Principal Database Administrator - Computing Services

Carnegie Mellon University•Pittsburgh, PA

5d•Onsite

About The Position

The Principal Database Administrator works in Carnegie Mellon University’s Computing Services central IT department, which provides services supporting university goals across education, research, and administration. The role administers, secures, and optimizes Microsoft SQL Server databases in Windows environments and across public cloud platforms. It installs, configures, maintains, patches, and tunes database systems and their supporting Windows and cloud infrastructure; establishes and enforces standards; plans and tests backup, recovery, and disaster-recovery processes; provides Level-2/Level-3 escalation support for critical applications; and designs and operates cloud and hybrid database architectures. The DBA collaborates with application developers, cloud and infrastructure engineers, storage teams, and network teams to maintain reliable, performant, secure, and cost-effective data platforms. The position designs, implements, and operates database platforms across public clouds and hybrid environments. It works with managed relational databases, NoSQL and document databases, analytics platforms, cloud networking and identity services, Infrastructure as Code, automation, monitoring, cost governance, security controls, migrations, and hybrid failover and disaster recovery. The role may act as technical lead on cloud database projects and mentor junior staff, while providing technical guidance without formal supervisory responsibility. The position receives general direction, with little instruction on day-to-day work, and exercises independent judgment. It is accountable for assigned database services’ availability, integrity, recoverability, and cost efficiency. The work is in a normal office environment, with flexibility for off-hours incident response and participation in on-call rotations. Successful completion of a background check is required.

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Information Science, Computer Engineering, or a closely related field.
3–5 years of database administration experience and 3–5 years of systems administration experience in on-premises and public cloud vendor environments.
Proven hands-on experience with Microsoft SQL Server and Windows Server.
Hands-on Microsoft SQL Server administration, including installation, configuration, upgrades, and patching across on-premises and cloud-hosted deployments.
Experience with container storage, cloud storage such as AWS S3 and Azure Blob, monitoring and capacity-planning tools, automation such as PowerShell, Python, and Ansible, and operational tooling such as ServiceNow.
Experience with cloud-managed relational databases and cloud database paradigms, including Azure SQL Database or Managed Instance, Amazon RDS or Aurora, and Google Cloud SQL.
Experience with data warehouse and analytics platforms such as Azure Synapse, Amazon Redshift, or Google BigQuery.
Experience with NoSQL, document, or key-value databases such as Azure Cosmos DB, Amazon DynamoDB, or Cloud Firestore, or equivalent.
Experience with caching and in-memory services such as Azure Cache for Redis or Amazon ElastiCache.
Experience with high availability, disaster recovery, and scaling in the cloud, including multi-AZ deployments, read replicas, geo-replication, managed backups, point-in-time restore, and cross-region replication.
Experience with T-SQL development and debugging, query optimization, index design and maintenance, statistics, and execution-plan analysis in on-premises and cloud environments.
Experience with cloud application architectures, including microservices, serverless, and containerized workloads such as Kubernetes, EKS, AKS, or GKE, and secure application-to-database connectivity patterns.
Experience with Infrastructure as Code and automation, including Terraform, ARM templates, CloudFormation, Azure CLI, PowerShell, or AWS CLI, and CI/CD pipelines for database change management.
Experience with cloud networking and identity integration, including VPN, ExpressRoute, Direct Connect, VPC/VNet design, Azure AD or IAM roles and policies, key management services, and cloud KMS integration.
Experience with cloud monitoring, observability, and cost governance, including Azure Monitor, AWS CloudWatch, GCP Stackdriver, cloud cost tools, and tagging strategies.
Experience performing on-premises-to-cloud migrations, configuring hybrid environments, using lift-and-shift and refactoring approaches, and validating performance and security after migration.
Familiarity with storage and I/O tuning for cloud disks and storage, including managed disks, EBS, and cloud file shares, as well as cloud backup and restore tools and retention policies.
Experience with ITSM and change management in cloud and hybrid environments, and with secure design practices and compliance controls for cloud data platforms.
Ability to work under pressure, meet deadlines, pay attention to detail, maintain composure in difficult situations, prioritize multiple tasks, and work as part of a team.
Successful background check.

Nice To Haves

Master’s degree or advanced coursework in databases, cloud computing, systems, or information security.
ITIL Foundation certification.
Security certifications such as CompTIA Security+ or CISSP.
Microsoft Certified: Azure Database Administrator Associate.
Microsoft Certified: Azure Solutions Architect.
AWS Database Specialty or AWS Solutions Architect certification.
Google Cloud Professional Data Engineer certification.
Terraform Associate certification.

Responsibilities

Install, configure, maintain, upgrade, patch, and tune Microsoft SQL Server instances and related components across Windows, on-premises, cloud-hosted, and hybrid environments.
Implement and enforce database security, including encryption, access controls, cloud IAM integrations, key management, and secure connectivity.
Monitor database performance, diagnose problems, and perform tuning, indexing, query optimization, capacity planning, and plan analysis.
Perform backup and recovery operations; design, test, and operate disaster-recovery plans, including cloud and on-premises strategies, failover, replication, and restore procedures.
Maintain database standards, technical documentation, cloud governance, tagging, and change-management procedures.
Provide Level-2/Level-3 escalation support and troubleshoot production incidents; participate in an on-call rotation as required.
Collaborate with application, cloud, infrastructure, storage, and network teams to design cloud and hybrid architectures, support deployments, and optimize performance and costs.
Design, implement, and operate database platforms across public clouds and hybrid architectures, including service selection, instance sizing, networking, and secure connectivity.
Operate and optimize managed cloud database services, NoSQL/document databases, and analytics platforms, applying scalability, availability, and cost best practices.
Lead and execute database migrations, including assessment, schema and data migration, cutover, validation, modernization or refactoring, and runbook updates.
Implement Infrastructure as Code and automation to deploy, configure, and manage databases and related cloud infrastructure reproducibly.
Create monitoring and alerting and manage database workload costs through rightsizing, autoscaling, and reserved-instance or commitment strategies.
Assist with compliance assessments and evidence collection for cloud security controls and data platforms.
Manage hybrid topologies spanning on-premises Windows servers and cloud services, including failover and disaster recovery between environments.
Act as a technical lead on cloud database projects, mentor junior staff, and work with application owners to migrate and modernize database dependencies.
Perform other duties as assigned.