Database Administrator

Versana; New York (NY); On-site; USD 120,000 - 180,000; Full time

Job summary

Versana is seeking a Database Administrator in New York to partner with engineering and cloud infrastructure teams. You will optimize performance across Azure‑managed PostgreSQL and Oracle, tune SQL, and improve data access patterns within our application architecture.

You will work in a modern DevOps environment using Git, CI/CD, Helm, Terraform, and Datadog for monitoring, alerting, and SLO tracking while collaborating with software engineers on data models, indexing, and query strategies

Qualifications

• 5+ years of experience supporting relational databases (Postgres, Oracle).
• Hands-on experience with Git, CI/CD, Helm, and Terraform for database changes, automation, and releases.
• Proficiency with Datadog (or similar observability tools) for performance monitoring and alerting across database and application layers.
• Ability to read and understand Java application code to trace data access patterns.
• Strong communication skills and the ability to partner effectively with engineering and infrastructure teams.
• Hands-on administration of Azure Database for PostgreSQL, including configuration, upgrades, and parameter tuning.
• Experience designing and operating high availability and disaster recovery (replication, failover, RPO/RTO), including regular testing.
• Strong performance tuning skills, including execution plan analysis (EXPLAIN), indexing strategy, query rewrites, and diagnosing locking/contention.
• Experience implementing database security best practices, including encryption, secrets management, role‑based access, and audit logging.
• Ability to automate DBA workflows using Python, Bash, or PowerShell (maintenance, backup verification, provisioning, alerting).
• Comfort participating in an on‑call rotation, leading incident triage, and writing post‑incident reviews with corrective and preventive actions.

Responsibilities

• Health & monitoring: Monitor database health, performance, and capacity across Azure‑managed PostgreSQL and Oracle using Datadog for alerting, SLO tracking, and trend analysis.
• Data protection: Own backups, restores, and disaster recovery procedures; regularly validate recovery readiness through testing.
• Governance: Administer access controls and user provisioning in alignment with security and financial compliance requirements.
• Application‑centric tuning: Collaborate with developers to analyze and optimize SQL execution paths in the application’s data access layer, using Datadog APM traces to pinpoint slow or inefficient queries in production.
• Code‑level analysis: Read and understand Java code to trace data access patterns and ensure tuning aligns with how the application interacts with the database.
• Proactive design partnership: Partner with software engineers and architects during design and sprint planning to shape efficient relational data models, indexing approaches, and query strategies before features ship.
• Root‑cause remediation: Identify performance bottlenecks using database monitoring, then work with developers to implement query rewrites and schema adjustments that preserve application logic.
• Performance baselines: Establish and track performance baselines for business‑critical queries and implement anomaly detection to prevent regression as new features are released.

Skills

Relational Databases

Performance Tuning

Java Code Tracing

Communication

On-Call

Tools

Git

CI/CD

Helm

Terraform

Datadog

Python

Bash

PowerShell

Azure Database for PostgreSQL

Job description

About the Role

Versana is seeking a Database Administrator to partner closely with our engineering and cloud infrastructure teams. In this role, you’ll drive performance optimization and operational excellence across Azure‑managed PostgreSQL and Oracle environments—tuning SQL and improving data access patterns in the context of our application architecture and business logic. You should be comfortable working in modern DevOps and cloud environments using Git, CI/CD, Helm, and Terraform, and you will use Datadog for observability, performance monitoring, and alerting across database and application layers.

Key Responsibilities

Core Database Administration

• Health & monitoring: Monitor database health, performance, and capacity across Azure‑managed PostgreSQL and Oracle using Datadog for alerting, SLO tracking, and trend analysis.
• Data protection: Own backups, restores, and disaster recovery procedures; regularly validate recovery readiness through testing.
• Governance: Administer access controls and user provisioning in alignment with security and financial compliance requirements.

Application Integration & SQL Optimization

• Application‑centric tuning: Collaborate with developers to analyze and optimize SQL execution paths in the application’s data access layer, using Datadog APM traces to pinpoint slow or inefficient queries in production.
• Code‑level analysis: Read and understand Java code to trace data access patterns and ensure tuning aligns with how the application interacts with the database.
• Proactive design partnership: Partner with software engineers and architects during design and sprint planning to shape efficient relational data models, indexing approaches, and query strategies before features ship.
• Root‑cause remediation: Identify performance bottlenecks using database monitoring, then work with developers to implement query rewrites and schema adjustments that preserve application logic.
• Performance baselines: Establish and track performance baselines for business‑critical queries and implement anomaly detection to prevent regression as new features are released.

Qualifications (Required)

• 5+ years of experience supporting relational databases (e.g., Postgres, Oracle).
• Hands‑on experience with Git, CI/CD, Helm, and Terraform for database changes, automation, and releases.
• Proficiency with Datadog (or similar observability tools) for performance monitoring and alerting across database and application layers.
• Ability to read and understand Java application code to trace data access patterns.
• Strong communication skills and the ability to partner effectively with engineering and infrastructure teams.
• Hands‑on administration of Azure Database for PostgreSQL, including configuration, upgrades, and parameter tuning.
• Experience designing and operating high availability and disaster recovery (replication, failover, RPO/RTO), including regular testing.
• Strong performance tuning skills, including execution plan analysis (EXPLAIN), indexing strategy, query rewrites, and diagnosing locking/contention.
• Experience implementing database security best practices, including encryption, secrets management, role‑based access, and audit logging.
• Ability to automate DBA workflows using Python, Bash, or PowerShell (maintenance, backup verification, provisioning, alerting).
• Comfort participating in an on‑call rotation, leading incident triage, and writing post‑incident reviews with corrective and preventive actions.

Nice to Have

• Hands‑on administration of Oracle Database including installation, configuration, upgrades, parameter tuning, and backups using RMAN.
• Experience with distributed databases, such as CockroachDB.
• Experience managing databases hosted on Kubernetes.

Visa sponsorship is not available for this role at this time.

We may use artificial intelligence (AI) tools to support parts of the hiring process, such as reviewing applications, analyzing resumes, or assessing responses. These tools assist our recruitment team but do not replace human judgment. Final hiring decisions are ultimately made by humans. If you would like more information about how your data is processed, please contact us.