Senior Database Administrator

Job Description

Western Governors University (WGU) is seeking a highly skilled and experienced Senior Database Administrator to serve as a technical leader responsible for designing, implementing, securing, and optimizing enterprise database platforms across cloud and hybrid environments.

This role is ideal for a database professional who thrives in complex, large-scale environments and enjoys balancing strategic architecture initiatives with hands-on operational excellence. You'll play a critical role in modernizing data platforms, enabling cloud transformation, improving reliability and performance, and ensuring business continuity across mission-critical systems.

The Senior Database Administrator partners closely with software engineers, cloud infrastructure teams, enterprise security, architects, and business stakeholders to deliver highly available, secure, and scalable database solutions. In addition to serving as a subject matter expert, you'll mentor fellow DBAs and help shape the future of WGU's database ecosystem.

Database Architecture & Engineering

• Design, implement, and manage enterprise-grade database environments across Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI), AWS, and hybrid platforms.
• Lead architecture and administration efforts for Oracle Exadata Cloud@Customer (ExaCC), Oracle RAC, and Oracle GoldenGate.
• Design and support active-active, high-availability, and global database architectures, including Aurora Global Database and Oracle RAC.
• Lead enterprise database modernization initiatives, including migrations from on-premises environments to cloud-native services.
• Serve as a trusted technical advisor for strategic database and infrastructure decisions.

Cloud & Platform Modernization

• Lead migration efforts from bare-metal and traditional database environments to managed cloud services.
• Engineer and administer AWS database technologies including: Amazon RDS (Oracle, PostgreSQL, MySQL, SQL Server), Amazon Aurora, DynamoDB, ElastiCache, Amazon Redshift, OpenSearch/Elasticsearch
• Utilize AWS Database Migration Service (DMS) and related technologies to support modernization initiatives.
• Partner with engineering teams to support application decomposition and migration from monolithic architectures to microservices.

Reliability, Security & Performance

• Establish and maintain Recovery Time Objectives (RTO) and Recovery Point Objectives (RPO) across critical platforms.
• Lead database security initiatives including encryption, auditing, access controls, compliance, and vulnerability remediation.
• Perform advanced database performance tuning, optimization, capacity planning, and forecasting.
• Develop and maintain disaster recovery and business continuity strategies.
• Conduct synthetic testing and performance validation to ensure platform readiness.

Operations & Support

• Troubleshoot and resolve complex database incidents, outages, and performance issues.
• Lead root cause analysis and implement preventative solutions.
• Manage database patching, upgrades, maintenance, and lifecycle management activities.
• Execute database-related deployments, data fixes, and production changes.
• Participate in a 24x7x365 on-call rotation and support critical maintenance activities.
• Develop metrics, dashboards, and reporting to measure operational effectiveness and platform health.

Leadership & Collaboration

• Mentor and guide junior and mid-level database administrators.
• Collaborate closely with cloud engineers, software developers, security teams, and project stakeholders.
• Lead enterprise-level projects from planning through successful implementation.
• Promote operational excellence, automation, and continuous improvement practices across the organization.

Required Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Information Technology, Information Systems, or a related field.
• Equivalent combinations of education, certifications, training, and experience will be considered.
• 5+ years of enterprise database administration and engineering experience supporting Oracle databases.
• 4+ years of experience administering enterprise database platforms including PostgreSQL, MySQL, Oracle, Aurora, DynamoDB, ElastiCache, Redshift, and Elasticsearch/OpenSearch.
• Experience designing and supporting highly available, mission-critical database environments.
• Experience migrating databases from traditional infrastructure to cloud database services.
• Experience implementing and supporting AWS database technologies and migration tooling.
• Experience supporting application modernization initiatives and microservices architectures.
• Experience with database deployment automation, DevOps practices, and CI/CD pipelines.
• Experience working within Change Management and ITIL-based operational environments.

Preferred Qualifications

• 7+ years of enterprise database administration and engineering experience.
• Experience with Qlik Replicate, Qlik analytics platforms, and Talend integrations.
• Experience supporting large-scale cloud transformation initiatives.
• Relevant Oracle, AWS, or database-related certifications.
• Experience in higher education, healthcare, financial services, or other highly regulated environments.