Lead Database Platform Engineer

CCC Intelligent Solutions•Chicago, IL

9d•Hybrid

About The Position

CCC Intelligent Solutions is seeking a highly skilled Lead Database Platform Engineer to drive the strategy, architecture, reliability, and modernization of our enterprise database ecosystem. This role will serve as the technical leader for a team of database engineers responsible for designing, implementing, and supporting mission-critical data platforms that power our products and business operations. The ideal candidate combines deep hands-on expertise with technical leadership, helping shape the future of CCC's database technologies across cloud and hybrid environments. This position is based in the Chicago area with a hybrid work model. As a key member of the infrastructure and platform organization, you will partner closely with Engineering, SRE, DevOps, Architecture, and Product Development teams to ensure our database platforms are secure, highly available, scalable, and operationally efficient. The role also participates in a 24x7 operational support model, including incident response, change management, disaster recovery planning, and platform modernization initiatives.

Requirements

Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Information Systems, Engineering, or equivalent combination of education and experience.
8+ years of experience supporting enterprise-scale, mission-critical database environments.
Proven experience leading technical teams and mentoring engineers in complex operational environments.
Demonstrated ability to influence technical direction and drive cross-functional initiatives.
Strong problem-solving, troubleshooting, and analytical skills.
Excellent verbal and written communication skills with the ability to communicate technical concepts to a variety of audiences.
Experience leading complex infrastructure, cloud, or database modernization initiatives.
Experience managing database upgrades, patching strategies, and platform lifecycle management.
Experience supporting audit, compliance, and security controls, including SOC-related requirements.
Strong knowledge of disaster recovery planning, business continuity, and high-availability architectures.
8+ years of hands-on experience administering and optimizing Microsoft SQL Server environments.
5+ years of experience with cloud-hosted database technologies including AWS Aurora, AWS RDS, Azure SQL PaaS, and Azure Hyperscale.
5+ years of experience supporting workloads in AWS and/or Microsoft Azure.
Deep expertise managing large-scale OLTP environments with demanding performance and availability requirements.
Experience monitoring, maintaining, and optimizing hundreds of database instances in enterprise environments.
Experience with database performance tuning, capacity planning, indexing strategies, and operational monitoring.
Familiarity with automation, Infrastructure as Code, observability platforms, and DevOps practices.
Experience partnering with SRE and platform engineering teams to improve reliability and operational efficiency.

Nice To Haves

Experience with cloud database modernization and migration programs.
Experience leveraging AI-powered tools to automate database administration and operational workflows.
Knowledge of modern observability, monitoring, and database performance management platforms.
Experience building self-service database platforms and platform engineering capabilities.
Industry certifications in Microsoft Azure, AWS, SQL Server, or related cloud technologies.

Responsibilities

Serve as the technical leader and subject matter expert for CCC's database platform strategy and roadmap.
Lead the design, implementation, and optimization of enterprise-scale database solutions across SQL Server and cloud-native database technologies.
Provide technical guidance, mentoring, and leadership to a team of database engineers and offshore resources.
Partner with Product Development, Architecture, SRE, and DevOps teams to design highly available and scalable database solutions.
Drive automation initiatives that improve deployment, monitoring, performance tuning, database provisioning, and operational support.
Champion the use of AI and intelligent automation to increase team productivity and reduce manual operational tasks.
Lead major platform initiatives including database upgrades, migrations, cloud transformations, and performance optimization efforts.
Establish best practices for database administration, operational excellence, security, compliance, and resiliency.
Collaborate with vendors and technology partners to evaluate solutions and support strategic platform decisions.
Participate in incident management, root cause analysis, problem management, and service restoration activities.
Develop and maintain operational documentation, architecture standards, support procedures, and disaster recovery plans.
Identify opportunities to reduce platform complexity, improve reliability, and increase operational agility across the database ecosystem.
Balance strategic initiatives, platform engineering, and operational excellence to ensure continuous delivery of database services.