Lead Database Administrator

Partnerize • Philadelphia, PA

2h • Remote

About The Position

Partnerize is seeking a technical leader to take end-to-end ownership of its database estate as the company expands and scales its platform. The role is part of the Technical Operations team and serves as a principal technical authority, working with business, development, IT, and support teams. It combines database architecture and strategic work with hands-on daily operations, including backups, incident management, and performance tuning. The role supports databases in physical datacenters and public cloud environments, with the primary database hosted on-premise. The position is fully remote and open to candidates based in the UK or the US.

The successful candidate will design, build, secure, and maintain the Linux servers underlying distributed databases; plan and deliver database upgrades and migrations; optimise performance; automate platform management and monitoring; and serve as the database escalation point. They will communicate technical plans and business impacts to stakeholders, document procedures, collaborate with development and product teams, and mentor other engineers. The role also includes planning, prioritising, and estimating work in Jira, as well as providing support for critical database issues during and outside normal business hours.

Requirements

• Advanced administration of MySQL in production environments, on-premise or in the cloud.
• Strong Linux system administration and networking awareness to support, secure, and maintain underlying database servers independently.
• Experience as the sole or lead owner of large production database infrastructure in a SaaS environment, with accountability for availability and performance.
• Experience coordinating with external technical stakeholders and working within light change management processes.
• Advanced experience configuring and troubleshooting MySQL replication setups, such as primary-replica, multi-master, and GTID.
• Ability to resolve replication lag, manage failovers, and execute disaster recovery plans.
• Working understanding of database monitoring tools and patterns, including what to measure, appropriate thresholds, and response mechanics.
• Deep expertise in query tuning, slow-query analysis, and schema optimisation, including normalisation, partitioning, query rewrites, and indexing strategies.
• Track record of executing minimal-downtime upgrades and complex migrations, including in-place, cross-database, and ancillary workload migrations.
• Strong Python and/or Bash scripting skills to automate processes with robust, version-controlled scripts.
• Experience securing database infrastructure through SSL/TLS encryption, user access control, audit logging, and automated backup encryption.
• Ability to independently plan complex technical work and clearly communicate execution steps and business impacts to stakeholders.
• Proactive communication and collaboration skills, with the ability to work independently and within a team.
• Openness to learning required technologies and interest in development, new technologies, and innovation.

Nice To Haves

• Hands-on Ansible configuration management expertise.
• Experience deploying and managing databases in Kubernetes or other containerised environments.
• Experience managing database-related version control and pipelines using GitLab.
• Hands-on experience deploying and configuring monitoring and alerting stacks such as Prometheus, Grafana, or Percona Monitoring and Management.
• Advanced PostgreSQL administration experience.
• Experience managing database workloads across hybrid environments, such as on-premise infrastructure combined with AWS.
• Familiarity with columnar databases and cloud data platforms, particularly Apache Druid and Snowflake.
• Experience with schema design, data sharding strategies, OLAP query optimisation for long-running queries, and zero-downtime upgrades in distributed environments.
• Experience using Jira and Confluence for workflow management, project tracking, and technical documentation.

Responsibilities

• Take hands-on ownership of daily database operations, including database infrastructure maintenance, backups, slow-query resolution, and performance tuning.
• Design, secure, and maintain the Linux servers that host large distributed databases.
• Plan, manage, and deliver database upgrades and migrations, including step-by-step execution planning and communication of technical considerations and business impacts.
• Scope incoming work, delegate where appropriate, and act as the database escalation point for support teams across the organisation.
• Measure and optimise system performance and lead automation of database platform management and monitoring.
• Collaborate with development teams, product owners, and stakeholders to meet database needs and improve database testability in software deployments.
• Document procedures, best practices, and troubleshooting steps for knowledge sharing.
• Plan, prioritise, and estimate tasks using Jira.
• Provide support for critical database-related issues during and outside normal business hours.
• Mentor and coach engineers on database design, optimisation, and migration strategies.
• Support development teams in refactoring technical debt.

Benefits

• Flexible Time Off Policy.
• Enhanced parental leave: 16 weeks for birth parents and 8 weeks for non-birth parents at full pay.
• Regular company events and activities.
• Company-sponsored health and welfare benefits.
• 401(k) plan with a 4% employee match.
• Enhanced wellness program, including access to an Employee Assistance Program, wellness coaching, and Wellness Fridays.
• Competitive salary and a flexible work environment.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Senior
• Education Level: No Education Listed