Database Administrator Senior Specialist – Riyadh, Saudi Arabia

Saudi Railway Company; Saudi Arabia; On-site; SAR 210,000 - 420,000; Full time

Job summary

Saudi Railway Company in Riyadh seeks an experienced Database Administrator Senior Specialist to manage and maintain its enterprise database platforms. The role focuses on Oracle and Microsoft SQL Server environments, ensuring availability, performance, security, backup, recovery, and lifecycle management.

You will collaborate with Infrastructure, Cybersecurity, Applications, Project Management, and vendors to support critical business systems, with a strong emphasis on high availability,

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, Information Technology, or a related discipline.
• Minimum 6 years of hands-on database administration experience.
• 3+ years of work experience with databases.

Responsibilities

• Administer, maintain, monitor, and support Oracle and Microsoft SQL Server database environments.
• Manage production, disaster recovery, testing, development, and other non-production database environments.
• Design and maintain highly available and resilient database environments.
• Ensure database availability, performance, recoverability, and compliance with business RTO and RPO requirements.
• Install, configure, upgrade, patch, migrate, and maintain database platforms.
• Manage Oracle RAC, Data Guard, RMAN, and other Oracle database technologies.
• Administer Microsoft SQL Server high-availability and disaster recovery technologies, including Always On Availability Groups and Failover Clustering.
• Monitor database availability, capacity, utilization, sessions, queries, storage, and overall performance.
• Identify performance bottlenecks and perform SQL, query, indexing, memory, storage, and database parameter tuning.
• Develop, implement, and test database backup and recovery procedures.
• Participate in Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery planning, testing, failover, failback, and recovery exercises.
• Perform database creation, configuration, cloning, copying, refreshes, migrations, upgrades, and decommissioning.
• Manage database user accounts, roles, privileges, and access permissions.
• Implement database security controls, including authentication, authorization, auditing, encryption, vulnerability remediation, and security hardening.
• Ensure database platforms comply with IT policies, cybersecurity requirements, data protection requirements, and applicable national regulations.
• Review database vulnerabilities and coordinate remediation, patching, and configuration changes.

Skills

Oracle DBA

SQL Server DBA

Oracle RAC

Data Guard

RMAN

Always On

Failover Clustering

Backup & Restore

Performance Tuning

Security & Compliance

BC/DR

Migration & Upgrades

RTO / RPO

Education

Bachelor's degree in CS/CE/IT or related field

Master’s degree (advantage)

Job description

Location: Riyadh, Saudi Arabia

Job Category:

• Information Technology (IT) & Software
• Telecommunications

Job Overview

SAR is seeking an experienced Database Administrator Senior Specialist to manage and maintain its enterprise database platforms in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

The role is responsible for database administration, availability, performance optimization, security, data integrity, backup, recovery, and lifecycle management. The successful candidate will primarily work with Oracle and Microsoft SQL Server database environments supporting critical business and operational applications.

The position involves collaboration with Infrastructure, Cybersecurity, Application, Project Management, business teams, and technology vendors. Candidates should have strong hands‑on database administration experience, particularly in enterprise environments, high availability, disaster recovery, database security, and performance optimization.

Key Responsibilities

• Administer, maintain, monitor, and support Oracle and Microsoft SQL Server database environments.
• Manage production, disaster recovery, testing, development, and other non-production database environments.
• Design and maintain highly available and resilient database environments.
• Ensure database availability, performance, recoverability, and compliance with business RTO and RPO requirements.
• Install, configure, upgrade, patch, migrate, and maintain database platforms.
• Manage Oracle RAC, Data Guard, RMAN, and other Oracle database technologies.
• Administer Microsoft SQL Server high-availability and disaster recovery technologies, including Always On Availability Groups and Failover Clustering.
• Monitor database availability, capacity, utilization, sessions, queries, storage, and overall performance.
• Identify performance bottlenecks and perform SQL, query, indexing, memory, storage, and database parameter tuning.
• Develop, implement, and test database backup and recovery procedures.
• Participate in Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery planning, testing, failover, failback, and recovery exercises.
• Perform database creation, configuration, cloning, copying, refreshes, migrations, upgrades, and decommissioning.
• Manage database user accounts, roles, privileges, and access permissions.
• Implement database security controls, including authentication, authorization, auditing, encryption, vulnerability remediation, and security hardening.
• Ensure database platforms comply with IT policies, cybersecurity requirements, data protection requirements, and applicable national regulations.
• Review database vulnerabilities and coordinate remediation, patching, and configuration changes.

Requirements & Qualifications

Educational Qualifications:

• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, Information Technology, or a related discipline.
• Master’s degree is an advantage.

Experience Requirements:

• Minimum 6 years of relevant hands‑on database administration experience.
• Experience in large-scale enterprise or mission-critical database environments preferred.
• The job poster also specifies 3+ years of work experience with databases.

Technical Skills:

• Oracle Database Administration.
• Microsoft SQL Server Administration.
• Oracle RAC, Data Guard, and RMAN.
• SQL Server Always On Availability Groups.
• Failover Clustering.
• Database backup, restore, and replication.
• SQL and query performance tuning.
• Database security and access management.
• Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery.
• Database migration, upgrades, and patch management.
• RTO and RPO management.

Professional Competencies:

• Database monitoring and troubleshooting.
• Security and compliance management.
• Cross-functional coordination.
• Technical documentation.
• Risk identification and remediation.

Salary, Benefits & Career Growth

The employer has not disclosed salary or specific employment benefits in the original job description.

This position provides an opportunity to work with enterprise database platforms supporting critical business operations. The role offers professional exposure to advanced database administration, high-availability architecture, cybersecurity, disaster recovery, and enterprise infrastructure management.

Application Requirements:

• Bachelor’s Degree.
• Relevant database administration experience.