Senior Database Engineer

Senior Database Administrator (DBA)

Leidos is seeking an experienced Senior Database Administrator (DBA) to lead a team supporting and maintaining an IT service management tool (ServiceNow) for a large organisation. This role requires advanced expertise in database administration, optimization, and disaster recovery planning, along with strong team leadership and mentorship skills. The ideal candidate will be responsible for ensuring database stability, security, and performance, while guiding and supporting their team in optimizing database environments and infrastructure. This role requires a daily in-office presence.

Everything we do is built on a commitment to do the right thing for our customers, our people and our community. Our mission and our values guide the way we do business. The foundation of our Leidos culture is our Values, Beliefs and Expectations by which we select, recognise and reward employees. They create the environment that drives us toward our mission.

Passionate about customer success by being determined to understand and respond to our customers’ needs as if they were our own. United as a team, we are bound together by our conviction that ethics and integrity is core to how we operate.

Leidos is a global science and technology solutions leader working to solve the world’s toughest challenges in the defence, intelligence, homeland security, civil, and health markets. The company’s 33,000 employees support vital missions for government and commercial customers. Candidate must be eligible to undergo security clearance (DV).

Key Responsibilities:

• Team Leadership & Management: Oversee and mentor a small team of Database Administrators, providing guidance, training, and support.
• Database Administration & Maintenance: Provide technical support for MariaDB (MySQL) databases, ensuring optimal performance and availability.
• Backup & Disaster Recovery: Implement and oversee database backup and recovery strategies to mitigate data loss.
• Monitoring & Performance Optimization: Track system performance and identify bottlenecks affecting database efficiency and data integrity.
• Incident & Problem Management: Troubleshoot database-related incidents and implement proactive solutions to minimize downtime.
• Capacity Planning: Monitor and forecast database storage and performance needs, ensuring scalability.
• Upgrades & Patch Management: Plan and execute major database upgrades and periodic patching to maintain system stability.
• Database Logging & Monitoring: Configure and manage database logs for integration into a SIEM (Security information and event management) solution for monitoring and security compliance.
• High Availability & Failover Management: Monitor, maintain and orchestrate manual failover and failback procedures to maintain uptime.
• Automation & Scripting: Develop scripts using SQL, Bash, or Python to automate database maintenance and monitoring tasks.
• Documentation & Knowledge Sharing: Maintain database build and upgrade documentation, ensuring accuracy and accessibility for the team.
• Testing & Validation Support: Oversee execution of test scripts for database validation and performance assessment.

You will have:

• Proven experience as a Senior Database Administrator (DBA).
• Demonstrated leadership experience, with the ability to mentor and manage a technical team.
• Expertise in MariaDB or other relational databases (MySQL, Oracle, or SQL Server).
• Experience with backup and disaster recovery strategies for databases.
• Knowledge of database tuning, indexing, and query optimization.
• Understanding of networking protocols relevant to databases (TCP/IP, DNS, load balancing).
• Familiarity with IT Service Management (ITSM) tools, preferably ServiceNow.
• Familiarity with Agile/Scrum methodologies.
• Knowledge of ITIL/ITSM principles and best practices.
• Excellent analytical and problem-solving skills.
• Exceptional communication and interpersonal skills, with the ability to collaborate effectively across teams.

Desirable Skills:

• Familiarity with security frameworks such as CIS benchmarks or ISO 27001.
• Hands-on experience with high availability clustering and replication.
• Familiarity with virtualization technologies.
• Experience with automated patch management in database environments.
• ServiceNow environment experience is desirable.
• Experience of transitioning systems to service.

WHAT DO WE DO FOR YOU?

At Leidos we are PASSIONATE about customer success, UNITED as a team and INSPIRED to make a difference. We offer meaningful and engaging careers, a collaborative culture, and support for your career goals, all while nurturing a healthy work-life balance.
We provide an employment package that attracts, develops and retains only the best in talent. Our reward scheme includes:

• Contributory Pension Scheme
• Private Medical Insurance
• 33 days Annual Leave (including public and privilege holidays)
• Access to Flexible benefits (including life assurance, health schemes, gym memberships, annual buy and sell holidays and a cycle to work scheme)

•  Dynamic Working 

Commitment to Diversity:

We welcome applications from every part of the community and are committed to a truly diverse and inclusive culture. We foster a sense of belonging, welcoming all perspectives and contributions, and providing equal access to opportunities and resources for everyone. If you have a disability or need any reasonable adjustments during the application and selection stages, please let us know, and we will respond in a way that best fits your needs. 

Who We Are:

Leidos UK & EUROPE – we work to make the world safer, healthier, and more efficient through technology, engineering and science.

Leidos is a growing company delivering innovative technology and solutions focused on safeguarding critical capabilities and transformation in frontline services, our work in the United Kingdom includes addressing some of the most complex problems in defence, healthcare, government, safety and security, and transportation.

What Makes Us Different:

Purpose: you can use your passion and abilities at Leidos to keep the people you care about safe. We are at the forefront of machine learning, AI, cyber security and solutions. Using your skills in the technology frontline by helping to build a safer world. You can inspire change.

Collaboration: having flexibility to do your job is one of our core benefits, enabling you to become part of our extraordinary team. We have been empowering our people to work flexibly for years. Whether you work from home, the office or on customer sites, we will give you the digital tools and the flexibility to work smarter and align your needs and ours.

People: Leidos empowers people from every background to be themselves and gives you the tools to learn new skills by enabling growth whilst developing. We believe that extraordinary people need opportunities to grow, to be inspired and to inspire others. At Leidos, we invest in technical academies, career rotations and a career development plan that enhance your future.

Original Posting:

For U.S. Positions: While subject to change based on business needs, Leidos reasonably anticipates that this job requisition will remain open for at least 3 days with an anticipated close date of no earlier than 3 days after the original posting date as listed above.

Pay Range:

The Leidos pay range for this job level is a general guideline only and not a guarantee of compensation or salary. Additional factors considered in extending an offer include (but are not limited to) responsibilities of the job, education, experience, knowledge, skills, and abilities, as well as internal equity, alignment with market data, applicable bargaining agreement (if any), or other law.