About the position
ENVIRONMENT:
A Site Reliability Engineering team is seeking a SKA Database & Platform Engineer (DBA Focus) who will work as part of the SKA-Site Reliability Engineering (SRE) team within SKA-Mid Computing & Software.
The SKA Platform Engineer (DBA Focus) is a specialised engineering role where database administration expertise is primary, complemented by platform and operations skills to enable deployment, scalability, and automation. The role is responsible for designing, configuring, tuning, and operating relational, time-series, and NoSQL databases — including Postgres, MariaDB, MySQL, Timescale DB, Influx DB, OpenBSD, Elasticsearch, and Redis — to ensure optimal performance, availability, and reliability. The engineer will deploy and manage databases in distributed, containerized, and cloud environments, leveraging automation and orchestration tools. The role requires understanding distributed parallel file systems and object storage from the perspective of database operation, performance, and data reliability, enabling effective database configuration, tuning, and coordination with platform teams for storage-level considerations.
DUTIES:
- Design, implement, and maintain relational (Postgres, MariaDB, MySQL), time-series (Timescale DB, Influx DB, OpenBSD), and NoSQL (Elasticsearch, Redis) databases.
- Develop and optimise SQL queries, stored procedures, and database APIs using Python or PHP.
- Configure, deploy, and operate databases across distributed, containerised, and cloud environments (AWS, GCP, OpenStack, Kubernetes).
- Monitor, tune, and troubleshoot database performance to ensure high availability, durability, and reliability.
- Implement and manage backup, restore, and disaster recovery workflows using distributed and object storage systems.
- Collaborate with platform engineering teams on storage provisioning, replication, and system-level performance optimisation.
- Contribute to automation initiatives including database deployment, CI/CD pipelines, and real-time operational monitoring.
- Maintain and enforce database security best practices — including access controls, encryption, and secrets management.
REQUIREMENTS:
Essential Skills & Competencies
- Minimum 5+ years’ experience managing full lifecycle production database systems at scale, with responsibility for stability, performance, continuity, and reliability.
- Proven experience as a Database Administrator/Engineer working with relational, NoSQL, and time-series databases.
- Strong SQL experience with advanced query writing, stored procedures, and scripting.
- Ability to develop database-facing APIs using Python or PHP.
- Solid understanding of distributed parallel file systems and object storage from a database operations and performance perspective.
- Hands-on experience deploying and managing databases in cloud, virtualised, and containerised environments (Docker/Kubernetes).
- Familiarity with CI/CD pipelines and automation frameworks such as Jenkins, GitLab CI, Terraform, and Ansible.
- Strong Linux/Unix systems experience supporting database operations.
- Excellent troubleshooting, performance tuning, and monitoring capability.
Desirable Skills
- Experience administering application/web servers and integrating databases with platform services.
- Knowledge of high-throughput messaging technologies (Kafka, Kafka Streams).
- Exposure to performance engineering and joint optimisation with application development teams.
- Familiarity with software-defined networking or in-network computing technologies.
- Experience using machine learning techniques for monitoring, anomaly detection, or operational analytics.
- Parallel programming (MPI or similar) is advantageous.
ATTRIBUTES:
- Strong analytical and diagnostic mindset with the ability to identify bottlenecks and optimise complex systems.
- High attention to detail with a commitment to data reliability, durability, and operational continuity.
- Excellent communication and collaboration skills when working with platform, engineering, and storage teams.
- Proactive, self-driven, and comfortable working in large-scale, mission-critical technical environments.
- Adaptable to emerging technologies, tooling, and scientific computing requirements.
- Strong sense of ownership and accountability for performance, uptime, and system quality.
Desired Skills:
- Administrative
- Database
- Systems Engineering
