Senior Data Platform Administrator

AutoNation • Fort Lauderdale, FL

7d

About The Position

This senior individual-contributor role owns reliability and operational standards across AutoNation’s database platform, including on-premises SQL Server, Azure SQL, AWS Aurora MySQL/PostgreSQL, RDS, DynamoDB, the Snowflake operational layer, and Delphix. The administrator leads complex migration and modernization projects, establishes team best practices, mentors other administrators, and serves as a primary technical decision-maker on platform architecture. The role partners with Senior Data Solutions Engineers, the Data Solutions Architect, application engineering leadership, DevOps, and security teams.

The role includes platform leadership, database modernization and automation, replication, observability, security, compliance, incident response, and cross-functional engineering. It also involves mentoring administrators, developing onboarding and skills plans, evaluating emerging technologies, and making recommendations that shape platform strategy.

Candidates must be authorized to work in the United States without current or future employment visa sponsorship. AutoNation describes its benefits and commitment to inclusion, innovation, teamwork, and community impact.

Requirements

• At least 6 years of database administration experience across multiple platforms, including significant experience as a senior individual contributor.
• Expert-level SQL Server engineering, including FCI, Always-On Availability Groups, Extended Events, Query Store, advanced performance tuning, In-Memory OLTP, and Resource Governor.
• Strong multi-engine experience: SQL Server plus at least two production cloud-native databases among Aurora MySQL/PostgreSQL, Azure SQL, or DynamoDB.
• Proven track record leading production-scale database migration or modernization initiatives; 10TB+ is preferred.
• Deep performance-tuning skills across OLTP and operational analytics workloads, including execution-plan internals, storage-engine behavior, and concurrency control.
• Operational expertise with Snowflake, including warehouse architecture, RBAC design, and cost governance.
• Hands-on Delphix experience at architectural depth.
• Operational expertise with the legacy Microsoft BI stack: SSIS, SSRS, SSAS (Tabular and Multidimensional), and SSMDS.
• Production experience with replication and CDC technologies such as HVR, AWS DMS, Meltano, or SQL Server native replication.
• Strong scripting and automation skills in PowerShell and Python.
• Working knowledge of Terraform, CloudFormation, or equivalent infrastructure-as-code tools for database resource provisioning.
• Demonstrated mentorship and team-level standards-setting.
• Working knowledge of relevant compliance frameworks such as SOC 2, HIPAA, PCI-DSS, or equivalent.
• Demonstrated ability to influence architecture direction and cross-team engineering strategy.
• Authorization to work in the United States without current or future visa sponsorship by the Company.

Nice To Haves

• Experience with multi-region or multi-cloud disaster-recovery architectures for tier-1 workloads.
• Hands-on experience with Kubernetes-hosted database workloads or operators.
• Public technical community presence, such as blog posts, conference talks, or open-source contributions.
• Experience in regulated industries such as financial services or healthcare.
• Familiarity with data lakehouse formats such as Delta Lake and Iceberg and their database adjacency.
• Experience with database observability platforms beyond the listed stack, such as Prometheus, Grafana, or OpenTelemetry.
• Experience leading production-scale migrations involving 10TB or more.

Responsibilities

• Own reliability standards across SQL Server, Azure SQL, Aurora MySQL/PostgreSQL, RDS, DynamoDB, and the Snowflake operational layer.
• Define and maintain service-level indicator and objective standards, capacity-planning practices, and cost-governance models for cloud database services.
• Lead database migrations and modernization projects end-to-end, including on-premises-to-cloud transitions, version upgrades, engine consolidations, and platform retirements.
• Design multi-region high-availability architectures and cross-cloud disaster-recovery strategies for tier-1 workloads.
• Optimize cloud database costs through right-sizing, reserved-capacity strategy, workload management, and query consolidation.
• Set standards for performance tuning, troubleshooting, and incident response across the platform team.
• Automate routine database operations using PowerShell, Python, and schema migration tooling.
• Own the operational architecture of replication topologies, including HVR, AWS DMS, Meltano, and SQL Server native replication.
• Own Delphix administration at the platform level, including engine sizing, dSource strategy, masking design, capacity planning, and API automation.
• Lead modernization of legacy Microsoft BI workloads in partnership with the Data Solutions Engineering track.
• Operate Snowflake, including warehouse strategy, RBAC design, cost governance, resource monitors, and data sharing.
• Define database observability standards using AppDynamics, DataDog, DBADash, and custom monitoring.
• Own database security posture, including encryption strategy, access governance, audit logging, and vulnerability management.
• Lead implementation of applicable SOC 2, HIPAA, and PCI-DSS controls.
• Partner with security teams on database hardening, secrets management, and incident response.
• Mentor administrators, own the Platform Admin track onboarding curriculum, and develop skills plans.
• Drive incident postmortems and implement structural improvements to prevent recurrence.
• Partner with Data Solutions Engineering, application engineering, and DevOps on cross-functional initiatives.
• Evaluate emerging database and platform technologies and produce formal recommendations and proof-of-concept implementations.

Benefits

• Competitive compensation.
• 401(k) matching.
• Health insurance.
• Dental insurance.
• Vision insurance.
• Maternity benefits.
• Associate purchase and discount programs for vehicles, services, parts, collision, accessories, and AutoGear.
• Deals and discounts through YouDecide.
• Opportunity to participate in the DRVPNK mission supporting cancer research and treatment.

What This Job Offers

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