IT Database Administrator

Location: On Site at location listed in posting

Weekly Schedule: Monday- Friday, 9am-5pm

We are seeking an experienced Azure Database Administrator to design, implement, secure, and optimize cloud database platforms supporting mission-critical applications for our associates and clients. The ideal candidate brings hands-on expertise across Azure SQL Database/Managed Instance, Azure Database for PostgreSQL, and Cosmos DB, with strong performance tuning, automation, and governance skills.

Key Responsibilities:

• Administration and Operations
• Provision, configure, and maintain Azure database services: Azure SQL Database/Managed Instance, Azure Database for PostgreSQL (Flexible Server/Single Server), and Cosmos DB (including MongoDB API.
• Manage backups, restores, disaster recovery, and geo-replication; establish RPO/RTO targets and failover procedures/runbooks.
• Monitor health, capacity, and cost; implement alerting and proactive remediation using Azure Monitor, Log Analytics, and related tooling.
• Maintain schema changes, index strategies, and maintenance routines (reindex, vacuum/analyze for PostgreSQL, etc).
• Performance and Reliability
• Conduct query optimization and tuning (execution plans, indexing, partitioning, caching strategies).
• Optimize Cosmos DB partition keys, RU throughput, consistency levels, and indexing policies.
• Tune PostgreSQL settings (autovacuum, checkpointing, work_mem, pg_stat_statements) and SQL Server configurations (tempdb, memory, MAXDOP, I/O).
• Security, Compliance, and Governance
• Implement least privilege access, RBAC/ABAC, and Managed Identities; integrate with Azure AD and Privileged Identity Management.
• Enforce encryption in transit and at rest; manage secrets with Azure Key Vault; configure network isolation (VNets, private endpoints, firewall rules, NSGs).
• Enable auditing, data masking, and threat detection; maintain compliance with relevant industry standards and internal governance.
• Collaborate with InfoSec, risk, and audit teams to ensure policy adherence and support periodic reviews.
• Automation and DevOps
• Automate administrative tasks using PowerShell, Azure CLI, and scripting (Python/Bash as needed).
• Implement infrastructure-as-code for database provisioning and configuration (Bicep/ARM/Terraform).
• Integrate database changes into CI/CD pipelines (Azure DevOps/GitHub), supporting migration scripts, validation, and rollback strategies.
• Data Lifecycle and Migrations
• Plan and execute migrations between on-prem and Azure or across Azure services using Azure Database Migration Service, pg_dump/pg_restore, and native SQL tools.
• Validate data integrity and performance post-migration; coordinate cutover with application teams and associates.
• Document data retention policies, archival strategies, and lifecycle management.
• Incident Response and Support
• Troubleshoot production issues across the data stack; perform root cause analysis and implement permanent fixes.
• Create clear operational documentation, runbooks, and knowledge base articles.
• Collaboration and Stakeholder Engagement
• Partner with application development, SRE, architecture, security, and platform teams to deliver stable, scalable solutions for our clients.
• Advise on schema design, data modeling, and capacity planning.
• Provide guidance on best practices for multi-tenant architectures, sharding, and high availability patterns.

Required Qualifications:

• 5+ years of hands-on database administration experience, including:
• SQL Server (Azure SQL Database/Managed Instance): performance tuning, maintenance, backup/restore, HA/DR.
• PostgreSQL: configuration, tuning, extension management, replication, backup/restore.
• Cosmos DB: partitioning strategy, RU management, indexing, consistency, global distribution.
• Strong Azure expertise: Azure Monitor, Log Analytics, Alerts, Key Vault, Private Link, VNets, RBAC, Managed Identities, Defender for Cloud.
• Proficiency with scripting and automation: PowerShell and Azure CLI (Python/Bash a plus).
• Experience with infrastructure-as-code (Bicep/ARM/Terraform) and CI/CD integration (Azure DevOps/GitHub).
• Proven track record in security hardening, auditing, and compliance-oriented database management.
• Solid understanding of networking concepts impacting databases (latency, bandwidth, DNS, private endpoints).

Preferred Qualifications:

• Experience with hybrid environments (on-prem SQL Server/PostgreSQL/CosmosDB) and migration to Azur