Sr. Database Administrator - Computing Services

Computing Services is the central IT department at Carnegie Mellon University. We make service decisions based on input from colleagues across education, research, and administration. As a learning organization, we approach successes and mistakes as opportunities to cultivate a culture of intelligent risk-taking. We seek versatile team members who are inspired and passionate about their work to join a team committed to excellence, innovation, diversity, and individual growth.

About the Role

The Senior Database Administrator administers, secures, and optimizes Microsoft SQL Server databases in a Windows ecosystem and across public cloud platforms. This role involves installing, configuring, maintaining, patching, and tuning databases and their underlying infrastructure; designing and enforcing standards; performing backup, recovery, and disaster-recovery planning; providing Level-2/Level-3 escalation support; and designing cloud and hybrid application architectures.

The Senior DBA collaborates with application developers, cloud and infrastructure engineers, storage, and network teams to ensure reliable, performant, secure, and cost-effective data platforms.

Responsibilities

• Install, configure, and maintain Microsoft SQL Server instances and related components across Windows and cloud platforms.
• Implement and enforce database security measures to protect data across on-prem and cloud deployments, including encryption, access controls, and cloud IAM integrations.
• Monitor database performance, diagnose problems, and apply tuning, indexing, and query optimization to maintain application performance in both environments.
• Perform backup and recovery operations; design and test disaster-recovery plans using cloud provider capabilities (snapshots, managed backups, cross-region replication) and on-prem strategies.
• Maintain and enforce standards for database environments and technical documentation; ensure cloud governance, tagging, and change management procedures are followed.
• Provide Level-2/Level-3 escalation support and troubleshooting for production incidents and participate in an on-call rotation as required.
• Collaborate with application and cloud/infrastructure teams to design cloud architectures, optimize database costs and performance, and support deployments.
• Design, implement, and operate database platforms across public clouds and hybrid architectures, including managed services, instance sizing, networking, and secure connectivity (VNet/VPC, private endpoints, peering, VPN/ExpressRoute/Direct Connect).
• Operate and optimize managed cloud database services (Azure SQL, RDS/Aurora, Cloud SQL), NoSQL/document databases (Cosmos DB, DynamoDB), and analytics platforms (Synapse, Redshift, BigQuery).
• Lead and execute database migration efforts, including assessment, schema/data migration, cutover, validation, and refactoring for cloud-native usage.
• Implement Infrastructure as Code (Terraform, ARM, CloudFormation) and automations (PowerShell, Azure CLI, AWS CLI) to manage databases and related cloud infrastructure reproducibly.
• Create monitoring, alerting, and cost governance for database workloads (rightsizing, autoscaling, reserved instance/commitment strategies).
• Implement cloud security controls, encryption-at-rest/in-transit, key management, IAM policies, and assist with compliance assessments.
• Manage hybrid topologies spanning on-prem Windows servers and cloud services, orchestrate failover and disaster recovery, and ensure consistent configuration and documentation.
• Act as technical lead on cloud database projects, mentor junior staff, and work with application owners to migrate and modernize application database dependencies.

Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Information Science, Computer Engineering, or a closely related field.
• Preferred: Master’s degree or advanced coursework in databases, cloud computing, systems, or information security.
• 3–5 years of database administration experience and 3–5 years of systems administration experience in on-premise and public cloud vendor environments.
• Proven hands-on experience with Microsoft SQL Server and Windows Server.

Qualifications

• Hands-on Microsoft SQL Server administration (installation, configuration, upgrades, patching) across on-prem and cloud-hosted deployments (e.g., SQL Server on Windows VMs, SQL Server in containers, SQL Server on Azure/AWS managed VMs).
• Experience with container storage, cloud storage (AWS S3, Azure Blob), monitoring and capacity planning tools, automation (PowerShell, Python, Ansible), and operational tooling (ServiceNow).
• Experience with cloud-managed relational databases, including:
  • Managed relational: Azure SQL Database / Managed Instance, Amazon RDS / Aurora, Google Cloud SQL.
  • Data warehouse / analytics: Azure Synapse, Amazon Redshift, Google BigQuery.
  • NoSQL / document / key-value: Azure Cosmos DB, Amazon DynamoDB, Cloud Firestore, or equivalent.
  • Caching & in-memory: Azure Cache for Redis, Amazon ElastiCache.
• Proven experience with HA/DR and scaling in the cloud (multi-AZ, read replicas, geo-replication, managed backups, point-in-time restore, cross-region replication).
• Experience with T-SQL development and debugging, query optimization, index design and maintenance, statistics, and plan-analysis in both on-prem and cloud environments.
• Experience with cloud application architectures: microservices, serverless, containerized workloads (Kubernetes/EKS/AKS/GKE), and secure database connectivity patterns (VPC/VNet, service endpoints, private link).
• Experience with Infrastructure-as-Code and automation: Terraform, ARM templates, CloudFormation, Azure CLI / PowerShell / AWS CLI, CI/CD pipelines for database change management.
• Experience with cloud networking and identity integration: VPN/ExpressRoute/Direct Connect, VPC/VNet design, Azure AD / IAM roles and policies, key management services, and cloud KMS integration for encryption.
• Experience with monitoring, observability, and cost governance in cloud: Azure Monitor, AWS CloudWatch, GCP Stackdriver, cloud cost tools, and tagging strategies.
• Experience performing migrations from on-premises to cloud, hybrid configurations, lift-and-shift and refactor approaches, and validating performance and security post-migration.
• Familiarity with storage/IO tuning for cloud disks and cloud storage (managed disks, EBS, cloud file shares), and cloud backup/restore tooling and retention policies.
• Experience with ITSM/change-management in cloud and hybrid environments, and secure design practices and compliance controls for cloud data platforms.
• Helpful: ITIL Foundation, security certifications (CompTIA Security+, CISSP).

Preferred Certifications

• Microsoft Certified: Azure Database Administrator Associate
• Microsoft Certified: Azure Solutions Architect
• AWS Database Specialty or AWS Solutions Architect
• Google Cloud Professional Data Engineer
• Terraform Associate

Skills

• Ability to work under pressure, meet deadlines, pay attention to detail, and maintain composure in difficult situations.
• Able to prioritize multiple tasks and work as part of a team.
• Decision-making affects operational reliability, cloud architecture choices, migration approaches, and cost/performance tradeoffs.
• Accountable for availability, integrity, recoverability, and cost efficiency of assigned database services.

Benefits

• Comprehensive medical, prescription, dental, and vision insurance.
• Generous retirement savings program with employer contributions.
• Tuition benefits.
• Ample paid time off and observed holidays.
• Life and accidental death and disability insurance.
• Free Pittsburgh Regional Transit bus pass.
• Access to Family Concierge Team for childcare navigation.
• Fitness center access.

Schedule

Full-time, regular staff position. Normal office environment with flexibility for off-hours response for production incidents and participation in on-call rotations.

Location

Pittsburgh, PA