Database Platform Lead - Modernization & Reliability

Zelis; Morristown (NJ); Hybrid; USD 139,000 - 177,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

401k with match

Paid time off

Holidays

Parental leave

Life insurance

Disability insurance

Health benefits

Job summary

Zelis is seeking a Sr Manager, Database Engineering to lead a distributed team responsible for reliability, performance, security, and modernization of enterprise databases across Azure, AWS, and on‑prem environments. You will translate strategy into executable roadmaps, set engineering standards, and drive improvements with architecture, security, and infra partners.

The role requires deep hands-on leadership with the ability to coach senior engineers, guide complex design reviews, and own

Qualifications

• 10+ years of enterprise database engineering experience
• 3+ years leading database engineers or similar teams
• Strong SQL Server knowledge: HA, DR, security, upgrades
• Practical PostgreSQL and cloud DB experience (Aurora/RDS)
• Experience migrating and modernizing complex databases
• Guide architecture decisions and support escalations
• Observability, automation, IaC, Git-based workflows, CI/CD experience
• Excellent stakeholder management and executive reporting
• Bachelor’s or equivalent; cloud/db certifications preferred

Responsibilities

• Lead a distributed team of Database Engineers across onshore and offshore locations
• Own operational accountability for the enterprise database estate across on‑prem, Azure, and AWS
• Translate the modernization strategy into a 2–3 year roadmap and milestones
• Provide technical direction across SQL Server, Azure SQL, RDS, PostgreSQL, and Aurora PostgreSQL
• Partner with application, architecture, security, and infrastructure teams to plan migrations
• Review database architecture and support high-severity incidents when needed
• Manage migration and re-platforming projects from discovery to post‑migration stabilization
• Maintain database lifecycle plans for upgrades and debt reduction
• Establish telemetry, monitoring, capacity thresholds, and dashboards for health
• Ensure 24x7 support coverage, on-call readiness, and incident management across teams
• Promote automation and IaC for provisioning, deployment, and maintenance across clouds

Skills

Leadership

Distributed teams

Strategy & roadmap

Architecture guidance

Stakeholder management

Automation

Observability

AI-assisted engineering

Education

Bachelor’s degree in CS/IT/Engineering

Tools

Microsoft SQL Server

Azure SQL

Amazon RDS

PostgreSQL

Amazon Aurora PostgreSQL

Git

GitHub

Infrastructure as Code

Job description

Zelis is seeking a Sr Manager, Database Engineering to lead a distributed team responsible for reliability, performance, security, and modernization of enterprise databases across Azure, AWS, and on‑prem environments. You will translate strategy into executable roadmaps, set engineering standards, and drive improvements with architecture, security, and infra partners.

The role requires deep hands-on leadership with the ability to coach senior engineers, guide complex design reviews, and own