Senior Database Reliability Engineer

Frontline Education · Wayne, PA · Yesterday

On-siteEngineering$95k–$125k/yrFull-time

About the Role

At Frontline Education, our vision is Every school thriving. Every community stronger, and our mission is we transform how schools work, so every educator and student succeeds. We're looking for a Senior Database Reliability Engineer who is passionate about building resilient, secure, and scalable database platforms that power the applications educators rely on every day. As part of our Data Engineering team, you'll help ensure our production database environments remain highly available, performant, and secure while continuously modernizing how we operate through automation, observability, and AI-enabled engineering practices. This role is ideal for an engineer who enjoys solving complex operational challenges, embraces continuous improvement, and believes that reliable technology creates better experiences for our customers. You'll help shape the future of our database platform while contributing to an AI-first organization where technology amplifies human expertise.

Responsibilities

Develop a deep understanding of Frontline's production database environments, applications, and operational processes across AWS and on-premises platforms.
Design, manage, and optimize production database environments to maximize availability, performance, scalability, security, and operational efficiency.
Build and maintain database infrastructure using Infrastructure as Code, configuration management, and automated deployment pipelines.
Continuously identify opportunities to automate repetitive operational work using AI-enabled tools and modern engineering practices.
Implement and maintain backup, recovery, disaster recovery, high availability, and database observability solutions using metrics, logs, and traces.
Maintain database security through patching, encryption, access controls, and compliance with organizational standards.
Partner closely with Development, Infrastructure, Cloud Engineering, and Client Support teams to resolve production issues and improve overall platform reliability.
Participate in the team's on-call rotation while taking ownership of production database operations.
Evaluate emerging technologies and operational practices that improve scalability, resiliency, automation, and long-term maintainability.
Serve as a technical owner for one or more database platforms by mentoring teammates, influencing architecture, sharing knowledge, and driving operational excellence.
Build trusted partnerships across engineering teams by collaborating openly, sharing expertise, and always keeping customer outcomes at the center of technical decisions.

Qualifications

Bachelor's degree in Information Systems, Computer Science, or a related technical discipline, or equivalent practical experience.
Five or more years administering production database management systems in highly available 24x7 environments.
Demonstrated expertise with at least two enterprise database platforms such as Microsoft SQL Server, PostgreSQL, MySQL, IBM Db2, or MongoDB.
Experience with one or more additional database technologies.
Three or more years automating database or infrastructure operations using scripting, Infrastructure as Code, configuration management, or CI/CD pipelines.
Passion for continuous learning and applying emerging technologies thoughtfully to improve engineering outcomes.

Skills

Experience managing production database performance, availability, security, backup and recovery, and disaster recovery.
Strong SQL expertise, including performance tuning, query optimization, and troubleshooting.
Experience supporting high-transaction production systems.
Strong analytical, communication, and problem-solving skills.
Ability to collaborate effectively across engineering organizations while balancing operational excellence with customer needs.
Experience managing AWS-hosted databases.
Experience with Terraform, Ansible, PowerShell, Python, Bash, AWS CLI, or similar automation technologies.
Linux and Windows administration experience.
Knowledge of replication, clustering, partitioning, scalability, and high-availability technologies.
Experience using database observability and monitoring platforms.
Familiarity with ETL, data warehousing, or archival solutions.
Experience working within Agile, DevOps, Platform Engineering, or Site Reliability Engineering environments.
A mindset that embraces ownership, collaboration, curiosity, and continuous improvement while using AI responsibly to enhance engineering effectiveness.

Benefits

Personalized Time Off: Take time when it's needed most, whether that's a family vacation, a reset day, or simply time to rest and refocus.
Paid Sick Time: Separate, dedicated sick leave to care for yourself or loved ones.
Volunteer Time Off: Paid time to give back and support causes that matter to you.
Ten Paid Holidays: Enjoy meaningful moments and traditions throughout the year.
World-Class Learning Access through platforms like LinkedIn Learning.
Leadership and Technical Skill Building to help you grow your career.
AI Empowerment using OpenAI tools to strengthen your AI fluency and unlock new ways of solving problems.
Tuition Reimbursement for eligible education programs.
Ongoing Learning Culture through company-led sessions on AI, inclusion, leadership, and industry innovation.
Wellness initiatives supporting physical, emotional, and mental well-being.
Employee Assistance Program (EAP).
Comprehensive health and financial benefits.
A culture where every team member is encouraged to learn, grow, and thrive personally and professionally.

Pay

The full base compensation range for this role is: $95,000-$125,000. Frontline Education offers a competitive compensation package that reflects experience, skills, internal equity, and market data. Eligible employees may also receive: Annual bonus opportunities, 401(k) with company match, Employee Stock Purchase Plan (where applicable), comprehensive medical, dental, and vision coverage, flexible work options, Personalized Time Off, tuition reimbursement, wellness programs, and Employee Assistance Program.

Schedule

Hybrid to Wayne, PA or Naperville, IL, with remote consideration.