Job description:
Purpose of the Job
The Senior Manager – Database Services will be a high-impact technology leader responsible for driving the global database strategy, stabilizing legacy systems, and transforming Aramex’s database landscape for the future. This role requires a result-oriented, strategic “go-getter” who combines technical depth, commercial acumen, and leadership to deliver measurable business outcomes. You will oversee the transition from a legacy MS SQL and PostgreSQL estate to SaaS/cloud-based databases while optimizing costs, enabling optimal licensing and operational efficiency.
The overall purpose of this role is to:
- Define and execute a global database strategy that balances operational stability, modernization, and cost efficiency.
Lead the stabilization and transformation of the current database estate, ensuring high availability, performance, and security.
- Drive the adoption of SaaS and cloud-native databases (e.g., Snowflake, Amazon Aurora, Google Cloud Spanner) to modernize the enterprise landscape.
- Establish and enforce database architecture standards, operational best practices, and compliance policies aligned with industry technology standards.
- Take ownership of database performance tuning, query optimization, indexing, partitioning, replication, and other strategies to maximize efficiency and resilience.
- Optimize database licensing, identify cost-saving opportunities, and implement core database optimization strategies to maximize ROI.
- Develop robust backup, recovery, and disaster recovery strategies across both legacy and cloud/SaaS environments.
- Collaborate with application development, infrastructure, and data teams to ensure seamless integration and alignment with business objectives.
- Evaluate, select, and implement emerging database technologies, tools, and automation solutions to enhance performance, scalability, and cost-effectiveness.
- Lead, mentor, and grow a high-performing global database team, fostering a culture of technical excellence, innovation, and accountability.
- Serve as a trusted strategic partner to senior leadership, translating business priorities into actionable, measurable database initiatives.
Job Description
Customer / Stakeholder Engagement:
- Proactively engage with internal customers across Technology and business units to understand complex database requirements, application workloads, and strategic data needs.
- Partner with business and IT stakeholders to ensure database services enable scalable, high-performance, and secure solutions that support critical applications and business objectives.
- Define and implement database strategies that align with organizational goals and future-proof the enterprise database landscape.
People Leadership:
- Lead, mentor, and develop a global team of database engineers and administrators, fostering a culture of technical excellence, accountability, and innovation.
- Collaborate with cross-functional teams—including application developers, data engineers, and IT operations—to ensure seamless integration, high availability, and optimized database performance.
- Build strong working relationships with senior stakeholders, promoting database best practices, governance, and operational standards across the organization.
Operations & Technical Excellence:
- Design, deploy, and manage scalable database architectures for relational (MS SQL, PostgreSQL) and NoSQL/SaaS databases (e.g., MongoDB, Snowflake, Amazon Aurora).
- Lead database migration, consolidation, and modernization initiatives, balancing operational stability with cloud/SaaS adoption.
- Implement and optimize high-performance database operations, including indexing, partitioning, replication, query tuning, and automation for both legacy and cloud environments.
- Develop and maintain monitoring, alerting, and capacity planning frameworks to ensure database reliability, availability, and performance.
- Establish and enforce database governance, security, and compliance standards while optimizing licensing, operational costs, and total cost of ownership.
Financial & Strategic Impact:
- Ensure database services deliver measurable business value, operational efficiency, and cost optimization.
- Optimize database licensing, resource utilization, and storage strategies to maximize ROI and support scalable growth.
- Define and track KPIs for database performance, stability, and modernization initiatives, providing clear reporting and insights to senior management.
Job Requirements - Experience and Education
- Demonstrated experience in database architecture, design, and data modeling for enterprise-scale relational and NoSQL databases.
- Proven expertise in managing and administering relational databases (MS SQL, PostgreSQL) and NoSQL databases (e.g., MongoDB, Cassandra, DynamoDB).
- Experience with cloud and SaaS database platforms (e.g., Snowflake, Amazon Aurora, Google Cloud Spanner) and hybrid database environments.
- Strong understanding of database optimization techniques including indexing, partitioning, query performance tuning, replication, and high availability strategies.
- Hands-on experience with database migration, consolidation, and modernization initiatives from legacy on-premises systems to cloud or SaaS solutions.
- In-depth knowledge of database governance, security, and compliance best practices, including licensing management and cost optimization strategies.
- Expertise in backup, recovery, and disaster recovery planning for both relational and NoSQL databases.
- Familiarity with automation, monitoring, and orchestration tools to manage and optimize database operations efficiently.
- Proven ability to lead global teams in stabilizing, transforming, and scaling database operations.
- Strong commercial acumen with experience optimizing database licensing, operational costs, and total cost of ownership.
- Demonstrated ability to evaluate, select, and implement emerging database technologies and tools to support strategic business objectives.
- Excellent stakeholder management, leadership, and strategic thinking skills, with the ability to influence senior management and drive initiatives to completion.
- Strong analytical, problem-solving, and decision-making skills with a track record of delivering measurable operational improvements.
- Flexibility to manage multiple priorities in a fast-paced, global enterprise environment.
- Bachelor’s degree in computer science, Information Systems, or a related field; 15+ years of relevant experience in database administration, architecture, and services.
Leadership Behaviors Building Outstanding Teams Setting a clear direction Simplification Collaborate & break silos Execution & Accountability Growth mindset Innovation Inclusion External focus Skills
