Principal Database Administrator

Cox Enterprises; Holtsville (NY); Hybrid; USD 178,000 - 297,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Hybrid work arrangement

Incentive program eligibility

Job summary

Cox Automotive in the USA is seeking a Principal Database Administrator (Director) to lead database strategy, optimize on-prem environments, and drive a phased migration to AWS for cloud modernization. You will partner with product teams across Dealer Solutions to ensure high availability and security of enterprise platforms.

The ideal candidate has 10+ years in database administration, deep SQL Server expertise, and proven leadership in complex migrations and performance tuning.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Information Systems, Engineering, or a related discipline with 10+ years of experience in database administration.
• Experience in database design, code development, administration, and systems engineering for high-performance databases.
• 8+ years with multiple AWS RDS technologies and NoSQL services like DynamoDB; understanding trade-offs between AWS variants.
• Experience supporting 24x7 production systems with strict SLAs.
• Expertise in high-availability and disaster-recovery technologies (clustering, replication, backup/restore).
• Leadership for Microsoft SQL Server environments and cloud transformation strategies.

Responsibilities

• Define and implement database strategy; lead cloud modernization and migration to AWS.
• Advise architects and engineers on data architecture decisions; ensure high availability and security.
• Lead complex migration, resiliency, and performance initiatives across multiple teams.
• Mentor DBAs; drive long-term evolution of the database platform.

Skills

Leadership

SQL Server expertise

Performance tuning

Data architecture

Cloud modernization

Communication skills

Education

Bachelor’s degree in CS/IS/Engineering

Master’s degree

Ph.D.

Tools

AWS RDS

PostgreSQL

MySQL

Oracle

DynamoDB

Job description

Company

Cox Automotive - USA

Job Family Group

Information Technology

Job Profile

Principal Database Administrator

Management Level

Director

Flexible Work Option

Hybrid - Ability to work remotely part of the week

Travel %

No

Work Shift

Day

Compensation

Compensation includes a base salary in the range of $178,200.00 - $297,000.00. The base salary may vary within the anticipated base pay range based on factors such as the ultimate location of the position and the selected candidate’s knowledge, skills, and abilities. Position may be eligible for additional compensation that may include an incentive program.

Job Description

The Principal Database Administrator will support multiple product teams across Dealer Solutions and play a key role in working on (managed and optimized enterprise database systems) cloud migration initiatives.This role will be responsible for managing, optimizing, and re-architecting the current on-premises database environment. As a key technical enabler of the organization’s cloud strategy, the Senior Database Administrator will first stabilize and remediate the existing database infrastructure, then design and execute a safe, phased migration to AWS.

This position bridges the gap between the current aging, monolithic on-premises database environment running on on-prem infrastructure and a future-state scalable, cost-efficient, cloud-native database platform.

The ideal candidate is a technical leader who serves as the organization’s primary database authority. Theyare responsible fordefining database strategy, driving cloud modernization efforts, advising architects and software engineers on data architecture decisions, ensuring high availability and security of enterprise platforms, and leading complex migration, resiliency, and performance initiatives. Theypossessdeepexpertiseacross both traditional relational databases and modern cloud-native data platforms while influencing technical direction across multiple engineering teams.

Min Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Information Systems, Engineering, or a related discipline with10+ years of experiencein database administration, database engineering,or related technical roles. The right candidate may also have aMaster’sdegree with8+ years of experience, a Ph.D. with5+ years of experience, or14+ years ofdirectly relatedexperience.
• Experience in database design, database code development, database administration, and systems engineering to build high-performance, fault-tolerant database systems and infrastructure for database-centric applications.
• 8+ years ofexperiencedwith multiple AWS RDS database technologies (PostgreSQL, MySQL, Oracle) and NoSQL services such as DynamoDB, understanding trade-offs between AWS-managed variants.
• Experience supporting 24x7 production systems with strict SLAs and uptime requirements.
• Expertisein high-availability and disaster-recovery technologies (clustering, replication, failover, backup/restore strategies) to reduce risk and downtime across critical systems. Strong background in high-availability/disaster-recovery technologies (e.g., clustering, log shipping,GoldenGate, Always On, replica sets).
• Perform logical and physical database design, data modeling, performance management/monitoringarchitectingand building databases from business requirements through planning, testing, and production deployment.
• Provide expert-level leadership for Microsoft SQL Server environments, serving as the highest-level technical authority across database architecture, platform strategy, modernization, upgrades, migrations, cloud transformation, high availability, disaster recovery, replication, clustering, and backup/recovery ensuring resilient, scalable platforms with minimal business disruption and downtime.
• 8 yearsof performance tuning, indexing strategies, query optimization, and execution plan analysis.
• Drive innovation through implementation across functional teams, both internal and external, to meet business requirements.
• Ability to design and support solutions spanning relational databases and microservice architectures, selecting the right technology for the right workload.
• Strong collaboration with software engineers and architects on application and data architecture decisions, ensuring systems are built for scalability, resilience, and performance.
• Use of observability tools and operational intelligence platforms to proactivelymonitordatabase health and drive data-informed operational decisions.
• 8+ yearsBuilding and maturing CI/CD practices for database changes (schema migrations, deployment automation, version control, automated testing).
• Mentor database administrators, influence architects and developers, review complex technical designs, lead strategic initiatives, and define the long-term evolution of the database platform.
• Strong communicationskills translating technical trade-offs for engineers and non-technical stakeholders.
• Experience working in Agile development environments (Scrum, Kanban, or similar), collaborating within sprint-based delivery cycles.

Drug Testing

To be employed in this role, you’ll need to clear a pre-employment drug test. Cox Automotive does not currently administer a pre-employment drug test for marijuana for this position. However, we are a drug-free workplace, so the possession, use or being under the influence of drugs illegal under federal or state law during work hours, on company property and/or in company vehicles is prohibited.

Benefits

The Company offers eligible employees the flexibility to take as much vacation with pay as they deem consistent with their duties, the company’s needs, and its obligations; seven paid holidays throughout the calendar year; and up to 160 hours of paid wellness annually for their own wellness or that of family members. Employees are also eligible for additional paid time off in the form of bereavement leave, time off to vote, jury duty leave, volunteer time off, military leave, and parental leave.

About Us

Through groundbreaking technology and a commitment to stellar experiences for drivers and dealers alike, Cox Automotive employees are transforming the way the world buys, owns, sells – or simply uses – cars. Cox Automotive employees get to work on iconic consumer brands like Autotrader and Kelley Blue Book and industry-leading dealer-facing companies like vAuto and Manheim, all while enjoying the people-centered atmosphere that is central to our life at Cox. Benefits of working at Cox may include health care insurance (medical, dental, vision), retirement planning (401(k)), and paid days off (sick leave, parental leave, flexible vacation/wellness days, and/or PTO). For more details on what benefits you may be offered, visit our benefits page. Cox is an Equal Employment Opportunity employer – All qualified applicants/employees will receive consideration for employment without regard to that individual’s age, race, color, religion or creed, national origin or ancestry, sex (including pregnancy), sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, physical or mental disability, veteran status, genetic information, ethnicity, citizenship, or any other characteristic protected by law. Cox provides reasonable accommodations when requested by a qualified applicant or employee with disability, unless such accommodations would cause an undue hardship.

EOE, including disability/vets

Applicants must currently be authorized to work in the United States for any employer without current or future sponsorship. No OPT, CPT, STEM/OPT or visa sponsorship now or in future.