Staff Engineer II - Database Engineering

Western Alliance Bank • Dallas, TX

1d • Hybrid

About The Position

We are seeking a Staff Engineer II with strong hands-on experience supporting Oracle and Microsoft SQL Server platforms in highly regulated, enterprise environments. This role provides deep technical expertise to ensure database solutions are safe, secure, compliant, reliable, and performant, while also leading design efforts, mentoring peers, and collaborating across technology and business teams. The ideal candidate demonstrates advanced engineering judgment, strong operational discipline, and the ability to guide teams through complex technical and compliance-driven initiatives spanning on Prem and cloud environments.

Requirements

• 7+ years of hands-on experience engineering and supporting Oracle and Microsoft SQL Server databases in production environments.
• Bachelor's degree in related field required.
• Strong experience designing and supporting backup, recovery, high availability, and disaster recovery solutions.
• Demonstrated experience supporting regulated environments, including SOX, GDPR, internal/external audits, and security assessments.
• Advanced understanding of database security concepts, including encryption, access controls, audit logging, and separation of duties.
• Ability to troubleshoot issues end-to-end, from application behavior through database and infrastructure layers.
• Strong written and verbal communication skills, including the ability to create clear documentation and technical narratives.
• Experience creating standard operating procedures (SOPs/MOPs) and operational documentation.
• Strong collaboration, problem-solving, and leadership skills.
• Proficiency with common productivity tools (Excel, PowerPoint, Word).

Nice To Haves

• Previous leadership experience preferred.
• Intermediate to advanced knowledge of general Financial Services or Banking is preferred.
• Advanced knowledge of applicable regulatory and legal compliance obligations, rules and regulations, industry standards and practices.
• Advanced proven experience in leading cross-functional teams and managing multiple projects simultaneously.
• Additional experience with pipeline development and leveraging Azure DevOps while working on multiple projects simultaneously.
• Advanced ability to see the big picture and align projects with organizational goals.
• Capable of leading and motivating cross-functional teams.
• Expertise in resolving conflicts and addressing challenges as well as skilled at identifying and mitigating risks at the project level.
• Proficient in governance patterns tied to intake, technical reviews and architectural compliance.

Responsibilities

• Lead the technical planning and solution design for database initiatives, ensuring alignment with business goals, security standards, and regulatory requirements.
• Design, implement, and maintain reliable, resilient, and recoverable database solutions across Oracle and SQL Server platforms.
• Engineer and support high-availability and disaster recovery solutions, including backup, restore validation, replication, and DR testing.
• Monitor, analyze, and optimize database performance, availability, scalability, and security, including transaction-specific performance metrics that can be shared with business partners.
• Troubleshoot and resolve complex database issues related to performance, data integrity, concurrency, backup/recovery, replication, upgrades, and migrations.
• Establish, maintain, and enforce database standards, policies, procedures, and operational best practices, including secure configuration and hardening.
• Develop and maintain technical documentation, runbooks, and desktop procedures that others can execute, ensuring compliance with IT policies and industry standards.
• Serve as a subject matter expert for SOX, GDPR, audit, and security controls, supporting exams, evidence collection, remediation efforts, and control validation.
• Collaborate with application, infrastructure, cloud, DevOps, security, risk, and audit teams to ensure database solutions integrate cleanly with enterprise platforms.
• Review application database scripts for efficiency, performance, and compliance with standards.
• Implement automation and scripting to improve operational efficiency, reduce risk, and support compliance validation.
• Provide technical leadership and mentoring to other engineers and act as an escalation point for complex production or compliance-related issues.
• Support multiple projects simultaneously using disciplined governance, intake, and delivery practices.

Benefits

• Competitive salaries
• An ownership stake in the company
• Medical and dental insurance
• Time off
• A great 401k matching program
• Tuition assistance program
• An employee volunteer program
• A wellness program
• Opportunity to bolster business knowledge, learning the ins and outs of how successful companies operate and manage their finances, giving you invaluable hands-on experience to help grow your career!

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Senior