- Experience: 6–9 years in production database administration / engineering
- Level: Senior Individual Contributor (hands-on)
- Function: Data Platform — reliability, performance, and governance across relational and distributed SQL & NoSQL DBs.
About the Role
We are hiring a Senior Database Administrator to own the health, performance, and reliability of the data layer behind a high-scale, multi-tenant platform. Our environment spans several independent PostgreSQL database instances, a cache-first read tier, change-data-capture pipeline, analytics and archival stores. Should be capable of implementing NoSQL stores (Cassandra / ScyllaDB) & MySQL end to end as we scale.
This is a hands-on senior IC role for someone who has run demanding production databases and wants full ownership: partitioning and maintenance, performance tuning, monitoring, uptime, disaster recovery, and the security and data-governance documentation that keeps a regulated, multi-tenant platform audit-ready. You will work closely with, and take direction from, engineering leadership — translating priorities into a well-run, well-documented data platform.
What You'll OwnPostgreSQL Depth
- Administer multiple production PostgreSQL instances (v16+), including schema/DDL review, migrations, and release coordination.
- Design and maintain table partitioning strategies (range/hash/time-based) and automate partition lifecycle — creation, retention windows, and safe drops.
- Own query and instance performance tuning: EXPLAIN/ANALYZE, indexing strategy, autovacuum/bloat management, connection pooling (e.g. PgBouncer), and parameter-group tuning.
- Execute zero-downtime schema changes using expand–migrate–contract / blue-green patterns; assess lock impact and avoid long ACCESS EXCLUSIVE locks on hot tables.
- Manage replica topology (writer/reader endpoints), replication lag, and read-scaling as load grows.
- Partner with app teams on migration tooling (e.g. Flyway) and paired forward/rollback scripts; enforce idempotent, reviewed, tested DDL.
NoSQL & Scale
- Data-model, deploy, and operate distributed NoSQL clusters — Cassandra and/or ScyllaDB — including partition/clustering key design, compaction strategy, repair, and node operations (bootstrap, decommission, scale-out).
- Lead the planned migration of high-volume payload tables from partitioned PostgreSQL to Cassandra/ScyllaDB: capacity planning, dual-write/backfill design, cutover, and validation.
- Tune distributed-store read/write paths, consistency levels, and cluster sizing for predictable latency at scale.
- Support the cache-first architecture (Redis) and change-data-capture / streaming pipelines (e.g. Kafka) that move data to analytics and cold-archival stores.
Operations, Reliability & DR
- Own database uptime and SLOs; build and maintain monitoring, alerting, and dashboards for the key signals (latency, replication lag, CPU/IO, connections, vacuum lag, error rates).
- Define and regularly test backup and disaster-recovery strategy — RPO/RTO targets, point-in-time recovery, restore drills, and cross-AZ / future multi-region readiness.
- Drive incident response for database-related issues: triage, mitigation, root-cause analysis, and follow-up actions.
- Write and maintain runbooks (partition maintenance, failover, archival, DR, migration procedures) and participate in an on-call rotation for the data layer.
- Establish production-change discipline: pre-flight and post-deploy verification, rollback criteria, and backup verification before destructive operations.
Security, Governance & Documentation
- Implement and maintain database access control — least-privilege roles, schema-scoped permissions, and row-level security (RLS) for multi-tenant isolation.
- Own data-governance documentation: PII maps, per-table retention policies, audit-readiness, and the controls behind privacy-regulation compliance (e.g. GDPR / DPDP-style erasure and legal-hold workflows).
- Author and maintain architecture decision records (ADRs), schema documentation, and monitoring/runbook docs so the data platform is legible to the wider team.
- Uphold encryption-at-rest/in-transit posture and safe handling of sensitive columns; keep the data layer aligned with the platform's compliance requirements.
Coding & Automation Bar (Required)
This role is automation-first, not click-ops. The right candidate treats repetitive database work as something to script away and can drop into application code when a problem demands it.
- Strong scripting in Python and Bash for automation of maintenance, backups, partition management, backfills, and health checks.
- Comfortable with infrastructure-as-code (e.g. Terraform) and configuration management (e.g. Ansible) for reproducible database infrastructure.
- Solid SQL and PL/pgSQL; able to read and debug application-layer database code and, worst case, write or patch application code (e.g. Python/Node/Java) to unblock a fix.
- Fluent with Git-based workflows, code review, and CI for database migrations and tooling.
Required Qualifications
- 6–9 years operating relational databases in demanding production environments, with deep PostgreSQL expertise (internals, partitioning, replication, performance tuning).
- Hands-on experience running at least one distributed NoSQL store in production — Cassandra or ScyllaDB strongly preferred (other wide-column/distributed stores considered).
- Proven ownership of backup/DR, monitoring, and incident response for production databases.
- Strong scripting/automation background (Python, Bash) and experience with IaC.
- Experience with managed cloud databases (AWS RDS or equivalent) and understanding of instance/parameter-group tuning, replicas, and failover.
- Experience designing for multi-tenancy and data isolation at scale.
- Clear written communication — able to produce runbooks, ADRs, and governance docs a team can rely on.
Nice to Have
- Experience migrating workloads from PostgreSQL to Cassandra/ScyllaDB (or similar relational-to-distributed migrations).
- Familiarity with Redis as a cache tier and with CDC / streaming pipelines (e.g. Kafka, Debezium).
- Exposure to Flyway (or Liquibase), pgTAP or similar schema testing, and PgBouncer.
- Working knowledge of privacy regulations (GDPR, India DPDP) and audit/compliance processes.
- How You Work
- Ownership mindset — takes a directive and runs it to done, with sound judgment on trade-offs.
- Reliability-first and detail-oriented; disciplined about verification, rollback, and documentation.
- Collaborative in a high-performing engineering team; communicates clearly with developers and leadership.
- Pragmatic and scale-aware — designs for where the platform is going, not just where it is.
Pay: ₹2,000,000.00 - ₹3,500,000.00 per year
Benefits:
Work Location: In person
