Database Administration Manager

Summary

Join Global Healthcare Exchange (GHX) as the Manager, Database Administration and lead a team responsible for designing, implementing, and maintaining database systems. This role is crucial in setting strategic direction for database architecture, ensuring high availability and performance, and enabling data-driven decision-making. You will drive initiatives around automation, security, and cloud integration while adhering to industry standards and regulatory compliance. The successful candidate will mentor and develop a high-performing team, architect robust database environments, and proactively monitor systems for performance optimization. Operational management, compliance, and cross-functional collaboration are key aspects of this position. This role requires extensive experience in database administration and leadership.

Requirements

• Expert-level knowledge in database systems, including Oracle, SQL Server, MySQL, PostgreSQL, and NoSQL databases like MongoDB, ElasticSearch, and Redis
• Familiarity with modern database tools and platforms (e.g., AWS RDS, Azure SQL, or Google Cloud SQL, MongoDB Atlas, ElasticCloud) and hybrid or multi-cloud database environments
• Proficiency in SQL, database design, and performance tuning, with strong skills in scripting languages (e.g., Python, Bash) for automation
• Skilled in troubleshooting and root-cause analysis, with the ability to resolve complex database issues quickly
• Experience with monitoring tools (e.g., New Relic, Cloudwatch, Prometheus, Grafana) and APM solutions to track and optimize database performance
• Exceptional verbal and written communication skills, able to articulate technical concepts to both technical and non-technical audiences
• Strong collaborative skills, with a track record of working effectively with cross-functional teams, managing conflicts, and negotiating priorities
• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Information Systems, or a related field (or equivalent professional experience)
• 10+ years of experience in database administration with at least 3 years in a leadership or management role
• Working with managed services partners, offshore resources, remote and distributed teams
• Hands-on experience with Agile methodologies (scrum, springs, kanban), DevOps practices, and ticketing systems (ServiceNow, Jira) with an understanding of CI/CD pipelines
• Knowledge of ITIL/ITSM practices, with experience in creating and managing runbooks, playbooks, and operational documentation
• Hands on keyboard experience with multiple database engines such as MySQL (onprem, self-hosted and RDS) , MongoDB (Atlas, EC2 hosted), ElasticSearch (ElasticCloud, EC2 hosted), PostgreSQL (onprem, self-hosted and RDS), Redis, Oracle, MSSQL

Responsibilities

• Lead, mentor, and develop a high-performing team of database administrators and engineers, fostering a culture of continuous improvement and accountability
• Set clear team OKRs and goals aligned with organizational objectives, conducting regular performance reviews and providing ongoing feedback
• Partner with HR on recruiting and retaining top talent, ensuring team capacity meets future workload and project demands
• Architect and oversee robust, scalable, and secure database environments, leveraging best practices for high availability, disaster recovery, and data integrity
• Collaborate with DevOps and cloud teams to develop and implement cloud migration strategies, hybrid architectures, and automation solutions (e.g., Cloud Formation, SALT, python scripts, shell scripts)
• Drive the adoption of emerging database technologies and frameworks, keeping the organization competitive and prepared for future demands
• Deep knowledge of database internals from installation, to patching and upgrade, and customer parameter tuning
• Proactively monitor database systems to identify performance bottlenecks and implement tuning strategies, including indexing, query optimization, and storage management
• Analyze workload patterns and advise on capacity planning and forecasting to ensure databases are resilient and responsive to growth
• Oversee automation initiatives in backup, recovery, and failover procedures to reduce manual intervention and improve reliability
• Ensure 24/7 database uptime and availability, establishing and refining incident management protocols to minimize downtime and improve response time
• Develop and enforce SLAs and operational KPIs, producing regular reports on database health, performance, and capacity
• Coordinate with infrastructure and security teams to execute patching, upgrades, and compliance audits, maintaining system security and integrity
• Lead efforts to implement and maintain data privacy and compliance requirements, including HiTrust, FedRAMP, HIPAA, GDPR, PCI and SOC, as applicable
• Design and enforce access controls, encryption standards, and data masking policies to safeguard sensitive data
• Conduct regular security assessments, vulnerability scans, and penetration tests, applying mitigations for identified risks
• Work closely with executives, development, quality assurance, systems engineering, and data engineering teams to align database architecture with application requirements, ensuring smooth data flow and integration
• Engage with product and business stakeholders to understand upcoming needs, ensuring database systems support evolving business requirements
• Represent the database team in technical discussions, architecture reviews, and strategy sessions, advocating for optimal database solutions

Preferred Qualifications

• Familiarity with data engineering concepts, including ETL, data warehousing, and data lakes, supporting analytics and reporting requirements
• Experience managing database environments in a microservices or containerized ecosystem (e.g., Kubernetes, Docker)
• Experience implementing air-gapped backups
• Exposure to Big Data technologies (e.g., Snowflake, Redshift) and experience integrating structured and unstructured data sources
• Certifications in database platforms (e.g., Oracle Certified Professional, Microsoft SQL Server) or cloud platforms (AWS, Azure, Google Cloud)