SQL Database Administrator

Benefex Limited; Southampton; Hybrid; GBP 50,000 - 65,000; Full time

Job summary

A dynamic technology firm based in the UK is seeking a skilled Database Administrator to manage its database estate, including SQL Server, MongoDB, and MySQL. The role offers autonomy and opportunities for technical and career progression, along with an impressive benefits package. The ideal candidate will ensure database security, performance, and availability while collaborating with engineering teams. This position requires strong SQL Server expertise and a proactive mindset.

Benefits

Flexible work environment

£800 annual learning budget

25 days holiday plus local bank holidays

Healthcare cash plan

Enhanced parental leave package

Qualifications

• Strong experience with SQL Server administration.
• Proven performance tuning expertise.
• Experience in database backup and restore.
• Understanding of data modelling principles.

Responsibilities

• Administer and maintain SQL Server installations.
• Administer MongoDB deployments.
• Work with engineering teams to optimize queries.
• Implement and maintain encryption and access controls.

Skills

SQL Server administration and T-SQL development

Performance tuning expertise

Database backup/restore strategies

Data modelling principles

Source control (e.g. Git/GitHub)

Scripting ability (e.g. PowerShell, Bash, Python)

Tools

MongoDB

MySQL

GCP Cloud SQL

Job description

Who are Benifex?

We are a fast-moving technology company, and one of the most successful providers of online reward and benefits solutions in the world. We believe that everyone deserves an exceptional experience at work, every day, and build workplace technology that makes this happen. Benifex’s mission is to build remarkable experiences that employees love. Today Benifex supports more than five million employees in over 3,000 organisations across more than 100 countries. To help us on our quest to be the best, we need brilliant people on board and that’s where you come in.

Why should you apply?

• Autonomy: Own the running and management of our global SQL server estate
• Technical Progression: Work on business critical migration projects and upskill in MongoDB, AlloyDB and CloudSQL
• Career Progression: Progress longer term into a Platform Engineer,Data Engineer role or progress down the management track
• Sunday Times Best Place to Work 2025 and Best Large Tech Company to Work for 2025
• Work for a profitable, fast-growing market leader in the online reward and benefits space

**Please note we are unable to offer visa sponsorship and require to people to be based in the UK or Ireland for this position**

Great benefits:

£50,000-65,000

Tech setup of your choice (MacBook Pro or equivalent, monitors, etc.)

£800 annual learning budget, plus two hours per week as ‘Focus Fridays’.

Flexible work – choose a working setup that works for you, our only ask is to see you once a quarter in the office and you must be based in the UK or Ireland.

Full access to our comprehensive benefits package, including discounts from hundreds of high street brands, salary sacrifice schemes across Finance, Health, Tech, and more

️ 25 days holiday plus your local bank holidays

Your birthday off

️ Two half day wellbeing days

???? Healthcare cash plan to cover the costs of day-to-day healthcare

Employee Assistance Plan 24/7 365 support

Income Protection (75%) and life assurance (4x salary)

Referral bonuses

Enhanced parental leave package - 26 weeks fully paid maternity leave and 4 weeks fully paid paternity leave

️ Work from Anywhere policy for 90 days

️ Buy and Sell scheme for holidays

£50 monthly allowance to spend on whatever takes your fancy, your very own Benifex card will be topped up at the start of each month!

Role Overview

We are looking for a skilled, proactive Database Administrator to join our Platform team, taking ownership of our database estate that includes SQL Server, MongoDB, and MySQL instances across multiple global environments.

As our dedicated DBA, you’ll ensure our databases are secure, performant, and highly available. You’ll also work closely with developers to design, optimise, and maintain our data layer in line with best practices.

Responsibilities

Database Operations:

• Administer and maintain SQL Server installations:
  • Backups/restores lifecycle management
  • Transparent Data Encryption (TDE) key management
  • Failover clustering
  • Maintenance plans (DBCC, index management, log pruning)
  • Side-by-side upgrades and environment migrations
  • Performance tuning and configuration beyond defaults
  • Troubleshooting and recovery in case of outages

• Administer MongoDB deployments:
  • Backup and restore procedures
  • Monitoring and performance analysis
  • Schema design review

• Administer MySQL deployments:
  • Backup strategies
  • Replication setup and monitoring
  • Query optimisation and indexing

Development & Collaboration

• Work with engineering teams to:
  • Understand business requirements
  • Develop, maintain, and optimise stored procedures and queries
  • Automate routine database tasks and processes
  • Enforce best practices for database development and deployment
  • Provide routine feedback to developers on query optimisation
  • Review changes to data access patterns proposed by developers to ensure performance and best practices

Security & Compliance

• Implement and maintain encryption, access controls, and auditing.
• Ensure compliance with data protection regulations (e.g. GDPR).

Monitoring & Incident Response

• Configure and maintain monitoring solutions.
• Proactively identify and resolve performance bottlenecks.
• Lead database recovery efforts in the event of failures (compute, storage, network).
  
  

What are we looking for?

Must HaveExperience:

• Strong experience with SQL Server administration and T-SQL development.
• Performance tuning expertise across RDBMS systems.
• Proven experience with database backup/restore strategies.
• Understanding of data modelling principles.
• Experience with source control (e.g. Git/GitHub).
• Scripting ability (e.g. PowerShell, Bash, or Python).

Nice to Have:

• Production experience with MongoDB,MySQL (or demonstrated ability to learn quickly).
• Exposure to cloud database offerings (GCP Cloud SQL)
• Awareness of database security best practices.
• Familiarity with monitoring stacks (e.g. Prometheus, Grafana, RedGate).

Competencies:

Passion for technology: Someone who invests in their craft and self learning, a continuous improvement mindset, a focus on best practices, and someone keen to see how new tools/technology can be applied to business problems.

Taking ownership: A mindset of holding yourself and others accountable, someone who can be relied on in challenging situations, a bias to action.

Open mindedness: Strong opinions loosely held, you're open to ideas, and seek feedback and input from others.

Excellent communicator: An effective communicator to techncial and non-technical audiences, able to break down complex information into simple to understand language.

Natural problem solver: someone who thrives on solving technical challenges, who has a methodical way to work through problems and offer pragmatic solutions

Even if you don't meet all of the requirements for this role, we encourage you to apply! We are looking for talented and passionate individuals who are eager to learn and grow. We also offer a variety of other roles, so please check out our careers page to see if there is something else that might be a good fit for you.

Our interview process

Benifex understands the need to have a fast and efficient process, the below will all be completed in the shortest time possible.

Initial informal call with the Talent team

Interview with VP of Engineering (30 min)

Interview with our Engineering Director and interim CTO (60-90 min)

Final interview with Board member (45 min)

We are an equal opportunity employer and value diversity at our company. We do not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, colour, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, age, marital status, veteran status, or disability status.

We are committed to creating a diverse and inclusive workplace where everyone feels welcome and respected. We believe that diversity and inclusion are essential to our success, and we are proud to be an equal opportunity employer.

We are a proud member of the Disability Confident employer scheme.

If you require any reasonable adjustments at any stage during the recruitment process, please let us know with your application.