Principal Database Administrator

Cox Automotive Inc.; Village of North Hills (NY); On-site; USD 178,000 - 297,000; Full time

Job summary

Cox Automotive Inc. seeks a Principal Database Administrator to guide cloud modernization, stabilize on‑prem environments, and execute phased AWS migrations. You will partner with product teams across Dealer Solutions to design scalable data platforms and maintain enterprise data integrity.

The role requires deep expertise in both traditional relational databases and cloud-native platforms, with a focus on highly available, secure systems and cross‑team leadership.

Qualifications

• 10+ years in database administration or related roles.
• Experience with multiple AWS RDS technologies and NoSQL (DynamoDB).
• Proven ability to design high-performance, fault-tolerant databases.
• Experience supporting 24x7 production systems with strict SLAs.
• Strong leadership and collaboration across engineering teams.

Responsibilities

• Define database strategy and modernization efforts.
• Drive cloud migration, stabilization, and phased AWS rollout.
• Advise architects and engineers on data architecture decisions.
• Ensure high availability and security of enterprise platforms.
• Lead complex migration, resiliency, and performance initiatives.

Skills

AWS RDS technologies

PostgreSQL

MySQL

Oracle

SQL Server

High availability

Disaster recovery

Cloud migration

Performance tuning

CI/CD for databases

Data modeling

Education

Bachelor's degree in Computer Science or related

Master's degree (preferred)

Ph.D. (optional)

14+ years of directly related experience

Tools

Microsoft SQL Server (Always On)

GoldenGate

Log shipping

DynamoDB

AWS RDS

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. 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 experienced 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.
• Experience working in Agile development environments (Scrum, Kanban, or similar), collaborating within sprint-based delivery cycles.

USD 178,200.00 - 297,000.00

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.

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.

Applicants must currently be authorized to work in the United States for any employer without current or future sponsorship.

EOE, including disability/vets