Senior Database Engineer – SQL/NoSQL (Development & Architecture)

About the Role

Senior Database Engineer

This is a hands-on technical role combining the responsibilities of a Database Developer, Database Administrator, and Database Architect.

The ideal candidate must be capable of designing complex, scalable database architectures from the ground up while also possessing strong programming skills to develop and optimize stored procedures, complex queries, functions, scripts, and other database components.

You will work closely with software architects, backend developers, DevOps engineers, and project teams to ensure that our database systems are secure, reliable, highly available, and optimized for performance.

Key Responsibilities

1. Database Architecture & Design

• Design and architect highly scalable, secure, and efficient SQL and NoSQL database solutions for complex enterprise applications.
• Evaluate project requirements and determine the most appropriate database technologies and architectural approaches.
• Design logical and physical data models, relational schemas, document structures, relationships, and indexing strategies.
• Define database architecture for high-volume transactional applications, distributed systems, and microservices.
• Implement database design principles including normalization, denormalization, partitioning, replication, and sharding where appropriate.
• Design solutions for high availability, fault tolerance, disaster recovery, and horizontal/vertical scaling.
• Establish database architecture standards, documentation, and best practices across projects.

2. Database Development & Programming

• Develop, maintain, and optimize complex SQL queries, stored procedures, functions, triggers, views, and database scripts.
• Write efficient T-SQL, PL/pgSQL, or equivalent database programming code.
• Develop database-level logic and data processing routines for complex application requirements.
• Implement efficient data retrieval, transformation, validation, and manipulation operations.
• Design and maintain database migration scripts, schema changes, and data correction utilities.
• Optimize existing database code for performance, maintainability, and reliability.
• Review database scripts and SQL code developed by other engineers.
• Troubleshoot complex database programming issues and resolve data inconsistencies.

3. SQL & NoSQL Database Expertise

• Work extensively with relational databases such as Microsoft SQL Server, PostgreSQL, and MySQL.
• Design, develop, and maintain NoSQL databases such as MongoDB and Amazon DynamoDB.
• Understand and apply SQL versus NoSQL architectural patterns based on application requirements.
• Implement appropriate indexing, query optimization, and data modeling strategies for both relational and non-relational databases.
• Design efficient document schemas, collections, partition keys, and data access patterns.
• Work with caching technologies such as Redis where applicable.
• Evaluate trade-offs involving transactions, consistency, availability, scalability, and performance.

4. Database Administration & Maintenance

• Manage and maintain existing production, staging, and development database environments.
• Proactively monitor database health, availability, performance, storage utilization, and resource consumption.
• Identify and resolve performance bottlenecks, deadlocks, locking issues, inefficient queries, and connection problems.
• Establish and maintain automated database backup, recovery, and disaster recovery procedures.
• Perform database upgrades, migrations, maintenance, and routine health checks.
• Implement appropriate database security controls, encryption, access management, and audit logging.
• Ensure database integrity, consistency, reliability, and data protection.
• Conduct root cause analysis of database incidents and implement preventive measures.

5. Performance Optimization & Scalability

• Analyze execution plans, query performance, indexing strategies, and database resource utilization.
• Optimize database schemas, stored procedures, queries, and data access patterns for improved application performance.
• Design scalable solutions capable of handling high transaction volumes and increasing data workloads.
• Implement query optimization, connection pooling, replication, and partitioning strategies where appropriate.
• Perform database capacity planning and identify opportunities for infrastructure and cost optimization.
• Recommend architectural improvements to address emerging performance and scalability challenges.

6. Cloud Database Management & Automation

• Work with cloud-hosted and managed database services, particularly on AWS, Azure, or Google Cloud.
• Manage services such as Amazon RDS, Aurora, DynamoDB, Azure SQL Database, or equivalent platforms.
• Develop automation scripts using Python, PowerShell, Bash, or similar technologies for database maintenance and operational tasks.
• Collaborate with DevOps engineers to implement automated database deployments and infrastructure improvements.
• Integrate database schema changes and migrations into CI/CD pipelines.
• Support database migration between on-premises, cloud-hosted, and managed database environments.

7. Technical Collaboration & Engineering Standards

• Collaborate with software architects, backend engineers, and technical leads during solution design and implementation.
• Participate in architecture discussions and recommend suitable database technologies and designs.
• Review database architecture and SQL/NoSQL implementations across projects.
• Define coding standards, database development guidelines, and performance optimization practices.
• Maintain documentation covering database structures, configurations, dependencies, and recovery procedures.
• Provide technical guidance and mentorship to software developers on database best practices.
• Take ownership of complex database-related technical challenges and drive them through resolution.

Required Technical Skills

Relational Databases (Mandatory)

• Strong production experience with at least one major relational database: Microsoft SQL Server, PostgreSQL, or MySQL.
• Expert-level SQL programming and query optimization.
• Advanced experience with stored procedures, functions, triggers, views, and database scripts.
• Strong understanding of indexing, execution plans, transactions, locking, concurrency, and performance tuning.
• Experience designing relational schemas for complex enterprise applications.

NoSQL Databases (Mandatory)

• Hands-on production experience with at least one major NoSQL database, preferably MongoDB or DynamoDB.
• Strong understanding of NoSQL data modeling, query patterns, indexing, and scalability.
• Experience designing and optimizing NoSQL databases for real-world application requirements.
• Understanding of consistency models, partitioning, replication, and distributed data management.

Database Architecture (Mandatory)

• Demonstrated experience independently designing database architectures for medium-to-large or complex applications.
• Strong understanding of relational and NoSQL architectural patterns.
• Experience with high-availability, replication, disaster recovery, and scalable database solutions.
• Ability to evaluate and recommend suitable database technologies based on functional and non-functional requirements.
• Experience with cloud-hosted database architecture.

Database Operations (Mandatory)

• Production database administration, monitoring, troubleshooting, and maintenance.
• Database backup and restoration, including recovery testing.
• Database security, role-based access control, and data integrity.
• Database performance monitoring and capacity planning.
• Safe production schema migrations and deployment practices.

Programming & Automation

• Advanced SQL/T-SQL/PL/pgSQL or equivalent database programming skills.
• Experience with Python, PowerShell, Bash, or similar scripting languages.
• Experience with Git, version-controlled database scripts, and database deployment automation.

Preferred Qualifications

• 7+ years of relevant professional experience in database engineering, development, architecture, or administration.
• Strong, verifiable production experience with both SQL and NoSQL technologies.
• Experience architecting database solutions for enterprise applications, SaaS platforms, or high-volume transactional systems.
• Experience working with .NET, Node.js, or other backend development ecosystems.
• Familiarity with microservices architecture, REST/GraphQL APIs, and distributed systems.
• Knowledge of AWS, Azure, or GCP database services.
• Experience with database migration, modernization, and performance improvement initiatives.
• Familiarity with database observability tools and cloud monitoring services.
• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Information Technology, or a related discipline, or equivalent practical experience.

Key Competencies

• Strong architectural thinking combined with hands-on programming ability.
• Excellent analytical, troubleshooting, and problem-solving skills.
• Ability to independently own database-related technical decisions.
• Strong understanding of application performance and database dependencies.
• Ability to balance scalability, reliability, security, performance, and cost.
• Excellent communication, documentation, and cross-functional collaboration skills.
• Proactive approach to identifying and preventing production database issues.