Senior Database Administrator

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Arch Capital Services – Sr. Database Administrator

Job Summary

As a Senior Database Administrator, you will be responsible for designing, implementing, maintaining, and optimizing robust and scalable database systems that support business-critical applications. Leveraging your deep expertise in database platforms such as Microsoft SQL Server, Azure SQL, Snowflake, and MongoDB, you will ensure the availability, security, and performance of enterprise data environments. You will play a key role in high availability, disaster recovery planning, backup and restore operations, and performance tuning, while also identifying opportunities to improve operational efficiency through automation. Your work will align with industry best practices and the well-architected framework, ensuring reliable, compliant, and cost-effective database infrastructure across both on-premises and cloud environments.

Brief Description

• Manages and supports critical enterprise database systems with a focus on high availability, disaster recovery, and business continuity using technologies such as Always On Availability Groups, clustering, replication, and log shipping.
• Expert in the design, administration, optimization, and migration of databases across multiple platforms including Microsoft SQL Server, Azure SQL, Snowflake, MongoDB, MySQL, Oracle, and Cosmos DB.
• Proficient in T-SQL, PowerShell, and scripting languages for automating routine database tasks, improving performance, and managing backup/recovery operations.
• Experienced in implementing and managing secure, scalable, and compliant database environments, applying best practices for encryption, auditing, authentication, and authorization.
• Skilled in using performance tuning tools and techniques to monitor and optimize database health, troubleshoot issues, and proactively address performance bottlenecks.
• Develops and maintains resilient database architectures that align with business objectives and support both on-prem and cloud-native applications.
• Maintains high attention to detail in implementing maintenance plans, DR strategies, patching cycles, and upgrades to ensure data availability and integrity.
• Collaborates with application teams, infrastructure engineers, and business stakeholders to provide database support, resolve issues, and guide platform improvements.
• Designs, documents, and implements database recovery procedures, failover processes, and operational standards to reduce downtime and ensure system continuity.
• Supports strategic planning and project execution, ensuring that database infrastructure evolves in line with enterprise technology goals and compliance requirements.
• Works closely with operations teams to automate repetitive tasks, monitor critical systems, and implement alerting frameworks for proactive incident response.
• Aligns database strategy with overall business and IT objectives, helping prioritize database-related investments and resources effectively.

Responsibilities

• Design, deploy, and maintain high availability and disaster recovery solutions, including SQL Server Always On Availability Groups, replication, log shipping, and database mirroring.
• Administer and optimize relational and non-relational databases, including Microsoft SQL Server, Azure SQL, Snowflake, MongoDB, and Cosmos DB.
• Develop and manage backup and recovery strategies to ensure data protection and minimal downtime.
• Monitor database health, performance, and capacity using tools such as SQL Profiler, Extended Events, Query Store, and Azure Monitor.
• Implement security best practices including encryption, access control, auditing, and compliance reporting.
• Perform proactive database tuning, indexing, and query optimization to improve performance and scalability.
• Design and maintain database maintenance plans, jobs, alerts, and automation scripts (T-SQL, PowerShell, etc.).
• Work closely with application teams to support database development, data migrations, deployments, and troubleshooting.
• Maintain documentation for infrastructure configurations, operational procedures, and disaster recovery plans.
• Provide production support, troubleshooting, and root cause analysis for database-related incidents and outages.
• Participate in capacity planning, patching cycles, and upgrade projects to maintain system stability and support growth.
• Support cloud database architecture and services in Microsoft Azure, including Managed Instance, Azure SQL DB, and Azure Data Factory pipelines.

Knowledge and Skills

• Extensive experience with Microsoft SQL Server architecture, administration, and optimization, including support for Always On Availability Groups, failover clustering, replication, and log shipping for high availability and disaster recovery.
• Strong working knowledge of Azure data platform services, such as Azure SQL Database, Azure SQL Managed Instance, and Azure Data Factory, including provisioning, configuration, security, and performance management.
• Proficient in T-SQL, PowerShell, and scripting for automating database maintenance tasks, backups, monitoring, and incident response.
• Hands-on experience with Snowflake administration, including database performance tuning, role-based access control, storage/compute optimization, and data integration.
• Experience with NoSQL and cloud-native databases such as MongoDB, Cosmos DB, and MongoDB Atlas, including data modeling, indexing strategies, and backup/restoration processes.
• Deep understanding of database backup and recovery strategies, including point-in-time recovery, transaction log management, offsite backups, and recovery testing.
• Skilled in performance tuning, query optimization, execution plan analysis, and index management to ensure database efficiency and stability.
• Strong grasp of database security principles, including authentication, authorization, encryption (at rest and in transit), auditing, and compliance (e.g., SOX, HIPAA, GDPR).
• Experience managing database upgrades, patching cycles, and schema deployments in complex production environments with minimal downtime.
• Proficiency in monitoring tools such as SQL Server Profiler, Query Store, Extended Events, Redgate SQL Monitor, and Azure Monitor for proactive database health checks.
• Familiarity with incident and change management processes, including working with ITSM tools like ServiceNow to handle tickets, outages, and root cause analysis.
• Ability to interpret business requirements and translate them into resilient, scalable database designs aligned with enterprise architecture goals.
• Strong analytical and troubleshooting skills with the ability to diagnose and resolve complex database issues under pressure.
• Excellent documentation and communication skills to create runbooks, architectural diagrams, SOPs, and to work effectively with cross-functional teams.
• Demonstrated experience leading or supporting database modernization, cloud migration, and data platform consolidation initiatives.

Preferred Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in computer science, Computer Engineering, Information Systems, or related field, or 10 years equivalent work experience across database and software engineering roles
• Excellent oral and written communication skills with the ability to communicate database concepts to a technical and non-technical audience.
• Exceptional Customer and End User Experience focus for database services and applications.
• Demonstrated ability to establish relationships and build rapport to influence colleagues at all levels, uncover database issues, and identify needs.
• Knowledge of disaster recovery best practices for databases, including planning and testing backup and restore procedures.
• Experience with continuous (blue/green) deployment and canary tests for database changes and migrations
• Experience working in a hybrid on/offshore model for database development and administration.

Environment and/or Physical Factors

• UK, or Remote with ability to travel to Arch Office 1-2 times in a year for Summits/ Team Gatherings / Workshops
• Ability to travel with in the U.K up to 5% of the time

Do you like solving complex business problems, working with talented colleagues and have an innovative mindset? Arch may be a great fit for you. If this job isn’t the right fit but you’re interested in working for Arch, create a job alert! Simply create an account and opt in to receive emails when we have job openings that meet your criteria. Join our talent community to share your preferences directly with Arch’s Talent Acquisition team.

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