation will be based on factors such as the candidate's skills, qualifications, experience, and location and may include additional forms of compensation and benefits such as health insurance, retirement plans, paid time off, etc.

VERSANT Media is not accepting unsolicited assistance from search firms for this employment opportunity. All resumes submitted by search firms to any employee at VERSANT via-email, the Internet, or in any form and/or method without a valid written Statement of Work in place for this position from VERSANT's Talent Acquisition team will be deemed the sole property of VERSANT. No fee will be paid in the event the candidate is hired by VERSANT as a result of the referral or through other means.