Principal Database Administrator - Computing Services

Carnegie Mellon University•Pittsburgh, PA

2d•Onsite

About The Position

Carnegie Mellon University's Computing Services central IT department is seeking a database administrator to administer, secure, and optimize Microsoft SQL Server databases in Windows, public-cloud, and hybrid environments. The role installs, configures, maintains, patches, and tunes databases and supporting infrastructure; establishes standards; and performs backup, recovery, and disaster-recovery planning and testing. It provides Level-2/Level-3 escalation support for critical applications and designs and operates cloud and hybrid database platforms. The position collaborates with application developers, cloud and infrastructure engineers, and storage and network teams to deliver reliable, performant, secure, and cost-effective data services. The position designs and operates database platforms across public clouds and hybrid architectures, including managed relational databases, NoSQL and document databases, analytics platforms, and caching services. It leads database migrations and modernization, implements infrastructure as code and automation, establishes monitoring and cost governance, and applies cloud security and compliance controls. It also manages hybrid operations, supports failover and disaster recovery between on-premises and cloud environments, leads cloud database projects, and mentors junior staff. The role works with general direction and requires independent judgment. It is not responsible for formal supervision, but provides technical guidance and mentorship to junior staff and contractors. The work is based in a normal office environment, with flexibility for off-hours production incident response and participation in on-call rotations. A successful 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.
3–5 years of systems administration experience in on-premises and public-cloud vendor environments.
Proven hands-on experience administering Microsoft SQL Server and Windows Server.
Hands-on SQL Server experience with installation, configuration, upgrades, and patching across on-premises and cloud-hosted deployments.
Experience with container storage, cloud storage such as AWS S3 or Azure Blob, monitoring and capacity-planning tools, automation, and operational tooling such as ServiceNow.
Experience with cloud-managed relational databases, data warehouse and analytics platforms, NoSQL/document/key-value databases, and caching or in-memory services.
Experience with cloud high availability, disaster recovery, and scaling, 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.
Experience with cloud application architectures, including microservices, serverless, containerized workloads, and secure application-to-database connection patterns.
Experience with infrastructure as code and automation, including Terraform, ARM templates, CloudFormation, Azure CLI, PowerShell, 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, and cloud key-management services.
Experience with cloud monitoring, observability, and cost governance, including monitoring platforms and tagging strategies.
Experience migrating databases from on-premises to cloud, supporting hybrid configurations and lift-and-shift or refactor approaches, and validating performance and security after migration.
Familiarity with storage and I/O tuning for cloud disks and storage, and cloud backup/restore tooling and retention policies.
Experience with IT service management and change management in cloud and hybrid environments, 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 certification such as CompTIA Security+ or CISSP.
Microsoft Certified: Azure Database Administrator Associate certification.
Microsoft Certified: Azure Solutions Architect certification.
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, and hybrid environments.
Implement database security controls, including encryption, access controls, cloud IAM integrations, key management, and secure connectivity.
Monitor database performance, diagnose issues, and perform query optimization, indexing, and capacity planning.
Perform backup and recovery operations and design, test, and operate disaster-recovery and high-availability strategies, including cloud-based recovery options.
Maintain database standards, technical documentation, cloud governance, tagging, and change-management practices.
Provide Level-2/Level-3 escalation support and troubleshoot production incidents; participate in an on-call rotation as required.
Design, implement, and operate cloud and hybrid database architectures, including networking and secure connectivity.
Operate and optimize managed relational databases, NoSQL/document databases, analytics platforms, and caching services.
Lead database migrations and modernization, including assessment, schema and data migration, cutover, validation, and runbook updates.
Implement infrastructure as code and automation for databases and related cloud infrastructure, and support CI/CD pipelines for database changes.
Create monitoring and alerting and manage database workload costs through rightsizing, autoscaling, and reserved-instance or commitment strategies.
Manage hybrid topologies and coordinate failover and disaster recovery between on-premises and cloud environments.
Act as technical lead on cloud database projects, collaborate with application owners and infrastructure teams, and mentor junior staff.
Perform other duties as assigned.