Principal Database Administrator

Oracle; United States; On-site; USD 120,000 - 150,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Medical, dental, and vision insurance

401(k) Savings and Investment Plan with company match

Paid parental leave and adoption assistance

Employee Stock Purchase Plan

Paid time off with flexible vacation and accrual policies

Job summary

Oracle is seeking a Principal Database Administrator to lead technical efforts and provide operational ownership for Oracle database platforms. Your role will involve enhancing database availability, security, and operational resilience by leveraging automation, modernization strategies, and mentoring staff across diverse teams.

The ideal candidate will possess a strong background with Oracle database technologies, solid experience in production environments, and proven skills in scripting and automation. This position offers a comprehensive benefits package and is based in the United States.

Qualifications

• 8+ years of experience administering Oracle databases.
• Experience in mission-critical production environments.
• Proficiency in leading complex technical initiatives.

Responsibilities

• Provide technical leadership for Oracle database platforms.
• Drive operational excellence through proactive monitoring.
• Collaborate on complex technical challenges.

Skills

Oracle Database Administration

Oracle RAC

Database Performance Tuning

SQL Optimization

Shell scripting

Oracle Data Guard

Database Security

Oracle ASM

RMAN Backup and Recovery

Experience with Python

Education

Bachelor's or Master's degree in Computer Science, Information Technology, Computer Engineering, Mathematics, or related

Tools

Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI)

Terraform

Ansible

Job description

Principal Database Administrator

We are seeking a Principal Database Administrator to provide technical leadership for mission‑critical Oracle database platforms supporting Oracle Health products. This role combines deep database administration expertise with platform engineering, automation, modernization, and operational leadership to ensure highly available, secure, and performant database services across production and non‑production environments.

As a Principal DBA, you will partner closely with engineering, cloud infrastructure, security, product, and operations teams to define technical direction, improve database reliability, drive modernization initiatives, and establish best practices that enable scalable platform operations.

Responsibilities

• Provide technical leadership and operational ownership for Oracle database platforms across production, non‑production, standby, replication, and disaster recovery environments.
• Lead initiatives that improve database availability, scalability, security, and operational resilience through architecture, automation, and continuous improvement.
• Drive operational excellence through proactive monitoring, incident management, capacity planning, root cause analysis, problem management, and service reliability improvements.
• Design, implement, and maintain highly available database architectures using Oracle RAC, Data Guard, ASM, GoldenGate, and related technologies.
• Ensure backup, recovery, disaster recovery, and business continuity strategies are regularly validated, tested, and continuously improved.
• Plan and execute database upgrades, patching, security updates, and lifecycle management activities with minimal business disruption.
• Optimize database performance through SQL tuning, indexing strategies, partitioning, compression, workload analysis, and performance diagnostics.
• Develop automation that streamlines database provisioning, maintenance, monitoring, compliance validation, and operational workflows using scripting and infrastructure automation tools.
• Lead database modernization initiatives, including Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI), Exadata, Autonomous Database adoption, and cloud migration efforts.
• Collaborate across engineering, infrastructure, security, and product organizations to resolve complex technical challenges, influence architectural decisions, and deliver strategic platform capabilities.
• Establish engineering standards, operational runbooks, documentation, and best practices that improve reliability, consistency, observability, and maintainability.
• Mentor engineers and database administrators through technical leadership, design reviews, knowledge sharing, and operational guidance.
• Partner with Oracle and third‑party vendors to resolve complex database and infrastructure issues while ensuring platform stability and supportability.

AI‑First Engineering Expectations

• Leverage AI‑assisted engineering practices to improve database operations, troubleshooting, documentation, automation, and operational decision‑making.
• Drive adoption of AI‑enabled workflows for incident triage, log analysis, SQL optimization, runbook generation, knowledge management, and operational analytics.
• Identify opportunities to automate repetitive operational tasks using AI‑assisted tooling while improving quality, consistency, and reducing operational risk.
• Champion responsible AI usage by ensuring adherence to enterprise security, privacy, intellectual property, compliance, and governance standards.
• Promote AI‑assisted engineering practices that enhance productivity while maintaining operational excellence, customer trust, and service reliability.

Minimum Qualifications

• 8+ years of experience administering Oracle databases supporting mission‑critical production environments.
• Bachelor's or Master's degree in Computer Science, Information Technology, Computer Engineering, Mathematics, or a related technical discipline.
• Extensive experience administering Oracle Database on Linux/UNIX platforms.
• Strong expertise in:
  • Oracle Database Administration
  • Oracle RAC
  • Oracle ASM
  • Oracle Data Guard
  • Oracle GoldenGate
  • RMAN Backup and Recovery
  • Database Performance Tuning
  • SQL Optimization
  • Database Security
  • Database Upgrades and Patching
• Experience supporting highly available production environments with strong operational discipline and change management practices.
• Proficiency in Shell scripting and experience with Python and/or Perl.
• Experience troubleshooting complex production issues across database, operating system, storage, and networking layers.
• Demonstrated ability to lead complex technical initiatives, influence architectural decisions, and mentor engineers in a collaborative environment.
• Strong written and verbal communication skills with the ability to present technical concepts to engineering teams, cross‑functional stakeholders, and leadership.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience with Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI) Database Services.
• Experience with Oracle Exadata and Oracle Maximum Availability Architecture (MAA).
• Experience with Oracle Autonomous Database.
• Experience implementing Infrastructure as Code (IaC) using tools such as Terraform, Ansible, or similar automation frameworks.
• Experience with observability and monitoring platforms, including enterprise monitoring, telemetry, and performance analytics.
• Familiarity with Kubernetes, REST APIs, JSON, and modern platform integration technologies.
• Strong understanding of Linux internals, storage architecture, networking, and system performance.
• Experience supporting regulated, security‑sensitive, or highly available enterprise platforms, preferably within healthcare or other regulated industries.
• Knowledge of Site Reliability Engineering (SRE) and DevSecOps principles.

Benefits

• Medical, dental, and vision insurance, including expert medical opinion
• Short‑term disability and long‑term disability
• Life insurance and AD&D
• Supplemental life insurance (Employee/Spouse/Child)
• Health care and dependent care Flexible Spending Accounts
• Pre‑tax commuter and parking benefits
• 401(k) Savings and Investment Plan with company match
• Paid time off with flexible vacation and accrual policies
• 11 paid holidays
• Paid sick leave (72 hours upon hire, refreshed annually)
• Paid parental leave and adoption assistance
• Employee Stock Purchase Plan
• Financial planning and group legal services
• Voluntary benefits including auto, homeowner and pet insurance

Equal Opportunity Employment

Oracle is an Equal Employment Opportunity Employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, national origin, sexual orientation, gender identity, disability, or protected veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by law. Oracle will consider qualified applicants with arrest and conviction records pursuant to applicable law.

Certain U.S. based or U.S. customer or client‑facing roles may be required to comply with applicable requirements, such as immunization/occupational health mandates, and/or drug testing requirements.