Sr Database Engineer

Company

Cox Automotive - USA

Engineering / Product Development

Sr Software Engineer

Individual Contributor

Hybrid - Ability to work remotely part of the week

Yes, 5% of the time

Day

Compensation includes a base salary in the range of $ - $. The base salary may vary within the anticipated base pay range based on factors such as the ultimate location of the position and the selected candidate’s knowledge, skills, and abilities. Position may be eligible for additional compensation that may include an incentive program.

The Database Administrator is responsible for the day-to-day operational health, reliability, and performance of enterprise database environments hosted on AWS. The primary database platform for this role is PostgreSQL or MySQL on Linux/AWS RDS; candidates with solid Oracle 19c experience are equally welcome. Reporting to the Lead Database Administrator, this role executes within established architectural standards, independently resolving the full spectrum of operational database issues while escalating complex architectural decisions as appropriate.

• Monitor health, performance, and availability of Production, QA, and Development databases (PostgreSQL, MySQL, and/or Oracle) hosted on AWS on a daily basis.
• Respond to monitoring alerts, investigate root causes, and resolve common issues: space exhaustion, blocking sessions, runaway queries, and service disruptions.
• Track resource utilization (CPU, memory, I/O, storage) and report capacity trends to the Lead DBA for planning.
• Review database alert logs, audit logs, and job scheduler outputs proactively; participate in the rotating on-call DBA schedule.

• Execute scheduled and ad hoc maintenance: table reorganization, index rebuilding, statistics gathering, tablespace/schema management, and object defragmentation.
• Administer databases on Linux EC2 instances and AWS RDS — including startup/shutdown, patch application, and minor version updates under Lead DBA guidance.
• Manage database user accounts, roles, and privileges in accordance with security policies and RBAC standards.
• Apply patches and cumulative updates in non-production environments, documenting steps for Lead DBA review before production rollout.
• Perform database cloning and environment refreshes for QA and development on a scheduled and on-demand basis.

• Execute and validate backup jobs (RMAN for Oracle; /pgBackRest for PostgreSQL; mysqldump/Percona Xtra Backup for MySQL), ensuring schedules meet RPO targets.
• Perform point-in-time and full restores in non-production environments to verify backup integrity and document recovery procedures.
• Monitor AWS RDS automated backup and snapshot jobs; alert the Lead DBA to failures or anomalies.
• Assist with disaster recovery testing and failover validation under Lead DBA direction; maintain up-to-date backup and recovery runbooks.

• Identify slow-running queries and performance bottlenecks using platform‑appropriate tools: EXPLAIN/EXPLAIN ANALYZE (PostgreSQL/MySQL), Oracle AWR/ADDM/ASH, wait event analysis, and execution plan review.
• Assist application developers in tuning PL/SQL, PG/SQL, and T‑SQL code for improved database access efficiency.
• Monitor and manage index health; rebuild or coalesce fragmented indexes within maintenance schedules.
• Review and optimize long-running batch jobs and scheduled tasks to minimize contention during peak hours.

• Write and maintain UNIX/Linux shell scripts to automate recurring tasks: log archiving, space checks, health reporting, and backup verification.
• Schedule and manage automated jobs using cron, pg Agent / MySQL Event Scheduler, Oracle , and/or SQL Server Agent as applicable.
• Maintain and update existing Terraform scripts for minor infrastructure changes under Lead DBA review and approval.
• Document all automation scripts with clear inline comments; maintain a centralized runbook repository.

• Write, test, and debug…