Database Administrator Database Platform Engineer

Contour Software; Islamabad; On-site; PKR 2,000,000 - 3,200,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Market-leading salary

Medical coverage for self and dependem

Provident fund

Employee performance-based bonuses

Home internet subsidy

Job summary

Contour Software is seeking a seasoned SQL database engineer to join our Global Centre. You will optimize SQL Anywhere 17 production databases, migrate to PostgreSQL 18, and work with DevOps to ensure reliability and performance at scale.

You will model schemas, indexes, and queries, translate dialects, and build validation harnesses with real data. This role blends hands-on SQL, data migration, and collaboration across PowerBuilder/.NET teams in a dynamic, globally distributed environment.

Qualifications

• Deep, practical SQL experience with production databases.
• Ability to read and interpret execution plans and prove changes with evidence.
• Experience with relational schema design, indexing strategy, and tradeoffs.

Responsibilities

• Profile and improve the performance of our production SQL Anywhere 17 database by tuning queries, indexes, and schema.
• Establish baselines and instrumentation to detect regressions before customers see them.
• Improve schema with constraints, data types, and indexing to enforce correctness in the database.
• Collaborate with developers on SQL embedded in PowerBuilder and .NET codebases to write efficient queries.
• Translate schema/SQL from SQL Anywhere 17 to PostgreSQL 18 and reason about dialect differences.
• Build and extend comparison harnesses to verify migrated queries match the original results.
• Plan and execute data migration and reconciliation with extraction, load, and validation.
• Contribute to migration direction and design decisions; document learnings.

Skills

SQL

Performance tuning

Data modelling

Query optimization

Execution plans

Backup & recovery

Tools

SQL Anywhere 17

PostgreSQL 18

PowerBuilder

.NET

Blazor Server

Azure

Job description

Job Description

About Contour

Contour Software has grown from a dozen people to over 2,000 staff across 3 cities, in less than 14 years.

As a subsidiary of Constellation Software Inc., we are proud to be part of a global enterprise software conglomerate that has grown to become one of the top 10 software companies in the world, with employees and customers in 100+ countries. With a broad-based and ever-growing portfolio of market-leading, vertical-market enterprise solutions covering more than 100 industry domains in predominantly mature markets, CSI's recipe creates the perfect environment for professionals to build fulfilling, long-term careers.

What started as an R&D & Accounting back-office, has progressed into a full-service Global Centre serving all functions and departments, at the divisional as well as operating group/corporate level. Today Contour employees, located in Karachi, Lahore & Islamabad, are serving CSI divisions located in time zones spanning the globe, from Sydney to Vancouver. With the global growth of Constellation as the wind in our sails, we are only just getting started!

Role

Auto-IT builds the dealer management systems that run automotive, agricultural, and equipment dealerships across Australia, New Zealand, and Asia — part of the Perseus Operating Group within Constellation Software, with engineering across Australia, New Zealand, Pakistan and India.

We run a mature SQL Anywhere 17 production database, and we are migrating it to PostgreSQL 18. Years of dealership data sit in it, and query performance and schema quality translate directly into whether a service advisor waits three seconds or thirty. You will spend your time making the current database measurably better while helping build and prove the path to the next one.

You will need real technical depth in backup, recovery, availability, and the infrastructure the database runs on, and you will work closely with the DevOps and Infrastructure team across all of it. Your primary focus, though, is performance and improvement — how the data is modelled, how it is indexed, and how quickly we can query it.

What you'll do

• Profile and improve the performance of our production SQL Anywhere 17 database — identify the queries that hurt, read the execution plans, and fix them at the query, index, or schema level.
• Establish baselines and instrumentation so performance can be measured, and so regressions are caught before customers report them.
• Improve the schema over time: constraints, data types, and indexing that enforce correctness in the database instead of leaving it to the application layer.
• Work alongside application developers on the SQL embedded in our PowerBuilder and .NET codebases, and help them write queries that hold up under production data volumes.
• Translate schema and SQL from SQL Anywhere 17 to PostgreSQL 18, and reason carefully about where the two dialects differ in ways that change results, not just syntax.
• Build and extend the comparison harnesses that prove a migrated query returns what the original returned, against real data.
• Plan and execute data migration and reconciliation — extraction, load, validation, and the evidence that nothing was lost or quietly altered.
• Contribute to the technical direction of the migration, and to the design decisions that are still open.
• Document what you learn. Much of what makes this database behave the way it does is currently undocumented.

Technical environment

SAP SQL Anywhere 17 — query plans and optimiser behaviour · index selection · server and cache tuning · SQL Remote replication · dbunload, dbvalid, dbbackup · embedded SQL within PowerBuilder

PostgreSQL 18 — Azure Database for PostgreSQL Flexible Server · EXPLAIN (ANALYZE, BUFFERS) · B-tree, partial, expression, and GIN indexing · partitioning · autovacuum and bloat · extensions including pgvector

Migration — the move from SQL Anywhere 17 to PostgreSQL 18 is underway and its technical direction is still being set. You are expected to help shape that direction, not only implement against it: the design decisions that remain open, how we validate the result, and the standard of evidence we hold it to.

Application context — PowerBuilder (Units, Equip) · .NET and Blazor Server (Enable) · platform tooling

Platform and tooling — Microsoft Azure · Git · TeamCity · containerised SQL Anywhere instances used as the reference for expected results · scripting in Python or PowerShell

What you'll bring

Essential — Deep, practical SQL. Demonstrable performance tuning experience on a production relational database, with real examples of queries you have diagnosed and fixed, and the ability to explain why the fix worked. Relational schema design, including indexing strategy and the tradeoffs it involves. Comfort reading and reasoning about execution plans. A habit of proving changes with evidence. Working knowledge of database backup, recovery, and availability, and of the infrastructure a production database depends on.

Scripting ability for the automation this work needs. Clear English, and the communication discipline distributed work demands.

Desirable — PostgreSQL specifically · SAP SQL Anywhere or Sybase ASA · heterogeneous database migration between dialects · replication, whether SQL Remote or PostgreSQL logical replication · Azure Database for PostgreSQL Flexible Server · exposure to PowerBuilder codebases · the automotive, agricultural, or equipment dealership domain.

Work Timings

8 AM to 5 PM PKT

Exciting Benefits we offer

• Market-leading Salary
• Medical Coverage – Self & Dependents
• Parents Medical Coverage
• Provident Fund
• Employee Performance-based bonuses
• Home Internet Subsidy
• Conveyance Allowance
• Profit Sharing Plan [Tenured Employees Only]
• Life Benefit
• Child Care Facility
• Company Provided Lunch/Dinner
• Professional Development Budget
• Recreational area for in-house games
• Sporadic On-shore training opportunities
• Friendly work environment
• Leave Encashment

Disclaimer

At Contour, we attribute our success to the unique contributions of our diverse staff. We’re committed to fostering a culture of respect that thrives on the varied perspectives and experiences of all individuals we recruit, employ, promote, and compensate. Since day one, we’ve adhered to a policy that champions a work environment honoring the worth and dignity of each person while being free from all forms of employment discrimination.

Requirements