Principal Database Engineer

About Us

Data Analysis Incorporated (DAI) is the controlling entity of the O’Neil family of businesses. DAI and its subsidiaries operate in diverse industries worldwide, including global equity markets, health care, financial services, digital news, and insurance. Our global footprint allows our teams to be responsive to customer needs in a timely and efficient manner. We are dedicated to using technology and innovation to bring change and growth to our businesses. We believe in a dynamic workplace, creating engaging, informative products and services that help our customers succeed. Integrity is an essential characteristic for our firms and our associates; if this describes you, please apply! 
 

Summary

The Principal Database Engineer (Cloud & Automation) is a senior on-site technical leadership role responsible for designing, optimizing, and advancing enterprise-scale database systems across the organization. Acting as both strategist and hands-on expert, this role ensures best-in-class data architecture, security, availability, and performance to support complex business applications and analytics.

As a key member of the technology leadership team, the Principal Database Engineer partners with DevOps, Cloud, Infrastructure, and Security teams to align database solutions with business objectives, technology vision, and compliance frameworks (SOC 2, HITRUST). This position leads the modernization of cloud-based database infrastructure—primarily within AWS—and champions the use of automation, Infrastructure-as-Code (IaC), and CI/CD practices to enhance scalability, reliability, and cost efficiency.

Please note: This is a full-time on-site position. Remote work arrangements are not available for this role.

Duties and Responsibilities

• Cloud Database Architecture: Design and implement cloud-native database solutions on AWS (RDS, EC2, Aurora, Redshift, FSx) that are secure, scalable, and cost-optimized.
• Automation & CI/CD: Develop and maintain automated CI/CD pipelines for database deployments using tools such as Flyway, GitHub Actions, or Jenkins.
• Infrastructure-as-Code: Build and manage Terraform or CloudFormation templates to standardize database provisioning and configuration.
• Security & Compliance: Strengthen data protection through encryption, IAM integration, access control, and audit logging in collaboration with Security and Compliance teams.
• Performance & Monitoring: Implement advanced monitoring, alerting, and performance-tuning solutions to ensure database reliability and efficiency.
• Database Strategy & Modernization: Lead enterprise cloud migration and modernization initiatives, guiding long-term platform evolution and standardization.
• Data Engineering & Integration: Oversee complex SSIS packages, ETL processes, and data pipelines that integrate systems across the enterprise.
• Best Practices & Governance: Mentor development teams on data modeling, query optimization, and stored procedure design; drive adherence to database governance standards.
• Incident Management: Serve as the primary escalation point for high-impact database issues, ensuring timely resolution and root-cause analysis.
• Leadership & Mentorship: Provide technical direction and mentorship to database engineers, fostering collaboration and continuous improvement.
• Innovation: Stay current on emerging database, cloud, and automation technologies to guide future architectural decisions.

Qualifications & Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Information Systems, or related field.
• 5 to 8+ years of progressive experience in database engineering, with proven leadership in enterprise SQL Server environments.
• Deep expertise in designing and managing large-scale, hybrid (on-prem/cloud) database infrastructures.
• Strong background in performance tuning, backup and recovery, and high-availability configurations (e.g., Always On, clustering, replication).
• Demonstrated experience leading cross-functional projects involving development, BI, and infrastructure.

Preferred Qualifications

• Certifications: AWS Certified Database – Specialty or AWS Certified Solutions Architect (Associate/Professional).
• Hands-on experience with Terraform, CloudFormation, or Ansible for provisioning and automation.
• Familiarity with compliance frameworks such as SOC 2, HITRUST, or PCI DSS.
• Microsoft Certified: Azure Database Administrator Associate or equivalent.
• Experience with additional platforms such