Principal Database Administrator - Computing Services

Carnegie Mellon University; Pittsburgh (Allegheny County); On-site; USD 120,000 - 190,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Health insurance

Tuition benefits

Generous retirement plan

Free Pittsburgh transit bus pass

Job summary

Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, PA seeks a Senior Database Administrator to administer, secure, and optimize Microsoft SQL Server databases across on‑prem and cloud environments. You will design standards, perform backup/recovery, and support critical applications with Level‑2/3 escalation, while collaborating with cross‑functional teams in a hybrid cloud setup.

The role emphasizes security, cost management, and cloud governance, including DR testing, performance tuning, and

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Information Science, Computer Engineering, or a closely related field.
• Preferred – Master’s degree or advanced coursework in databases, cloud computing, systems, or information security.
• 3–5 years of database administration experience and 3–5 years of systems administration experience in on‑premise and public cloud vendor environments.
• Proven hands‑on experience with Microsoft SQL Server and Windows Server is required.

Responsibilities

• Install, configure, and maintain Microsoft SQL Server instances and related components across Windows and cloud platforms.
• Implement and enforce database security measures to protect data across on‑prem and cloud deployments.
• Monitor database performance, diagnose problems, and apply tuning, indexing, and query optimization to maintain application performance in both environments.
• Perform backup and recovery operations; design and test DR plans using cloud provider capabilities and on‑prem strategies.
• Maintain and enforce standards for database environments and technical documentation; ensure cloud governance, tagging, and change management procedures are followed.
• Provide Level‑2/Level‑3 escalation support and troubleshooting for production incidents and participate in an on‑call rotation as required.
• Collaborate with application and cloud/infrastructure teams to design cloud architectures, optimize database costs and performance, and support deployments.

Skills

Microsoft SQL Server

Windows Server

Cloud computing

Automation (PowerShell, Python)

Infrastructure as Code (Terraform)

Monitoring & observability

Security & compliance

Education

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

Master's degree preferred

Tools

Azure SQL Database

AWS RDS/Aurora

Cosmos DB / DynamoDB

Terraform

PowerShell

Azure CLI / AWS CLI

SQL Server on Windows VMs

Job description

The Computing Services central IT department provides services that have a strategic impact on university goals. We make service decisions based on interaction and valuable input from colleagues engaged in the education, research, and administration efforts of the university. We are a learning organization and approach successes and mistakes as a learning experience to continually cultivate a culture of intelligent risk taking. We want to hire versatile team members who are inspired and passionate about their work. Join us and be part of a team committed to excellence, innovation, diversity, team and individual growth.

The Senior Database Administrator is responsible for administering, securing, and optimizing Microsoft SQL Server databases running in a Windows ecosystem and across public cloud platforms. This role installs, configures, maintains, patches, and tunes databases and the underlying Windows and cloud infrastructure that support them; designs and enforces standards; performs backup and recovery and disaster‑recovery planning and testing; provides Level‑2/Level‑3 escalation support for critical partner and internal applications; and designs and operates cloud and hybrid application architectures and database platforms. The Senior DBA collaborates with application developers, cloud and infrastructure engineers, storage, and network teams to ensure reliable, performant, secure, and cost‑effective data platforms.

Your core responsibilities will include: Install, configure, and maintain Microsoft SQL Server instances and related components across Windows and cloud platforms. Implement and enforce database security measures to protect data across on‑prem and cloud deployments, including encryption, access controls, and cloud IAM integrations. Monitor database performance, diagnose problems, and apply tuning, indexing, and query optimization to maintain application performance in both environments. Perform backup and recovery operations; design and test DR plans using cloud provider capabilities (snapshots, managed backups, cross‑region replication) and on‑prem strategies. Maintain and enforce standards for database environments and technical documentation; ensure cloud governance, tagging, and change management procedures are followed. Provide Level‑2/Level‑3 escalation support and troubleshooting for production incidents and participate in an on‑call rotation as required. Collaborate with application and cloud/infrastructure teams to design cloud architectures, optimize database costs and performance, and support deployments. Other duties as assigned.

Position specific job responsibilities:

1. Cloud Architecture & Operations: Design, implement, and operate database platforms across public clouds and hybrid architectures — selecting managed services, sizing instances, configuring networking, and implementing secure connectivity (VNet/VPC, private endpoints, peering, VPN/ExpressRoute/Direct Connect).
2. Managed & Native Services: Operate and optimize managed cloud database services (Azure SQL, RDS/Aurora, Cloud SQL), NoSQL/document databases (Cosmos DB, DynamoDB), and analytics platforms (Synapse, Redshift, BigQuery). Implement best practices for scalability, availability, and cost.
3. Migration & Modernization: Lead and execute database migration efforts (assessment, schema/data migration, cutover, validation), refactoring where appropriate for cloud‑native usage, and runbook updates post‑migration.
4. Automation & IaC: Implement Infrastructure as Code (Terraform, ARM, CloudFormation) and automations (PowerShell, Azure CLI, AWS CLI) to deploy, configure, and manage databases and related cloud infrastructure reproducibly.
5. Observability & Cost Management: Create monitoring and alerting (cloud native + SQL monitoring) and own cost governance for database workloads (rightsizing, autoscaling, and reserved instance/commitment strategies).
6. Security & Compliance: Implement cloud security controls, encryption‑at‑rest/in‑transit, key management, IAM policies, and assist with compliance assessments and evidence collection.
7. Hybrid Operations: Manage hybrid topologies that span on‑prem Windows servers and cloud services, orchestrate failover and DR between on‑prem and cloud as needed, and ensure consistent configuration and documentation.
8. Collaboration & Leadership: Act as technical lead on cloud database projects, mentor junior staff, and work with application owners to migrate and modernize application database dependencies.

Flexibility, excellence, and passion are vital qualities within Computing Services. Inclusion, collaboration, and cultural sensitivity are valued competencies at CMU. Therefore, we are in search of a team member who is able to effectively interact with a varied population of internal and external partners at a high level of integrity. We are looking for someone who shares our values and who will support the mission of the university through their work.

Qualifications:

Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Information Science, Computer Engineering, or a closely related field. Preferred – Master’s degree or advanced coursework in databases, cloud computing, systems, or information security. 3–5 years of database administration experience and 3–5 years of systems administration experience in on‑premise and public cloud vendor environments. Proven hands‑on experience with Microsoft SQL Server and Windows Server is required.

Type of Required Experience:

Hands‑on Microsoft SQL Server administration (installation, configuration, upgrades, patching) across on‑prem and cloud‑hosted deployments (e.g., SQL Server on Windows VMs, SQL Server in containers, SQL Server on Azure/AWS managed VMs). Experience with container storage, cloud storage (AWS S3, Azure Blob), monitoring and capacity planning tools, automation (PowerShell, Python, Ansible), and operational tooling (ServiceNow). Experience with cloud‑managed relational databases and cloud database paradigms, including but not limited to: Managed relational: Azure SQL Database / Managed Instance, Amazon RDS / Aurora, Google Cloud SQL. Data warehouse / analytics: Azure Synapse, Amazon Redshift, Google BigQuery. NoSQL / document / key‑value: Azure Cosmos DB, Amazon DynamoDB, Cloud Firestore, or equivalent. Caching & in‑memory: Azure Cache for Redis, Amazon ElastiCache. Proven experience with HA/DR and scaling in the cloud (multi‑AZ, read replicas, geo‑replication, managed backups, point‑in‑time restore, cross‑region replication). Experience with T‑SQL development and debugging, query optimization, index design and maintenance, statistics and plan‑analysis in both on‑prem and cloud environments. Experience with cloud application architectures: microservices, serverless, containerized workloads (Kubernetes/EKS/AKS/GKE), and patterns for connecting applications securely to databases (VPC/VNet, service endpoints, private link). Experience with Infrastructure‑as‑Code and automation: Terraform, ARM templates, CloudFormation, Azure CLI / PowerShell / AWS CLI, CI/CD pipelines for database change management. Experience with cloud networking and identity integration: VPN/ExpressRoute/Direct Connect, VPC/VNet design, Azure AD / IAM roles and policies, key management services and cloud KMS integration for encryption. Experience with monitoring, observability, and cost governance in cloud: Azure Monitor, AWS CloudWatch, GCP Stackdriver, cloud cost tools and tagging strategies. Experience performing migrations from on‑premises to cloud, hybrid configurations, lift‑and‑shift and refactor approaches, and validating performance and security after migration. Familiarity with storage/IO tuning for cloud disks and cloud storage (managed disks, EBS, cloud file shares), and cloud backup/restore tooling and retention policies. Experience with ITSM/change‑management in cloud and hybrid environments, and with secure design practices and compliance controls for cloud data platforms.

Helpful:

ITIL Foundation, security certifications (CompTIA Security+, CISSP).

Position Specific Licenses/Certifications:

Preferred / Helpful Certifications: Microsoft Certified: Azure Database Administrator Associate, Microsoft Certified: Azure Solutions Architect, AWS Database Specialty or AWS Solutions Architect, Google Cloud Professional Data Engineer, Terraform Associate.

Physical and Mental Requirements:

Ability to work under pressure, meet deadlines, pay attention to detail and maintain composure when dealing with difficult situations. Able to prioritize multiple tasks and work as part of a team.

Decision Making:

Decisions affect operational reliability, cloud architecture choices, migration approaches, and cost/performance tradeoffs.

Accountable for availability, integrity, recoverability, and cost efficiency of assigned database services.

Working Conditions:

Normal office environment with flexibility for off‑hours response for production incidents and participation in on‑call rotations. Works with general direction and exercises independent judgment to implement cloud and on‑prem solutions.

Direction:

Receives little instruction on day‑to‑day work and receives general instructions on new assignments.

Supervision:

Not responsible for supervising others.

Requirements:

Successful background check.

Benefits eligible employees enjoy a wide array of benefits including comprehensive medical, prescription, dental, and vision insurance as well as a generous retirement savings program with employer contributions. Unlock your potential with tuition benefits, take well‑deserved breaks with ample paid time off and observed holidays, and rest easy with life and accidental death and disability insurance. Additional perks include a free Pittsburgh Regional Transit bus pass, access to our Family Concierge Team to help navigate childcare needs, fitness center access, and much more! For a comprehensive overview of the benefits available, explore our Benefits page. At Carnegie Mellon, we value the whole package when extending offers of employment. Beyond credentials, we evaluate the role and responsibilities, your valuable work experience, and the knowledge gained through education and training. We appreciate your unique skills and the perspective you bring. Your journey with us is about more than just a job; it’s about finding the perfect fit for your professional growth and personal aspirations.

Location Pittsburgh, PA

Job Function Database Administration

Position Type Staff – Regular Full Time/Part time Full time

Pay Basis Salary

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