Senior Database Administrator - Portland, OR

Job Posting Title IRC5557
Job Title Senior Database Administrator
Organization Name Northwest Evaluation Association

Brief Posting Description

The Senior Database Administrator (DBA) leads and provides the direction for
database technology and administration for all database environments at NWEA. The DBA is the
primary support for all development, test and production database environments to ensure high
availability, reliability, appropriate capacity, scalability, backup, recoverability and
performance. In addition, the Senior DBA is expected to participate in the 24x7 on-call support
rotation.

Detailed Description

The Senior Database Administrator (DBA) leads and provides the direction for database technology
and administration for all database environments at NWEA. The DBA is the primary support for all
development, test and production database environments to ensure high availability, reliability,
appropriate capacity, scalability, backup, recoverability and performance. In addition, the
Senior DBA is expected to participate in the 24x7 on-call support rotation.

Responsibilities

* Collaborate with others to determine and deploy database solutions to business prioritized
requirements, including business continuance and information security along with functional
requirements
* Expert knowledge of physical DB design and optimization
* Proactively monitor activity, utilization, exceptions and database health; propose and
deploy appropriate improvements; automate repetitive tasks
* Collaborate with team members to create, publish and maintain database and data quality
standards and operations documentation
* Collaborate with the Infrastructure Architect to create and maintain database technology
roadmaps and deployment plans
* Ensure organizational conformance to all database and data quality policies and standards
* Perform database backup and recovery duties; establish standards and schedules for
database backups; develop and routinely test recovery procedures for each database; ensure that
backup schedules meet the recovery requirements
* Ensure the protection of corporate data against unauthorized disclosure, accidental or
intentional loss of data, unauthorized access and unauthorized modification
* Work closely with project teams to ensure project success; coordinate product releases,
data structure evolution, and manage and synchronize data promotions between development, test and
production environments
* Act as the final point of escalation and resolution for data related issues
o Provide advanced technical support for database developers
o Provide 24x7 database support
* Design, implement and maintain archival and high availability strategies
* Keep abreast of technological database system innovations and make recommendations for
application at NWEA
* Install, upgrade and maintain all database-related server software
* Perform other duties as assigned to ensure the success of the team and the entire
organization

Skills and abilities

* Exceptional knowledge of PostgreSQL
* Mastery of physical database design
* Expertise in configuring, implementing and supporting high availability strategies
with database systems including clustering, mirroring, log shipping, integration services, and
replication
* Database performance tuning, optimizations and troubleshooting, and federation
strategies
* Mastery of SQL and/or other database query/stored procedure language
* Mastery of database archival, backup and recovery principles and skills
* Ability to perform capacity planning which supports the forecasting and purchasing
processes
* Ability to implement Database security safeguards and audit them
* Experience with Linux OS administration`
* Ability to work in a high availability production environment where unplanned
downtime is not acceptable
* Ability to communicate ideas and designs to all stakeholders, including non-technical
audiences
* Excellent listening skills and a commitment to communicate clearly, completely, and
in a timely manner
* Exceptional skills in partnering with clients/staff and in developing and maintaining
long term supportive relationships
* Experience in NOSQL or other new SQL technology desirable.
Education and experience

* Minimum bachelor's degree in Computer Science or related field; equivalent
combinations of education and experience will be considered in lieu of a degree
* Minimum five years of progressive experience performing PostgreSQL administration in a
production environment; experience should include three or more years administrating PostgreSQL in
an enterprise level environment, administrating very large (> 1 terabyte) databases

How To Apply

NWEA is an equal opportunity, affirmative action employer, and we do not
discriminate against employees or job applicants on the basis of race, color, national origin,
age, religion, gender, disability, sexual orientation, veteran status, or any other status or
consideration protected by local, state and federal laws, except where a bona fide occupational
qualification applies. Equal opportunity applies to hiring, promotion, training, compensation, and
any other organizational action. NWEA's written Affirmative Action Plan is available to all
employees and job applicants upon request by contacting Careers(at)nwea(dot)org(dot)

No third parties please.