Sr. Database Engineer, Site Reliability
ESPN
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Job summary
ESPN is seeking a Sr. Database Engineer, Site Reliability in Bristol, CT to join the Data Stores team. The role focuses on building and maintaining highly available relational databases across cloud and on-prem environments powering our media platforms.
You will implement automation, performance tuning, and fault-tolerant architectures while participating in on-call rotations and cross-team collaboration. A strong SQL Server background and cloud experience are essential.
Qualifications
- Bachelors degree in computer science, engineering, or related field, or equivalent experience.
- 5+ years of experience with Microsoft SQL Server, Amazon RDS for SQL Server, Azure SQL, and Azure SQL MI.
- Fundamental understanding of Microsoft SQL Server database internals.
- Experience working in Agile software development.
- Experience with source control management tools (Git, GitLab, GitHub).
- Programming in Python, Java, or Go with intermediate to advanced skills.
- General understanding of Windows operating system, network, and containers.
- Excellent verbal and written communication skills.
- Experience designing and deploying fault-tolerant, distributed, highly available database infrastructure.
- Experience with SQL Server backup, restore, and recovery strategies.
Responsibilities
- Build, deploy, and maintain DEEP&T database infrastructure available 24/7/365.
- Design, modernize, and deliver database infrastructure using automation.
- Contribute to architectural direction for database platforms and projects.
- Balance multiple priorities in a fast-paced environment.
- Design and deploy fault-tolerant, distributed database infrastructure.
- Plan capacity, release cycles, and right-sizing for infrastructure changes.
- Provide database expertise through performance tuning and troubleshooting.
- Develop and adhere to engineering standards and documentation.
- Build automation and tooling to increase operational efficiency and reliability.
- Create scalable, observable infrastructure with code and configuration management.
- Provide data store insights via metrics, monitoring, and alerting.
- Support live events and participate in on-call rotation.
- Potentially mentor junior team members.
- Collaborate with engineering teams to promote SQL Server best practices.
Skills
Education
Tools
Job description
This is an on-site role requiring 4 days in-person at designated office location.
Technology is at the heart of Disney’s past, present, and future. Disney Entertainment and ESPN Product & Technology is a global organization of engineers, product developers, designers, technologists, data scientists, and more – all working to build and advance the technological backbone for Disney’s media business globally.
The team marries technology with creativity to build world-class products, enhance storytelling, and drive velocity, innovation, and scalability for our businesses.We are Storytellers and Innovators. Creators and Builders. Entertainers and Engineers. We work with every part of The Walt Disney Company’s media portfolio to advance the technological foundation and consumer media touch points serving millions of people around the world.
Building the future of Disney’s media: Our Technologists are designing and building the products and platforms that will power our media, advertising, and distribution businesses for years to come. Reach, Scale & Impact: More than ever, Disney’s technology and products serve as a signature doorway for fans’ connections with the company’s brands and stories. Disney+. Hulu. ESPN. ABC. ABC News…and many more. These products and brands – and the unmatched stories, storytellers, and events they carry – matter to millions of people globally. Innovation: We develop and implement groundbreaking products and techniques that shape industry norms, and solve complex and distinctive technical problems.
Product Engineering is a unified team responsible for the engineering of Disney Entertainment & ESPN digital and streaming products and platforms. This includes product engineering, media engineering, quality assurance, engineering behind personalization, commerce, lifecycle, and identity.
The individual in this position will join the Data Stores team in an exciting and fast-paced environment where they will help build and maintain highly available relational database systems operating across multiple cloud and on-premise environments. These databases support many of the systems powering DEEP&T’s digital media supply chain and consumer facing products.
Join DEEP&T as a Senior Reliability Engineer, where you will analyze, design, program, debug, and modify software enhancements and new products for use in local, networked, cloud-based, or Internet-related computer programs. This role delivers large or highly complex software programs and systems that are critical to the organization’s technology platforms and commercial applications.
By leveraging in-depth knowledge of current programming languages and technologies, the Senior Reliability Engineer will write code, complete programming tasks, and perform testing and debugging of applications. The individual will interact with users to define system requirements and necessary modifications, conceive and implement software components, fixes, enhancements, and new systems. Their work directly impacts the organization by driving improvements in product quality, operational efficiency, and technical innovation, influencing future projects and technical direction
We’re looking for an individual who can apply software engineering principles to database engineering and administration to build processes and automation to help deliver infrastructure faster, safer, more consistently, and with the right level of observability required to operate at scale.
- Responsible for building, deploying, and ensuring all DEEP&T database infrastructure is available 24/7/365.
- Leverage software development and automation to design, modernize, and deliver database infrastructure.
- Participates in setting the architectural direction for database platforms and projects.
- Manage multiple competing priorities in a fast-paced, deadline-oriented environment.
- Analyze, design, and deploy fault-tolerant, distributed, and highly available database infrastructure.
- Proactively plan and implement infrastructure changes through capacity forecasting, software release cycles, and right sizing.
- Provide database expertise through performance tuning, troubleshooting and administration.
- Develop, enhance, and adhere to engineering and administration standards.
- Develop automation and tooling to increase operational efficiency while ensuring system reliability and security.
- Build infrastructure and systems for scalability, resiliency, availability, and recovery though infrastructure as code and configuration management.
- Provide relevant insights of data store infrastructure through metrics, monitoring, and alerting.
- Maintain thorough and well-written documentation.
- Participate in live event support and on-call rotation.
- May provide oversight and direction to junior team members.
- Builds relationships with engineering teams and leads.
- Bachelor’s degree, preferably in computer science, Engineering, or related field (or equivalent experience).
- 5+ years of related work experience with Microsoft SQL Server, Amazon RDS for SQL Server, Azure SQL, and Azure SQL MI.
- Fundamental understanding of Microsoft SQL Server database internals.
- Experience working in Agile software development.
- Experience with source control management tools (Git, GitLab, GitHub).
- Intermediate to advanced level of expertise in one or more programming languages such as Python, Java, or Go.
- General understanding and experience with Windows operating system, network, and containers.
- Excellent verbal and written communication skills.
- Experience designing and deploying fault-tolerant, distributed, and highly available database infrastructure.
- Experience in database availability monitoring and status reporting using native monitoring tools.
- Well-versed in SQL Server backup, restore, and recovery strategies.
- Experience keeping a large environment compliant by deploying SQL Server patches and upgrades.
- Experience with disaster recovery planning and implementation.
- Carries out assignments with little coaching or guidance from others.
- Experience operating within a database reliability engineering (DRE) and/or systems reliability engineering (SRE) role.
- Experience running, deploying, and maintaining production systems in Azure and Amazon Web Services.
- Experience with infrastructure as code (Terraform, CloudFormation).
- Experience building a proper path to production leveraging multiple lifecycles, testing, integration, and CI/CD pipelines.
- Experience with the configuration and implementation of SQL Server Always On availability groups.
- Experience with configuration management (Ansible, Chef).
- Comfortable collaborating with cross-functional teams providing guidance in SQL Server best practices.
- Experience with proactively identifying problems/areas of improvement and designing creative solutions to successfully remediate issues.
The hiring range for this position in Bristol, CT is $141,900 to $190,300 and in New York is $$148,700 to $199,400$ per year. The base pay actually offered will take into account internal equity and also may vary depending on the candidate’s geographic region, job-related knowledge, skills, and experience among other factors. A bonus and/or long-term incentive units may be provided as part of the compensation package, in addition to the full range of medical, financial, and/or other benefits, dependent on the level and position offered.
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