Data Base Administrator

Responsible for the availability, performance, security, and integrity of the system's production and non-production databases, primarily IBM Db2 and PostgreSQL. Supports application teams, infrastructure teams, and vendors to ensure databases are stable, recoverable, and meet agreed SLAs.

Key Responsibilities:

Administration & Operations

Install, configure, upgrade, and patch Db2 and PostgreSQL instances (on-premises, VM, or cloud, e.g. AWS RDS/Aurora PostgreSQL)

Monitor database health, capacity, and performance, and act on alerts

Manage users, roles, privileges, and access controls

Perform routine maintenance such as reorg, runstats, vacuum, reindexing, and storage management

Support L2/L3 incidents and problem management, including root cause analysis

Performance & Optimisation

Analyse and tune slow queries, indexes, execution plans, and configuration parameters

Work with developers on schema design, query optimisation, and data model changes

Plan capacity and recommend scaling or archiving strategies

Security & Compliance

Apply database hardening, encryption (at rest and in transit), and audit logging

Remediate database vulnerabilities and apply security patches per policy

Support audits and provide evidence for compliance requirements

Change, Release & Migration

Review and execute database changes and deployments through change management

Support data migration, version upgrades, and cloud migration activities

Maintain runbooks, standard operating procedures, and database documentation

Vendor & Stakeholder Coordination

Coordinate with vendors (e.g. IBM) on support cases and licensing

Report on database performance, availability, and capacity in service reviews

Qualifications:

Diploma or Bachelor's degree in IT, Computer Science, or a related field (or equivalent experience)

4-7 years of hands-on DBA experience in production environments

Strong experience with both IBM Db2 (LUW) and PostgreSQL

Proven experience in backup and recovery, replication, HA/DR, and performance tuning

Experience with Linux (RHEL preferred) and shell scripting

Preferred certifications: IBM Certified Database Administrator (Db2), PostgreSQL certification (e.g. EDB), AWS Certified Database Specialty, ITIL 4 Foundation

Skills:

Strong SQL skills and database internals knowledge

Scripting and automation (Bash, Python, Ansible) for routine tasks

Familiarity with monitoring tools (e.g. Prometheus, Grafana, CloudWatch, pgAdmin, Db2 monitoring tools)

Working knowledge of cloud platforms (AWS) and containerised environments

Familiarity with ITSM tools (e.g. ServiceNow) and change management processes

Strong troubleshooting skills, attention to detail, and clear communication

Calm and effective under pressure during incidents