Senior Database Administrator

This position is eligible for teleworking, which is currently 2 days per week. New hires are eligible to apply 30 days after their effective date of hire.

Opening

The Metropolitan Transportation Authority is North America's largest transportation network, serving a population of 15.3 million people across a 5,000-square-mile travel area surrounding New York City, Long Island, southeastern New York State, and Connecticut. The MTA network comprises the nation’s largest bus fleet and more subway and commuter rail cars than all other U.S. transit systems combined. MTA strives to provide a safe and reliable commute, excellent customer service, and rewarding opportunities.

Summary

The Senior Database Administrator serves as a senior technical expert responsible for the design, optimization, and reliable operation of the organization's database environments to ensure data integrity, security, availability, and performance. This role supports database architecture, capacity planning, and performance management while leading the implementation and ongoing management of complex database systems across on-premises and cloud platforms. The Senior DBA applies established standards and best practices to integrate and maintain multi-platform database environments, ensuring scalability, resilience, and operational stability for mission-critical data platforms. Acting as a technical leader and mentor, this role provides guidance to project teams, collaborates across IT domains, and supports the consistent delivery of secure, high-availability, and high-performance database services.

Responsibilities

• Implements and maintains disaster recovery and high-availability solutions for supported database platforms to minimize service disruption. Develops and maintains database backup strategies, including scheduling, validation testing, and documentation to meet recovery and compliance requirements. Plans and coordinates database installations, upgrades, and maintenance activities, ensuring reliable operations and consistent performance. Provides technical guidance and mentoring to junior and mid-level DBAs, promoting best practices, skill development, and efficient workflows. Monitors database performance using established tools and metrics, identifying trends and proactively addressing potential issues.
• Performs advanced SQL tuning and performance optimization, including query analysis, indexing strategies, and configuration adjustments. Implement automation and scripting solutions to proactively detect and resolve performance issues and reduce manual operational effort. Conducts regular system health checks and recommends configuration or operational improvements to optimize resource utilization. Implements and maintains backup and recovery solutions aligned with defined RTO and RPO objectives.
• Administers high-availability and resiliency configurations, including replication, clustering, mirroring, and failover technologies. Contributes to database architecture and design decisions, supporting scalable, secure, and high-performing database platforms for mission-critical business applications. Serves as a senior technical subject matter expert (SME) across assigned database technologies, providing guidance on integration, modernization, and optimization efforts. Supports database technology roadmaps and modernization initiatives, ensuring alignment with established enterprise architecture standards and business requirements. Resolves complex database performance, scalability, and availability issues, leading troubleshooting efforts and implementing effective remediation solutions.
• Research and evaluate emerging database technologies, providing recommendations to support future enhancements and platform improvements. Collaborate with business and technical stakeholders to identify opportunities where database solutions can improve business processes and system performance. Designs, implements, and documents database solutions and technical standards, ensuring alignment with business needs and approved architectural guidelines. Participate in disaster recovery testing exercises, validating procedures, documenting results, and supporting continuous improvement efforts. Supports data protection and business continuity initiatives through redundancy planning and fault-tolerant database configurations.
• Implements and enforces database security controls, including user access management, encryption, authentication, and compliance with established policies. Participates in security audits and vulnerability assessments, assisting with remediation of identified risks and findings. Safeguards the confidentiality, integrity, and availability (CIA) of sensitive and mission-critical data assets. Configures and maintains monitoring and alerting tools to track database performance, availability, capacity, and usage trends. Responds to database incidents and outages, ensuring timely resolution of performance, connectivity, or data integrity issues. Performs root cause analysis for recurring database issues and implements corrective actions to prevent recurrence. Develops and maintains automation scripts (e.g., Shell, Python, Ansible) to improve operational efficiency and reliability. Implements integration with enterprise identity services, such as Active Directory, to support secure authentication and access management. Executes cross-platform data migrations and transport activities, including transportable tablespaces, endian conversion, and platform transition support.

Required Qualifications

• Bachelor’s Degree in Arts/Sciences (BA/BS)
• A minimum of 5 years of relevant experience. An equivalent combination of education and experience may be considered in lieu of a degree.
• Requires at least one certification in the current platform/domain/technical skill.At least one certification must be an Oracle Database Administrator certification or an SQL Server certification (e.g., OCP or OCE). Additional certifications may include, but are not limited to:
  • Relevant Certifications
  • AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner
  • Google Certified Professional Cloud Architect 
  • Azure Database Administrator Associate
  • Microsoft Azure Administrator 
  • AWS Certified Solution Architect - Associate & Professional 
  • Microsoft Certified: Azure Administrator Associate  
  • Azure Administrator Associate 
  • Oracle Database Administrator certification (e.g., OCP or OCE)
  • Fundamental knowledge of Oracle AWS RDS or Azure cloud

Technical Skills

• Strong experience installing, configuring, and administering Oracle Database platforms (11g, 12c, 19c) within enterprise production environments.
• Proficient in administering and supporting multiple relational database platforms, including Oracle, SQL Server, MySQL, and PostgreSQL.
• Support database running in Azure, Oracle, and AWS cloud.
• Manage and optimize SQL Server and relational database deployments across AWS and Azure environments, ensuring high availability, security, and performance.
• Implement backup, disaster recovery, and monitoring solutions for cloud-hosted databases, leveraging native AWS RDS and Azure SQL capabilities for scalability and reliability.
• Skilled in database provisioning, cloning, and migration using DBCA, SQL scripting, and Oracle Data Pump to support application and infrastructure needs.
• Experienced in implementing and executing backup, recovery, and cloning solutions using RMAN, Flashback technologies, and Recovery Catalogs.
• Proficient in database security administration, including user and role management, privilege assignment, auditing, and compliance configuration.
• Advanced capability in SQL performance tuning using tools such as AWR, ASH, ADDM, and SQL Monitor to identify and resolve performance issues.
• Strong expertise in query execution plan analysis using EXPLAIN PLAN, DBMS_XPLAN, SQL Trace, and TKPROF.
• Experienced in databases and instance performance tuning, including SGA, PGA, I/O optimization, and parallel execution settings.
• Hands-on experience configuring, patching, and troubleshooting Oracle Real Application Clusters (RAC) environments.
• Skilled in implementing and supporting Oracle Data Guard and Active Data Guard configurations, including monitoring, switchover, and failover activities.
• Experience configuring and administering Oracle GoldenGate replication, including monitoring replication health and resolving conflicts.
• Proficient in the design, implementation, and maintenance of Automatic Storage Management (ASM) environments.
• Working experience provisioning and administering Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI) database services, including Autonomous Database, Exadata Cloud Service, and OCI DB Systems.

Behavioral Skills

• Advanced in establishing and maintaining effective working relationships with employees at all levels within the organization and with both internal and external customers.
• Advanced interpersonal, verbal, and written communication skills, with the ability to effectively collaborate with both technical and non-technical peers.
• Advanced in communicating effectively, both orally and in writing, to interact with team members, customers, management, and support personnel (technical and non-technical)
• Adept in identifying and analyzing risks and developing effective mitigation strategies.
• Adept in critical thinking, problem-solving, and decision-making skills.
• Adept in active listening, attention to detail, customer service, prioritization, and problem-solving skills.
• Adept in hands-on experience with related tools.
• Adept at working independently and strategically.
• Adept technical knowledge and diverse skillset to understand various technologies, systems, and potential risks.
• Adept in managing multiple projects simultaneously and prioritizing tasks based on urgency and impact.
• Adept at working under pressure and meeting deadlines individually and collaboratively. Thinks logically, assesses problems, and is results-oriented. 
• Adept in identifying complex business and technology risks and associated vulnerabilities.

Other Information

Pursuant to the New York State Public Officers Law & the MTA Code of Ethics, all employees who hold a policymaking position must file an Annual Statement of Financial Disclosure (FDS) with the NYS Commission on Ethics and Lobbying in Government (the “Commission”).

Equal Employment Opportunity

MTA and its subsidiary and affiliated agencies are Equal Opportunity Employers, including with respect to veteran status and individuals with disabilities.

The MTA encourages qualified applicants from diverse backgrounds, experiences, and abilities, including military service members, to apply.