Principal Database Administrator

Cox Automotive; New York (NY); Hybrid; USD 178,000 - 297,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Hybrid work option

Job summary

Cox Automotive is seeking a Principal Database Administrator to guide cloud migration efforts and optimize the enterprise database landscape. The role focuses on stabilizing the on-premises environment, engineering a phased move to AWS, and ensuring high availability and security across teams.

The ideal candidate will lead data architecture decisions, mentor DBAs, and collaborate with software engineers to design scalable, resilient systems while supporting 24x7 operations and adhering to SLAs.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree with 10+ years in database admin/engineering roles; advanced degrees optional.
• Experience designing and managing high-performance, fault-tolerant database systems.
• 8+ years with AWS RDS technologies and NoSQL like DynamoDB.
• Experience supporting 24x7 production systems with strict SLAs.
• Expert-level MS SQL Server knowledge; cloud modernization and migrations.
• Strong leadership and ability to mentor DBAs and influence architects.

Responsibilities

• Support multiple product teams across Dealer Solutions and drive cloud migration initiatives.
• Manage, optimize and re-architect current on-premises database environment.
• Design and execute a phased migration to AWS while stabilizing existing systems.
• Bridge on-prem and cloud platforms to a scalable, cost-efficient database landscape.
• Lead migration, resiliency, performance initiatives and data architecture decisions.

Skills

AWS RDS (PostgreSQL/MySQL/Oracle)

NoSQL (DynamoDB)

SQL Server

High availability / DR

Performance tuning

Query optimization

Data modeling

CI/CD for databases

Cloud migration

Leadership / mentoring

Observability / monitoring

Collaborating with engineers

Education

Bachelor's degree in Computer Science / Information Systems / Engineering or related

Master's degree in related field

Ph.D. in related field

14+ years of directly related experience

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 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.

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. They are responsible for defining 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. They possess deep expertise across 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 with 10+ years of experience in database administration, database engineering , or related technical roles. The right candidate may also have a Master's degree with 8+ years of experience , a Ph.D. with 5+ years of experience , or 14+ years of directly related experience .


• 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 of experience d with 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.


• Expertise in 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/monitoring architecting and 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 years of 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 proactively monitor database health and drive data-informed operational decisions.


• 8+ years Building 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 communication skills translating technical trade-offs for engineers and non-technical stakeholders.