Director of Cloud Database Platforms & DBaaS

Lumen Technologies

1d•Remote

About The Position

Lumen is the trusted network for AI. We’re transforming how businesses connect, secure, and scale in an AI-driven world. By connecting people, data, and applications quickly, securely, and effortlessly, we help organizations move faster and unlock what’s next. At Lumen, people power progress. Our culture is built on teamwork, trust, and transparency, giving you the flexibility, support, and opportunity to make a lasting impact. We’re looking for top-tier talent ready to take on the challenge. Join us in building the future. The Role The Director, Cloud Database Platforms & DBaaS leads the strategy, modernization, and operational excellence of Lumen’s enterprise data platform ecosystem. This includes relational databases, NoSQL systems, cloud‑native managed databases, and emerging lakehouse architectures. The role ensures reliability, cost efficiency, and superior developer experience while guiding the transition from legacy database environments to scalable, cloud‑native platforms. It requires strong technical, operational, and leadership capability to manage a global organization supporting 24×7 mission‑critical workloads. Location This is a remote opportunity open to candidates located anywhere in the U.S.

Requirements

12+ years leading enterprise relational and NoSQL database platforms.
7+ years managing global engineering and operations organizations with 24×7 responsibilities.
Proven experience with cloud‑native managed databases and modern data platforms.
Hands‑on experience operating Oracle Exadata within a mixed‑platform environment.
Strong understanding of SRE principles, observability, CI/CD, and infrastructure‑as‑code practices.
Excellent executive‑level communication and cross‑functional leadership ability.

Nice To Haves

Experience with lakehouse architectures and advanced analytics workloads (preferred).
Familiarity with modern automation tooling and intelligent operations (preferred).
Relevant cloud, database, or data‑platform certifications (preferred).
Experience operating at enterprise scale in regulated or complex environments (preferred).

Responsibilities

Define and execute multi‑year strategies for DBaaS, cloud‑native databases, and lakehouse modernization.
Establish architectural standards, lifecycle strategies, and reference patterns across relational, NoSQL, and analytical platforms.
Partner cross‑functionally with Cloud, Architecture, Security, Data Engineering, and FinOps teams to align platform direction.
Lead engineering teams delivering automated DBaaS provisioning, patching, backup, schema management, and environment refresh.
Implement infrastructure as code, CI/CD integrations, and standardized templates to reduce operational toil.
Set and manage SLOs/SLAs for relational, NoSQL, Exadata, cloud‑native, and analytical platforms.
Drive performance engineering, including data modeling, indexing, partitioning/sharding, and capacity planning.
Ensure strong HA/DR architectures with validated RTO/RPO targets and regular resilience testing.
Oversee 24×7 global operations with Tier 1/2/3 support, improving incident response and operational maturity.
Lead modernization from legacy data warehouses to lakehouse architectures supporting analytics and streaming workloads.
Partner with data engineering teams to ensure platforms are governed, discoverable, performant, and cost‑optimized.
Provide executive stewardship of the Oracle Exadata estate, including lifecycle, performance, HA/DR, and cost optimization.
Define rationalization and migration paths from Exadata to cloud‑native platforms where appropriate.
Improve developer experience through templates, guardrails, documentation, and consultative database guidance.
Own financial governance, including forecasting, cost optimization, and unit economics transparency.
Manage vendor relationships, roadmaps, commercial terms, and innovation outcomes with database and cloud partners.
Lead and develop a global team of engineers, DBAs, SREs, and operational leaders while fostering a culture of excellence.