SQL Database Administrator

American Greetings - Westlake, OH

Full-time

Hybrid - Westlake, OH

Publishing Industries

About the position

The Database Administrator position is a critical role within our organization, responsible for providing comprehensive tier 1, 2, and 3 database management and administration support across all databases. This position requires a strong understanding of database architecture, both logical and physical design, as well as proficiency in automation, documentation, installations, and Linux environments. The ideal candidate will be well-versed in shell scripting, backup and recovery concepts, and database performance optimization. Strong analytical, verbal, and written communication skills are essential for success in this role. The Database Administrator will report directly to the Team Lead of Web Operations, collaborating closely with other team members to ensure the integrity and performance of our database systems. In this role, the Database Administrator will be responsible for a variety of essential duties, including managing database backups, design, development, testing, and performance tuning. They will conduct after-action analyses to identify and rectify issues, ensuring that similar problems do not recur in the future. The individual will serve as a subject matter expert within the team, identifying subtle impacts of proposed changes and creating accurate estimates for tasks. Timely completion of tasks is crucial, as is the ability to deliver results without requiring rework from other engineers. The Database Administrator will also be expected to continuously learn and apply new knowledge to achieve departmental goals. The role involves understanding and maintaining the underlying storage systems, such as SAN, NAS, and NFS, and their interaction with databases, particularly ORACLE ASM. The Database Administrator will audit databases for access and security, maintain database access control and privileges, and perform capacity planning for both space and performance. An advanced understanding of specific schema and metadata architecture as it relates to various business units is required, along with planning for disaster recovery scenarios and migrating data among databases and external sources. The candidate should be an expert in SQL and familiar with at least two database-specific variants, as well as understand replication and high availability concepts. Additionally, the Database Administrator will be responsible for enforcing database integrity through triggers, referential integrity, and constraints, as well as writing basic stored procedures, functions, and triggers. They will need to understand patching requirements and maintain a patch schedule, as well as have a foundational knowledge of database design and modeling. The role also champions process improvements, documentation, and operational best practices, while providing 24/7 support for both planned and unplanned activities to minimize business disruption. A basic understanding of Linux commands and networking tasks is also necessary, along with the ability to see the big picture of how databases integrate with other technologies.

Responsibilities

• Responsible for database backups, design, development, testing, and performance tuning.
• Conducts after-action analyses when things go bad and plans to prevent the same problem in the future.
• Debugs database performance problems, competent with profiling tools and documents the results and findings.
• Acts as a team-wide subject matter expert.
• Identifies subtle or obscure impacts of proposed changes.
• Creates estimates for tasks and finishes them within the expected time.
• Delivers results without rework from other engineers.
• Learns new things and applies that knowledge to achieve goals.
• Understands and maintains underlying storage (SAN, NAS, NFS, etc.) and database interaction (e.g., ORACLE ASM).
• Audits databases for access and security (via built-in software abilities or external tools).
• Maintains database access control and privileges.
• Performs capacity planning (space and performance).
• Has an advanced understanding of specific schema/meta data architecture as it relates to the various business units.
• Plans for disaster recovery (advanced backup/recovery scenarios).
• Migrates data among databases and to external sources.
• Expert in SQL (general) and 2+ database specific variants.
• Understands the concepts of replication and HA (knows specifics of implementing it in at least 1 vendor specific platform).
• Able to enforce database integrity (triggers, RI, constraints).
• Writes basic stored procedures/functions/triggers.
• Understands patching requirements (security and maintenance releases) and maintains patch schedule.
• Understands basics of database design and modeling (physical and logical) and can create and maintain a schema/database for at least 1 vendor specific platform.
• Champions process, documentation and operational improvements and best practices.
• Provides 24 x 7 support for both planned and unplanned activities to minimize disruption to the business.
• Understands basic Linux commands and operations.
• Understands basic networking tasks.
• Able to architecturally see the big picture as to how the database and other technologies come together.

Requirements

• Familiarity with database architecture, logical and physical design.
• Experience with automation, documentation, and installations.
• Proficiency in Linux and shell scripting.
• Knowledge of backup and recovery concepts.
• Strong analytical skills and ability to communicate effectively, both verbally and in writing.