Sr DBA

Senior Database Administrator (DBA) Database Reliability & Performance • Senior Individual Contributor - Experience: 6–9 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 expand–migrate–contract / 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 - 6–9 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. How You Work - 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. Skills:- PostgreSQL, MySQL, AWS RDS, Cassandra, NOSQL Databases and Python