Database Specialist

QE Services IT Recruitment; Cape Town; Hybrid; ZAR 800,000 - 1,200,000; Full time

Job summary

QE Services IT Recruitment seeks a Senior Database Solutions Specialist to design, build, optimise, and support enterprise databases underpinning critical POS apps in a hybrid Cape Town setting.

You will drive architecture, performance, data integrity, automation, and resilience, collaborating with cross-functional teams and mentoring analysts.

Qualifications

• Degree or diploma in CS, IT, data engineering, or related field.
• Certifications in SQL, Oracle, Microsoft, AWS or Azure are advantageous.
• 5+ years in database development, administration, engineering, or solutions support.

Responsibilities

• Define firmwide database strategies, technology roadmaps, and DBaaS patterns across physical and virtualised infrastructure.
• Design, configure, and enhance schemas, tables, views, stored procedures, indexes, and scripts for POS app requirements.
• Develop and enhance automated builds and ecosystem integration using Unix Shell, Perl, Python, SQL, PL/SQL.
• Conduct workload vs performance analysis, identify bottlenecks, and implement optimisation plans.
• Implement database security engineering standards, access controls, and compliance initiatives.
• Develop and implement unified monitoring to measure health, usage, capacity trends, and availability.
• Collaborate with applications, reporting platforms, and enterprise systems; work with developers, architects, and infra teams.
• Establish standards, maintain technical docs, and ensure auditability and knowledge transfer.
• Mentor developers and analysts, sharing expertise in architecture, SQL optimisation, and best practices.

Skills

SQL development

Performance tuning

Database security

Cloud databases

POS integration

Automation

Data modelling

Stakeholder management

Troubleshooting

Team mentoring

Education

Degree/Diploma in CS/IT or related

Tools

SQL Server

Oracle

PostgreSQL

MySQL

AWS

Azure

Job description

Location: Cape Town Contract Type: 12-Month Fixed Term Work Arrangement: Hybrid - 4 days per week in office Level: Senior

Role Overview

The Senior Database Solutions Specialist is responsible for the design, development, optimisation, and ongoing support of enterprise database environments that underpin business-critical applications and services, including POS applications. This role provides specialist expertise across project delivery and operational stability, translating business and application requirements into secure, scalable, and sustainable database solutions.

The successful candidate will focus on database architecture, solution design, performance tuning, integration, data integrity, automation, resilience, and technical support, ensuring platforms deliver optimal performance and remain reliable, secure, and recoverable. Collaboration with application, infrastructure, development, and business teams is essential to align database environments with organisational requirements, technology strategies, and best-practice standards.

Key Responsibilities

• Define firmwide database strategies, technology roadmaps, and DBaaS patterns across physical and virtualised infrastructure.
• Design, configure, and enhance schemas, tables, views, stored procedures, indexes, and scripts to meet business and POS application requirements.
• Develop and enhance automated builds and ecosystem integration using Unix Shell scripts, Perl, Python, SQL, PL/SQL, and POS applications.
• Conduct workload vs performance analysis, identify bottlenecks, recommend scaling strategies, and implement query rewrites, indexing changes, and optimisation plans.
• Implement database security engineering standards, access controls, vulnerability assessments, and compliance initiatives.
• Develop and implement unified monitoring tools to measure platform health, utilisation, capacity trends, and availability.
• Support integration with applications, reporting platforms, and enterprise systems; collaborate with developers, architects, and infrastructure teams.
• Establish standards, maintain technical documentation, and ensure auditability and knowledge transfer.
• Eliminate inefficient polling patterns, optimise processing architecture, reduce database footprint and growth risk, and drive automation initiatives.
• Mentor developers and analysts, providing expertise in database architecture, SQL optimisation, and best practices.

Qualifications

• Degree/Diploma in Computer Science, Information Systems, IT, Data Engineering, or related field.
• Certifications in SQL, Oracle, Microsoft, AWS, Azure, or similar technologies advantageous.

Experience & Technical Requirements

• 5+ years in database development, administration, engineering, or solutions support.
• Strong hands-on SQL development, performance tuning, query optimisation, indexing, backup/recovery, and troubleshooting.
• Experience with relational databases (SQL Server, Oracle, PostgreSQL, MySQL).
• Exposure to cloud-based database platforms advantageous.
• Proven support of business-critical systems with high performance, availability, and security requirements.
• Familiarity with source code control, modular programming, and software release management.
• Experience integrating databases with POS applications highly desirable.
• Advanced SQL, stored procedures, indexing, and performance tuning.
• Strong understanding of database architecture, modelling, and administration principles.
• Solid knowledge of data security, access management, backup/recovery, HA/DR practices.
• Analytical and troubleshooting ability with root cause analysis and sustainable solutions.
• Excellent collaboration and stakeholder management skills.
• Strong written and verbal communication, including reporting to senior management and stakeholders.
• Detail-oriented, structured problem-solver with prioritisation skills.
• Continuous improvement mindset with focus on automation, optimisation, and resilience.
• Ability to perform under pressure while maintaining quality and stability.