Lead Database Administrator

About the role

McKesson is an impact‑driven Fortune 10 company that delivers insights, products, and services to make quality care more accessible and affordable. The Lead Database Engineer will serve as the technical authority for enterprise PostgreSQL and SQL Server platforms across on‑premises and Microsoft Azure environments, driving strategy, architecture, reliability, automation, and lifecycle management of mission‑critical database services.

Responsibilities

• Own the design, implementation, operation, and continuous evolution of PostgreSQL, SQL Server, Azure SQL, and Azure PostgreSQL Flexible Server environments across cloud and on‑premises platforms.
• Lead complex cloud modernization and database migration initiatives, including architecture design, migration strategy, performance validation, cutover planning, and post‑migration stabilization.
• Establish and maintain database standards, reference architectures, operational runbooks, governance practices, and platform roadmaps that drive consistency and scalability.
• Design and validate highly available, resilient, and cost‑efficient database solutions, including disaster recovery, backup, recovery, replication, and failover architectures.
• Advance Infrastructure as Code and Database‑as‑Code practices through Terraform, Liquibase, and CI/CD automation to enable secure, repeatable deployments.
• Drive database performance, observability, and operational excellence through proactive tuning, capacity planning, monitoring, automation, and continuous improvement initiatives.
• Serve as the senior technical escalation point for critical production issues, leading incident response, root‑cause analysis, and preventative remediation efforts.
• Partner with security, infrastructure, and application teams to implement security controls, compliance requirements, access governance, and vulnerability remediation.
• Mentor engineers and DBAs, lead technical reviews, establish engineering standards, and promote knowledge sharing across teams.
• Present technical recommendations, roadmaps, risks, and architectural decisions to senior leaders and stakeholders, translating technical concepts into business outcomes.

Basic Requirements

• Degree or equivalent and typically 10 + years of relevant experience with database administration, database engineering, or related platform work.
• 5 + years serving in a senior, lead, architect, or enterprise technical leadership role supporting production database environments.
• 5 + years designing, operating, and optimizing databases in public cloud environments, with Microsoft Azure strongly preferred.
• Expert‑level PostgreSQL administration experience, including high availability, replication, performance tuning, upgrades, and operational support.
• Strong expertise administering SQL Server (2014 +) and Azure SQL in enterprise production environments.
• Demonstrated success supporting mission‑critical systems with stringent availability, reliability, security, and recovery requirements.
• Proven experience leading complex, cross‑functional database initiatives from concept through implementation.
• Demonstrated success mentoring engineers and DBAs while influencing technical standards and best practices across teams.

Preferred Skills / Experience

• Experience with Azure Database for PostgreSQL Flexible Server, Azure SQL Database, Azure SQL Managed Instance, Azure Monitor, Entra ID authentication, and private networking.
• Experience developing and maintaining Infrastructure as Code solutions using Terraform.
• Experience implementing database CI/CD pipelines using Liquibase and platforms such as Azure DevOps or GitHub Actions.
• Strong automation and scripting skills using PowerShell, Python, Bash, or similar technologies.
• Experience supporting Kubernetes‑based workloads and containerized application environments.
• Experience with SSIS, CDC technologies such as Qlik, and modern data integration or data movement patterns.
• Experience in healthcare or other regulated environments, including HIPAA, HITRUST, or SOC 2 compliance.
• Relevant Azure, PostgreSQL, SQL Server, or cloud platform certifications.
• Exposure to Azure Cosmos DB migration strategies.
• Practical experience leveraging AI‑assisted tools for troubleshooting, analysis, automation, or engineering productivity.

Compensation

Base Pay Range: $133,900 – $223,100. McKesson offers a competitive total rewards package that may include annual bonuses, long‑term incentive opportunities, and other benefits.