Senior Database Administrator

The position holder will provide subject Matter Expertise in designing, building, delivery and support of IT and Telco Database Infrastructure for core business operations services.

The main duties are:

·         Responsible for building, maintaining and supporting high-performance, fault-tolerant, scalable and distributed database infrastructure and platforms.

·         Responsible for interfacing with application support teams to ensure applications fit within the Database infrastructure with scalability, reliability and security designed and implemented from the onset and also in defining road maps for the solutions.

·         Vendor management and SLA enforcement to ensure they deliver world class Cloud Infrastructure services to the business.

·         Role includes implementation of tactical service improvements, upgrades and system patching.

·         Liaise with users, hardware and software vendors and internal systems owners to fine tune systems hardware and software for all systems.

·         Provide Expertise in ensuring critical business workloads, Applications, Databases, Backup platforms operate optimally and efficient.

·         Maintenance of systems documentation and procedures.

·         Administration, Performance tuning, Capacity planning, management, and 3rd line support of ALL Safaricom Enterprise Database (DB) Systems.

·         Operational support and monitoring of the entire Data Center Database platforms for the business.

·         This is a 24/7 role, and the position holder will be required to be reachable/on standby at any time of day or night. Position will also require shift work whenever necessary.

Job Responsibilities: 

·         Database administration and support lifecycle including backup/recovery automation/and maintenance.

·         Regular database patching with minimal downtime.

·         Ensure upgrades to databases with minimal impact to customers.

·         Ensure 24/7 availability of databases.

·         Ensure all database systems are monitored and KPIs are met.

·         Ensure response and closure of tickets raised as per SLA.

·         Identify and implement best practices for Databases.

·         Ensuring adherence to licensing regimes.

·         Work closely with application teams to ensure database systems are adequately tuned.

·         Design Business Continuity Plan (BCP) and High Availability solutions for critical systems to achieve zero downtime during maintenance and failures.

·         Ensure Conformance to security standards for databases and data integrity.

·         Develop retention policies and architecture for all systems, whilst maintaining BCP.

·         Ensure regular reviews of Information Lifecycle Management (ILM) policies are conducted.

·         Ensure dimensioning of systems is done periodically based on demand experienced and projected.

·         Ensure optimal performance of all systems maintained conforming to the SLA agreements between business and Quality Assurance.

·         Automation and continuous improvement

 Key performance indicator: 

·         Ensure planned changes are timely completed to 100% level of accuracy >97.5% of the time.

·         Timely and accurate proactive support on new and existing systems and/or service enhancements as per business needs.

·         Incidents and problem management:  Timely resolution of Incidents and prioritizing depending on the severity, root cause analysis, management of problems and closure of recurring incidents related to the responsible domains. This should be within the defined ITIL, ISO and other acceptable SLA guidelines.

·         Optimal database performance.

·         Over 90% change success rate in database migrations, integrations, and system implementations.

·         Accountability for database, EXADATA infrastructure monitoring and availability.

·         99.99% database system availability and monitoring: Define and monitor availability for all the databases. This includes ensuring that the set KPIs are met. 

·         Monitor and review database related incidents and problems to identify improvements.

·         Compliance with security minimum baseline standards.

·         Maintaining current documentation for all database systems

·         Work with service providers to forecast and right-size long-term capacity and performance requirements, iterating regularly.

·         Ensure all supported database systems are up-to date with at least an n-1 release (latest stable release)

 

·         Consciously takes steps to make the most of every conversation/interaction 

·         Identifies people’s needs, interests and motives to be able to influence the decisions they make 

·         Communicates simply to excite and engage people 

·         Pro-actively adapts own style and approach to build rapport, and work with others more effectively 

·         cultivates and sustains strong relationships and networks

 

·         Finds creative ways to exploit opportunities and solve problems 

·         Takes risks and pushes what is possible 

·         Drive for automation

 

·         Evaluates present and anticipates future technology needs.

·         Demonstrates a strong sense of responsibility and reliability.

·         Operates in accordance with legal, regulatory, professional and ethical standards.

 

·         Responds flexibly to changing situations 

·         Oversees the organizational and human elements of change and keeps up with current technologies.

·         Degree in Computer Science, Engineering, Technology or Electrical Engineering.

·         Certified Database Administration on Oracle, MsSQL and Postgre.

·         With at least 5+ years’ hands on Experience in Database Management in a busy environment.

·         5+ Years Oracle, MySQL, PostgreSQL, MSSQL  and other Opensource database administration experience.

·         Experience in Oracle RAC, Dataguard, RMAN and Engineered systems.

·         Experience in Linux/Unix and Windows Server Operating system.

·         Database Systems Administration Techniques – understanding of DB Performance tuning on various Operating Systems, good troubleshooting skills, Database Migration, and ILM techniques.

·         In depth knowledge on Opensource Database platforms preferably Mongo DB, Cansandra, Postgre DBs. 

·         Attention to details and analytical thinking.

·         Ability to organize and plan work independently.

·         People leadership and management skills.

·         Strong written and oral capability.

 

·         5+ years of  Oracle EXADATA administration

·         Team Player with team leadership skills.

·         Ability to work under no supervision.

·         Willing to learn about new technologies.

·         Knowledge about Cloud Infrastructure (AWS, OCI &/or Azure)

 

If you feel that you are up to the challenge and possess the necessary qualification and experience, kindly proceed to update your candidate profile on the career portal and then Click on the apply button. Remember to attach your resume.

 

The closing date for receiving applications is   Wednesday May 1, 2024, 5:00pm