Senior Database Administrator

Nz Qualifications Authority; Wellington; On-site; NZD 110,000 - 150,000; Full time

Job summary

New Zealand Qualifications Authority (NZQA) is seeking a Senior Database Administrator to join the Information Services team in Wellington. The role focuses on managing development, test, and production databases, while ensuring availability, performance, and reliability across environments.

You will work with AWS services (RDS) and IaC tooling (Terraform, CDK) and collaborate with application owners to deploy new solutions following best practices.

Qualifications

• Experience in managing development, testing, and production databases.
• Experience with AWS Cloud services and infrastructure as code (IaC).
• Ability to collaborate with application owners and IS teams.

Responsibilities

• Management of development, test, and production databases
• Supporting project and operational application development teams
• Carrying out testing and tuning in databases for multiple environments
• Ensuring production applications meet availability, reliability, and performance targets
• Working within project teams to ensure new applications and services are deployed according to good practices and can be supported by operational teams
• Providing access to high-quality data and robust data sources to key business areas
• Working with AWS Cloud services, including RDS, IaC (Terraform, CDK) and Python-based automation
• Contributing to cloud-native solution design and NZQA's cloud platform evolution
• Leveraging IaC approaches to support deployment and management of database and platform services
• Azure experience is welcomed and considered an advantage

Skills

SQL

Database administration

AWS

Terraform

Python scripting

Tools

RDS

Terraform

CDK

Python automation

Job description

Permanent | Full Time | Wellington

We are looking for a Senior Database Administrator to join our Systems Team within the Information Services (IS) group.

The Systems Team are the custodians of our platforms, they ensure that:

• NZQA environments are maintained according to good practices
• services meet their availability and performance requirements
• updates are supported through the full Software Development Lifecycle (SDLC)
• issues are resolved in a timely manner
• any constraints in the NZQA environment are understood and managed

Whakatairangatia ngā kete o te mātauranga ki te ao mārama! E te tai whakarunga, e te tai whakararo – nau piki mai, nau kake mai ki te Mana Tohu Mātauranga o Aotearoa. May the baskets of knowledge (education) be brought into the world of light. We welcome one and all to join us at the New Zealand Qualifications Authority.

Mō te tūranga | About the role

This role works closely with several IS teams from application development through to infrastructure support. The role also has a close working relationship with key application owners from across the wider business.

In this role, you will be responsible for:

• Management of development, test, and production databases
• Supporting project and operational application development teams
• Carrying out testing and tuning in databases for multiple environments
• Ensuring production applications meet availability, reliability, and performance targets
• Working within project teams to ensure new applications and services are deployed according to good practices and can be supported by operational teams
• Providing access to good quality data and robust data sources to key business areas to enable organisational delivery
• Working with AWS Cloud services, including RDS, Infrastructure as Code (IaC), Terraform, AWS CDK, and Python-based automation
• Contributing to cloud-native solution design and supporting NZQA's cloud platform evolution
• Leveraging IaC approaches (Terraform and CDK) to support deployment and management of database and platform services
• Azure experience is also welcomed and considered an advantage

What you'll bring to the role

If you have practical experience building and administering multiple environments from a database perspective, scripting skills, have a strong customer focus with a detail-oriented work approach and are positive and energetic with the ability to remain calm under pressure then this is the role for you!

Ngā Painga o NZQA | Why choose NZQA

NZQA is committed to lifelong learning and the diverse communities we serve. We welcome people from all backgrounds and provide a supportive environment for Māori and Pacific staff, including active networks that help guide and strengthen our strategic direction.

Discover more about what we offer: NZQA Staff Benefits.

We provide equal employment opportunities and welcome applications from everyone who can meet the requirements of the role.

You must have the right to live and work in Aotearoa New Zealand to apply for this role.

Applications close at 5.00pm on Tuesday 13 October 2026; however, we will be reviewing CVs as they come in and inviting successful candidates to interview before the close date.