VP, Database Architecture and Engineering

Want to be a bswifter? 

At bswift we’ve been transforming benefits administration since 1996, making it simpler, smarter, and more human. Our state-of-the-art, cloud-based technology and services empower employees to understand, manage, and love their benefits. From downtown Chicago, and remotely across the country, we serve thousands of companies and millions of people nationwide, reducing administrative burdens and freeing HR teams to focus on creating thriving, people-first workplaces. 

 We’re looking for motivated and goal-driven individuals who share our passion for delivering excellence and creating solutions that make a difference. The reward is a fun, flexible and creative environment with ample opportunity for professional and personal growth. If you love the bswift values of pursue excellence, embrace accountability, deliver superior service, and be a great place to work, we want to hear from you! 

 

ABOUT US

bswift is a leading benefits administration company that specializes in providing tailored solutions for our clients. Our mission is to simplify the complex world of employee benefits and deliver exceptional service to our clients. We are looking for a talented and experienced individual to join our team as the Vice President of Database Architecture & Engineering.

WHAT YOU’LL DO

The Vice President of Database Architecture & Engineering is a seasoned, hands-on technology leader responsible for defining and driving the vision, architecture, and engineering practices for bswift’s enterprise database platform. This role owns database platform strategy, leads modernization initiatives, and ensures scalability, reliability, security, and performance across all database environments within our AWS-hosted ecosystem. The VP partners closely with Product Engineering leadership to deliver modern, developer-friendly tooling and services.

WHAT YOU WILL BE RESPONSIBLE FOR (Essential Functions)

Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform these essential functions.

Strategic Leadership

• Define and execute the enterprise Database Platform Engineering strategy aligned with product, cloud transformation, and business goals.

• Drive modernization initiatives for tooling, automation, and developer experience.

• Establish standards for SQL Server deployments, reliability, performance optimization, capacity management, and disaster recovery.

• Lead modernization across all database platforms, including transitions toward cloud-native and managed database services.

• Partner with application teams to ensure database designs meet scalability, observability, security, and compliance requirements.

Architecture & Engineering

• Own reference architectures for SQL Server and related data platforms.

• Establish best practices for performance, scalability, security, and cost efficiency in AWS.

• Own and manage HA/DR architectures including Always On Availability Groups, clustering, and replication.

• Standardize database-as-code practices using Terraform, CloudFormation, or similar tools.

• Introduce automation for patching, backups, schema migrations, and performance tuning.

Operations & Reliability

• Ensure 99.95%+ availability for Tier-1 database services.

• Implement and optimize observability capabilities including monitoring, logging, alerting, and proactive incident response.

• Drive capacity planning, cost optimization, and FinOps practices for database platforms.

Innovation & Modernization

• Introduce and scale modern engineering practices including IaC, CI/CD for database changes, and advanced observability tooling.

• Evaluate emerging cloud-native database technologies and make recommendations for adoption.

Security & Compliance

• Enforce enterprise-grade security controls such as encryption at rest/in transit, least-privilege access, data masking, and auditing.

• Ensure database platforms remain compliant with SOC, HIPAA, HITRUST, and other regulatory frameworks.

• Partner with the CISO on data protection, vulnerability management, and modernization of security practices.

Stakeholder Engagement

• Collaborate with Product Engineering leadership to deliver database sol