Cloud Database Administrator

Dynamed Solutions•Columbia, MD

22h•Hybrid

About The Position

CRISP Shared Services (CSS) serves as the technology partner for health information exchange (HIE) organizations in Maryland, DC, West Virginia, Connecticut, Alaska, Virginia, Kentucky, Florida, and other jurisdictions. CSS facilitates the electronic transfer of clinical and public health information to positively impact the healthcare system through improved patient care and outcomes, reduced costs, and data-driven understanding of regional public health concerns. The Cloud Database Administrator (DBA) will serve as the primary owner and steward of our cloud database platforms. This role will be responsible for the reliability, performance, security, cost efficiency, and governance of databases supporting business‑critical and healthcare applications. CSS maintains a significant amount of Protected Health Information (PHI) across Azure SQL, PostgreSQL, Cosmos DB, and Azure Storage services. The Cloud DBA will design and operate secure, highly available, and compliant database platforms while partnering closely with IT and development teams to enable scalable application growth. This role blends hands‑on technical leadership with strategic ownership—establishing standards, driving automation, and evolving the database platform as CSS continues to scale in the cloud.

Requirements

Strong understanding of database architecture, internals, and operational best practices
Proven ability to secure and manage databases containing sensitive health data
Detail-oriented with exceptional problem-solving and troubleshooting skills
Ability to communicate complex technical topics to both technical and non-technical audiences
Bachelor’s degree in Information Technology, Computer Science, or equivalent experience
5+ years of experience in database administration or cloud database engineering roles
3+ years of hands-on experience managing cloud databases in Microsoft Azure, with a strong emphasis on PaaS services
Demonstrated experience in multi-server cloud database environments and multi-terabyte scale
Demonstrated experience with: Azure SQL, PostgreSQL, Cosmos DB, Azure Storage
Strong experience implementing: Backup and disaster recovery strategies, Security controls for PHI/PII, Monitoring and performance tuning, Automation via scripting and/or Infrastructure-as-Code
Demonstrable experience identifying and implementing newly released or previously unused database platform features

Nice To Haves

Experience supporting healthcare or regulated environments managing PHI/PII
Familiarity with Databricks and data analytics workloads
Experience supporting .NET-based application environments
Exposure to Terraform, Bicep, ARM templates, PowerShell, or Azure DevOps
Prior experience acting as the lead or sole DBA for an organization or platform
Familiarity with modern vectorization techniques, storage, and service solutions to support RAG and full text search product functionality

Responsibilities

Serve as the primary owner for the design, implementation, and ongoing operation of cloud database platforms across the organization
Define and maintain database standards, best practices, and operational procedures.
Provide technical leadership and guidance on database architecture and service selection
Implement, administer, and maintain Azure SQL, PostgreSQL, Cosmos DB, and Azure Storage data stores in a primarily PaaS-based Azure environment
Ensure database availability, performance, scalability, and data integrity across all supported systems
Plan and execute database upgrades, maintenance, and migrations, including transitions from IaaS/VM-hosted databases to PaaS services
Design and enforce database security controls including environment isolation, RBAC, encryption at rest and in transit, auditing, and data masking
Support HIPAA and other regulatory requirements related to PHI/PII, including audit readiness and security assessments
Implement and automate data governance and retention policies to support compliance and cost optimization
Design, implement, and regularly test backup, restore, and disaster recovery strategies to meet defined RPO/RTO requirements.
Establish and maintain high-availability and resiliency patterns appropriate to each database workload.
Implement monitoring, alerting, and performance baselines using Azure-native and/or third-party tools
Lead performance tuning efforts, including query optimization, indexing strategies, and capacity planning
Monitor and optimize database resource usage to control cloud costs through scaling strategies, tier selection, and automation
Automate database provisioning, configuration, maintenance, and governance processes using scripting and Infrastructure-as-Code
Partner with development teams to support and streamline CI/CD workflows, schema versioning, and controlled database change management
Improve operational efficiency through automation and repeatable deployment patterns
Act as the escalation point for complex database-related incidents and outages.
Perform root cause analysis and post-incident reviews; drive corrective and preventive actions.
Collaborate closely with IT, development, security, and leadership stakeholders to align database strategy with organizational goals