Experience: 69 years in production database administration / engineering

Level: Senior Individual Contributor (hands-on)

Function: Data Platform reliability, performance, and governance across relational and distributed SQL & NoSQL DBs.

About the Role:

- We are hiring a Senior Database Administrator to own the health, performance, and reliability of the data layer behind a high-scale, multi-tenant platform. Our environment spans several independent PostgreSQL database instances, a cache-first read tier, change-data-capture pipeline, analytics and archival stores. Should be capable of implementing NoSQL stores (Cassandra / ScyllaDB) & MySQL end to end as we scale.

- This is a hands-on senior IC role for someone who has run demanding production databases and wants full ownership: partitioning and maintenance, performance tuning, monitoring, uptime, disaster recovery, and the security and data-governance documentation that keeps a regulated, multi-tenant platform audit-ready. You will work closely with, and take direction from, engineering leadership translating priorities into a well-run, well-documented data platform.

What You'll Own:

PostgreSQL Depth:

- Administer multiple production PostgreSQL instances (v16+), including schema/DDL review, migrations, and release coordination.

- Design and maintain table partitioning strategies (range/hash/time-based) and automate partition lifecycle creation, retention windows, and safe drops.

- Own query and instance performance tuning: EXPLAIN/ANALYZE, indexing strategy, autovacuum/bloat management, connection pooling (e.g. PgBouncer), and parameter-group tuning.

- Execute zero-downtime schema changes using expandmigratecontract / blue-green patterns; assess lock impact and avoid long ACCESS EXCLUSIVE locks on hot tables.

- Manage replica topology (writer/reader endpoints), replication lag, and read-scaling as load grows.

- Partner with app teams on migration tooling (e.g. Flyway) and paired forward/rollback scripts; enforce idempotent, reviewed, tested DDL.

NoSQL & Scale:

- Data-model, deploy, and operate distributed NoSQL clusters Cassandra and/or ScyllaDB including partition/clustering key design, compaction strategy, repair, and node operations (bootstrap, decommission, scale-out).

- Lead the planned migration of high-volume payload tables from partitioned PostgreSQL to Cassandra/ScyllaDB: capacity planning, dual-write/backfill design, cutover, and validation.

- Tune distributed-store read/write paths, consistency levels, and cluster sizing for predictable latency at scale.

- Support the cache-first architecture (Redis) and change-data-capture / streaming pipelines (e.g. Kafka) that move data to analytics and cold-archival stores.

Operations, Reliability & DR:

- Own database uptime and SLOs; build and maintain monitoring, alerting, and dashboards for the key signals (latency, replication lag, CPU/IO, connections, vacuum lag, error rates).

- Define and regularly test backup and disaster-recovery strategy RPO/RTO targets, point-in-time recovery, restore drills, and cross-AZ / future multi-region readiness.

- Drive incident response for database-related issues: triage, mitigation, root-cause analysis, and follow-up actions.

- Write and maintain runbooks (partition maintenance, failover, archival, DR, migration procedures) and participate in an on-call rotation for the data layer.

- Establish production-change discipline: pre-flight and post-deploy verification, rollback criteria, and backup verification before destructive operations.

Security, Governance & Documentation:

- Implement and maintain database access control least-privilege roles, schema-scoped permissions, and row-level security (RLS) for multi-tenant isolation.

- Own data-governance documentation: PII maps, per-table retention policies, audit-readiness, and the controls behind privacy-regulation compliance (e.g. GDPR / DPDP-style erasure and legal-hold workflows).

- Author and maintain architecture decision records (ADRs), schema documentation, and monitoring/runbook docs so the data platform is legible to the wider team.

- Uphold encryption-at-rest/in-transit posture and safe handling of sensitive columns; keep the data layer aligned with the platform's compliance requirements.

Coding & Automation Bar (Required):

- This role is automation-first, not click-ops. The right candidate treats repetitive database work as something to script away and can drop into application code when a problem demands it.

- Strong scripting in Python and Bash for automation of maintenance, backups, partition management, backfills, and health checks.

- Comfortable with infrastructure-as-code (e.g. Terraform) and configuration management (e.g. Ansible) for reproducible database infrastructure.

- Solid SQL and PL/pgSQL; able to read and debug application-layer database code and, worst case, write or patch application code (e.g. Python/Node/Java) to unblock a fix.

- Fluent with Git-based workflows, code review, and CI for database migrations and tooling.

Required Qualifications:

- 69 years operating relational databases in demanding production environments, with deep PostgreSQL expertise (internals, partitioning, replication, performance tuning).

- Hands-on experience running at least one distributed NoSQL store in production Cassandra or ScyllaDB strongly preferred (other wide-column/distributed stores considered).

- Proven ownership of backup/DR, monitoring, and incident response for production databases.

- Strong scripting/automation background (Python, Bash) and experience with IaC.

- Experience with managed cloud databases (AWS RDS or equivalent) and understanding of instance/parameter-group tuning, replicas, and failover.

- Experience designing for multi-tenancy and data isolation at scale.

- Clear written communication able to produce runbooks, ADRs, and governance docs a team can rely on.

Nice to Have:

- Experience migrating workloads from PostgreSQL to Cassandra/ScyllaDB (or similar relational-to-distributed migrations).

- Familiarity with Redis as a cache tier and with CDC / streaming pipelines (e.g. Kafka, Debezium).

- Exposure to Flyway (or Liquibase), pgTAP or similar schema testing, and PgBouncer.

- Working knowledge of privacy regulations (GDPR, India DPDP) and audit/compliance processes.

- Ownership mindset takes a directive and runs it to done, with sound judgment on trade-offs.

- Reliability-first and detail-oriented; disciplined about verification, rollback, and documentation.

- Collaborative in a high-performing engineering team; communicates clearly with developers and leadership.

- Pragmatic and scale-aware designs for where the platform is going, not just where it is.