Database Engineer

The Intersect Group; Smyrna (GA); On-site; USD 100,000 - 150,000; Full time

Job summary

The Intersect Group is seeking an IT Database Engineer to design, implement, and support relational databases across on-prem and Azure cloud environments. You will install, configure, monitor, and optimize MSSQL, MySQL, and PostgreSQL to meet performance and reliability objectives.

Collaborating with developers and operations teams, you will manage backup/restore, high availability, and security across on-prem and cloud deployments, while participating in on-call rotations and maintaining

Qualifications

• Proven experience as a Database Engineer/DBA in production environments for MSSQL, MySQL, and PostgreSQL.
• Hands-on management of databases in data centers and Azure (VMs, PaaS equivalents).
• Strong understanding of database internals, including storage, indexing, transactions, and locking.
• Ability to troubleshoot performance issues and conduct root-cause analysis.
• Experience with HA/DR and backup/restore testing and documentation.
• Scripting/automation for database operations (PowerShell, T-SQL, Bash, Python, Azure CLI).
• Knowledge of networking, OS, and virtualization impacting database performance and connectivity.
• Security best practices for databases, including encryption and auditing.

Responsibilities

• Install, configure, and upgrade MSSQL, MySQL, and PostgreSQL in data center and Azure environments.
• Perform day-to-day database administration: users, permissions, schema changes, maintenance.
• Monitor database health and performance; create alerts and dashboards.
• Troubleshoot incidents and drive root-cause fixes.
• Design and maintain backup and recovery strategies; regularly test restores.
• Implement high availability and DR configurations (Always On, clustering, replication).
• Optimize performance via indexing, query tuning, and configuration adjustments.
• Enforce security controls (auth, encryption, auditing).
• Support app teams with design, queries, and controlled schema deployments.

Skills

MS SQL Server

MySQL

PostgreSQL

Azure

Performance tuning

Backup and recovery

On-call rotation

T-SQL

PowerShell

Azure CLI

Tools

SQL Server Management Studio

Azure SQL Database

MySQL Workbench

SQL Server Always On

Job description

The IT Database Engineer is responsible for designing, implementing, and supporting relational database platforms in both traditional data centers and Azure cloud environments. The role covers installation, configuration, performance tuning, high availability, backup and recovery, monitoring, and incident response for Microsoft SQL Server, MySQL, and PostgreSQL, with participation in an on-call rotation to support mission-critical workloads.

Key Responsibilities

• Install, configure, and upgrade MSSQL, MySQL, and PostgreSQL in data center and Azure environments (IaaS and/or PaaS as applicable).
• Perform day-to-day database administration, including user and role management, permissions, schema changes, and maintenance tasks.
• Monitor database health, performance, and capacity using native and third-party tools; define meaningful alerts and dashboards for proactive issue detection.
• Troubleshoot database incidents (performance issues, blocking/deadlocks, failed jobs, connectivity problems, resource constraints) and drive root-cause analysis and permanent fixes.
• Design, implement, and maintain backup and recovery strategies (full/diff/log, PITR, snapshots, Azure backup options) and regularly test restore procedures.
• Implement and support high availability and disaster recovery configurations (e.g., SQL Server Always On, failover clustering, log shipping, MySQL/Postgres replication, Azure availability sets/zones).
• Optimize database performance through indexing strategies, query tuning, statistics management, and configuration tuning at both OS and database levels.
• Implement and enforce security controls (authentication, authorization, encryption at rest/in transit, auditing) aligned with organizational and regulatory requirements.
• Support application and development teams with database design, query optimization, and controlled deployment of schema changes across environments.
• Maintain detailed documentation including runbooks, standards, topology diagrams, data flows, and operational procedures for both on-prem and Azure deployments.
• Participate in an on-call rotation, responding to after-hours incidents, and perform planned maintenance during maintenance windows.
• Automate routine tasks (provisioning, checks, patching, reporting) using scripts and tooling (e.g., T-SQL, PowerShell, Bash, Python, Azure CLI).

Required Qualifications

• Proven experience as a Database Engineer/DBA supporting MSSQL, MySQL, and PostgreSQL in production environments.
• Hands-on experience managing databases in traditional data centers (physical/virtual servers) and Azure (e.g., SQL Server on Azure VMs, Azure SQL Database, Azure Database for MySQL/PostgreSQL or similar).
• Strong understanding of database internals: storage structures, indexing, transactions, isolation levels, and locking.
• Demonstrated skills in performance troubleshooting and tuning using execution plans, wait statistics, and monitoring metrics.
• Practical experience with HA/DR solutions and backup/restore strategies, including testing and documentation of failover/recovery procedures.
• Proficiency with scripting/automation for database operations and integration with operational tooling.
• Familiarity with networking, OS, and virtualization concepts relevant to database performance and connectivity (subnets, firewalls, load balancers, storage latency).
• Solid understanding of security best practices for databases.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience with Azure-native monitoring and management tools (e.g., Azure Monitor, Log Analytics, Alerts, Managed Identities, Key Vault).
• Experience with CI/CD and database change automation, including schema versioning and deployment pipelines.
• Exposure to large-scale or high-volume databases, partitioning, and scaling strategies (vertical/horizontal).
• Knowledge of regulatory and compliance requirements related to data (e.g., PCI, HIPAA, GDPR) and data protection techniques (masking, tokenization).
• Relevant certifications (e.g., Microsoft Azure, SQL Server, MySQL, PostgreSQL).

Soft Skills

• Strong analytical and problem-solving skills, especially under time pressure during incidents and on-call situations.
• Clear communication skills to work effectively with developers, infrastructure teams, security, and business stakeholders.
• High sense of ownership for data integrity, availability, and reliability, with a structured approach to documentation and process.