Sr. Database Administrator – NPS

Nelnet; Lincoln (NE); On-site; USD 120,000 - 140,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Medical insurance

Dental plan

Vision plan

HSA/FSA

401K

Stock purchase program

Tuition reimbursement

Disability insurance

Wellness program

Job summary

Nelnet Business Services (NBS) seeks a Senior Database Administrator to own and operate enterprise database platforms on AWS, including SQL Server and Aurora PostgreSQL. You will lead availability, security, backup, and disaster recovery while guiding modernization and automation initiatives.

You will partner with architects and engineering teams to govern changes, manage the CDC pipeline, and ensure compliant data retention. On-call support may be required.

Qualifications

• 7+ years of database administration and architecture.
• Experience with Aurora PostgreSQL and Microsoft SQL Server 2019.
• Hands-on experience managing databases in cloud environments.
• Experience designing high availability and disaster recovery solutions.
• Exposure to data streaming or CDC concepts is a plus.
• Familiarity with Liquibase for schema migrations.

Responsibilities

• Researches, designs, implements, and manages enterprise database systems based on business and application
• Leads complex database migrations, upgrades, and transformation initiatives.
• Designs and supports high availability and disaster recovery solutions.
• Monitors, analyzes, and improves database performance, scalability, and reliability.
• Ensures database security, compliance, backup, and recovery strategies are properly implemented and maintained.
• Recommends improvements to database architecture, standards, and operational processes.
• Owns the architecture, health, performance, and operational reliability of the enterprise Reporting Database.
• Manages the CDC pipeline's health, reliability, and daily operations.
• Manages data truncation processes to meet retention requirements.
• Establishes database change governance across PostgreSQL and SQL Server.
• Defines and audits database access governance and least privilege.
• Reviews complex, high-risk, or performance-sensitive schema and query changes.
• Guides engineering teams on database solution design and best practices.
• Supports production systems, including participation in on-call support as required.
• Continues to update technical knowledge and stay current on emerging database technologies and AI-enabled operational tools.

Skills

Database architecture

Performance tuning

Security best practices

AWS RDS

Education

Bachelor’s degree in CS/IS

Tools

Aurora PostgreSQL

SQL Server

Liquibase

AWS

Job description

Nelnet Business Services (NBS), a division of Nelnet, Inc., provides payment technology and education services to more than 1,200 higher education institutions, nearly 12,000 K-12 schools, and millions of individual students, families, and supporters across the globe. Our culture of service enables us to form long-lasting and trusted partnerships, while our focus on creativity and innovative solutions empowers our customer communities to thrive.

The Senior Database Administrator serves as the technical owner and operational lead for NPS database platforms, supporting mission critical business systems on AWS environments. This role designs, operates, secures, and continuously improves highly available database ecosystems while providing strategic leadership for modernization, automation, and risk reduction initiatives.

The Senior DBA owns end to end accountability for database availability, performance, security, backup/recovery, patching, and disaster recovery for enterprise SQL Server, Aurora Postgres, and supporting database technologies. This position operates with minimal supervision, sets technical direction, and is trusted to make production decisions that directly impact customer facing systems and regulatory commitments.

This role provides significant technical ownership of the NPS database platform. The Senior DBA partners closely with Enterprise and Infrastructure Architects to provide technical leadership for complex or high-risk database changes and help engineering teams identify and mitigate database risks before deployment. The role owns the enterprise Reporting Database, the CDC pipeline, data retention strategy, and the governance of database changes and access provisioning.

JOB RESPONSIBILITIES

• Researches, designs, implements, and manages enterprise database systems based on business and application
• Leads complex database migrations, upgrades, and transformation initiatives.
• Designs and supports high availability and disaster recovery solutions.
• Monitors, analyzes, and improves database performance, scalability, and reliability.
• Ensures database security, compliance, backup, and recovery strategies are properly implemented and maintained.
• Recommends improvements to database architecture, standards, and operational processes.
• Owns the architecture, health, performance, and operational reliability of the enterprise Reporting Database.
• Manages the CDC pipeline's health, reliability, and daily operations.
• Manages data truncation processes to meet retention requirements.
• Establishes database change governance across PostgreSQL and SQL Server.
• Defines and audits database access governance and least privilege.
• Reviews complex, high-risk, or performance-sensitive schema and query changes.
• Guides engineering teams on database solution design and best practices.
• Supports production systems, including participation in on-call support as required.
• Continues to update technical knowledge and stay current on emerging database technologies and AI-enabled operational tools.

EDUCATION

Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Information Systems, or a related discipline, or equivalent experience supported by relevant technical certifications and demonstrated expertise in enterprise database platforms.

Experience

• 7+ years of experience in database administration and architecture.
• Experience with Aurora Postgres, Microsoft SQL Server 2019 platforms.
• Hands-on experience managing databases in cloud environments.
• Experience designing high availability and disaster recovery solutions.
• Exposure to data streaming or CDC concepts is a plus.
• Familiarity with database schema migration tools such as Liquibase is a plus.

Competencies – Skills / Knowledge / Abilities

• Strong technical competency in database architecture, performance tuning, and security.
• Logical, analytical, and solution-oriented approach to problem solving.
• Ability to work independently and collaboratively across cross-functional teams, including engineering, architecture, and infrastructure.
• Experience with AWS RDS and Amazon Aurora PostgreSQL.
• Knowledge of database security hardening practices.
• Experience with database monitoring, alerting, and incident response.
• Ability to automate operations via SQL scripting and related tooling.
• Ability to design new database clusters and high availability configurations.
• Focus on continuous improvement and delivering reliable, scalable database solutions.
• Pay Range for this role is - $120,000 DOE

Benefits

• medical
• dental
• vision
• HSA and FSA
• generous earned time off
• 401K/student loan repayment
• life insurance & AD&D insurance
• employee assistance program
• employee stock purchase program
• tuition reimbursement
• performance-based incentive pay
• short- and long-term disability
• a robust wellness program

Nelnet is committed to providing a welcoming and respectful workplace where all associates have the opportunity to succeed. As an Equal Opportunity Employer, we ensure that all qualified applicants are considered for employment. Employment decisions are made without regard to race, color, religion/creed, national origin, gender, sex, marital status, age, disability, use of a guide dog or service animal, sexual orientation, military/veteran status, or any other status protected by federal, state, or local law. We value the unique contributions of every team member and believe that a positive work environment benefits everyone.

Qualified individuals with disabilities who require reasonable accommodations in order to apply or compete for positions at Nelnet may request such accommodations by contacting Corporate Recruiting at 402-486-5725 or [e-mail].

Nelnet is a Drug Free and Tobacco Free Workplace.

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