Enterprise Database Engineer

Acra Lending•Irvine, CA

2d•Hybrid

About The Position

At Acra Lending, we are seeking an experienced Database Engineer with 5–10 years of experience to own the design, implementation, migration, architecture, administration, and lifecycle management of enterprise database platforms. This role focuses on Microsoft SQL Server across both on-premises and cloud environments, including AWS RDS architecture, migrations, optimization, monitoring, and operational management. The role also supports a broad range of SQL-based technologies and modern data platforms, including data warehouses and data lake solutions (e.g., Snowflake or similar). The ideal candidate brings strong hands-on experience building and maintaining ETL/ELT pipelines, enabling reliable data exchange between systems, and supporting reporting and analytics workloads. Experience designing and executing cloud database migration strategies, particularly migrating on-prem SQL Server environments to AWS RDS, is highly desirable. This role plays a key part in ensuring data is well-structured, secure, highly available, accessible, and efficiently processed across operational and analytical systems while supporting scalable cloud-native data architectures.

Requirements

Advanced expertise in Microsoft SQL Server, including T-SQL development and performance tuning.
Strong experience with database administration tasks, including backups, restores, recovery models, and maintenance planning
Strong experience writing and optimizing complex SQL queries
Hands-on experience with ETL/ELT development (SSIS or similar tools).
Proficiency in scripting for automation (SQL (T-SQL, PL/SQL), Python, PowerShell, Bash/Shell scripting, Java or Scala (especially for big data platforms), Spark/PySpark, JSON/XML data handling)
Experience working with modern data platforms such as Snowflake or other data warehouse/data lake technologies
Deep understanding of high availability and disaster recovery solutions (Always On, replication, clustering, log shipping)
Strong knowledge of database design, normalization, indexing, and data modeling principles
Experience with database monitoring, troubleshooting, and performance optimization
Experience supporting data integration and data exchange across multiple systems
Self-starter with ability to balance multiple projects with aggressive deadlines and strong attention to detail.
Bachelor’s degree in computer science, Information Systems, or related field preferred; equivalent experience considered
Ability to read and comprehend simple instructions, short correspondence, and memos. Ability to write simple correspondence. Ability to effectively present information in one-on-one and small group situations to customers, clients, and other employees of the organization.
Ability to add, subtract, multiply, and divide in all units of measure, using whole numbers, common fractions, and decimals. Ability to compute rate, ratio, and percent and to draw and interpret bar graphs.
Ability to apply common sense understanding to carry out detailed instructions. Ability to deal with problems involving a few concrete variables in standardized situations.
Advanced knowledge of Microsoft Office applications (Word, Excel, Outlook, etc).

Nice To Haves

Experience designing and executing cloud database migration strategies, particularly migrating on-prem SQL Server environments to AWS RDS, is highly desirable.

Responsibilities

Own the design, implementation, and lifecycle management of Microsoft SQL Server platforms (on-prem and cloud-hosted), including standards, reference architectures, and technical roadmaps aligned to business needs
Engineer and operate high availability and disaster recovery solutions (e.g., Always On Availability Groups, failover clustering, log shipping, replication), including backup and restore strategy, RPO/RTO definition, and routine disaster recovery testing
Perform core database administration functions, including regular backups, restores, recovery validation, integrity checks, patching, and ongoing maintenance to ensure system reliability and data protection
Lead database performance engineering efforts, including SQL query tuning, execution plan analysis, indexing strategy, and statistics maintenance; establish performance baselines, capacity planning, and service level objectives.
Implement and enforce database security controls, including least-privilege access, auditing, encryption, and secure configuration standards; partner with Infrastructure and Security teams on vulnerability remediation and compliance requirements
Design, build, and maintain data integration pipelines and reporting workflows (e.g., SSIS, SQL Agent jobs, stored procedures, ETL/ELT frameworks); manage scheduling, error handling, data lineage, and operational support for data refresh processes.
Develop and support data exchange mechanisms between systems, including APIs, file-based integrations, and cross-platform data movement across operational databases and data warehouse/lake environments
Build automation to improve reliability and reduce operational overhead (patching, maintenance jobs, provisioning, deployments), leveraging scripting and repeatable processes; maintain runbooks and operational documentation
Oversee and coordinate third-party database administration vendors and managed service providers, including defining scope, reviewing deliverables, managing SLAs, enforcing change control, and ensuring secure and compliant access.
Establish observability for database and pipeline health (monitoring, alerting, dashboards); participate in incident response/on-call, perform root-cause analysis, and drive corrective and preventive actions
Partner with application engineering, BI/reporting, and operational teams to review database designs, optimize data access patterns, support releases, and resolve production issues
Provide technical leadership through code reviews and database design reviews; mentor team members and promote best practices across schema design, data modeling, and database change management