Sr. DBA Infrastructure Engineer

***This position will require (1/days per month) from our office in Newcastle***

Job Overview

We are at a pivotal point in our tech progression. We're looking to grow the technical estate, replace existing systems with new and scale and develop the platform. It's an exciting time to join the team in this captivating period.

As a Senior Infrastructure Engineer - Databases you will be part of the Partnerize Technical Operations team, they work with the business, development, and IT functions. You will be working within a team of Infrastructure Engineers responsible for designing, building and implementing solutions for the platform and providing the required training to support the solution. You will also be responsible for ensuring all issues/problems are addressed in a timely manner by the team. 

You should have a keen interest in problem-solving accompanied with experience in networking, linux systems and an experience in system designs, analysing what is currently implemented and offering improvements as well as ensuring the supporting documentation is in place. You’ll be supporting and maintaining the network, infrastructure, delivering projects and processes required to ensure we remain available, scalable, and secure. Involved in support, project delivery and maintenance activities completed by the Operational Team.

We’re looking for a Senior Infrastructure Engineer - Databases with a desire to learn. For us, it's more about the person and the character than the role. We need people that will get excited about taking us to the next stage of our evolution helping us with their specific skills and experience but learning new ones along the way. You will need to be based within communicable distance of the Newcastle Office. 

As a Senior DBA Infrastructure Engineer at Partnerize, You Will:

• Scoping the work coming into the Infrastructure Solutions team and delegating to the team members appropriately.
• Provide primary operational support and engineering for multiple large Databases servicing distributed software applications
• Measure and optimise new implemented systems performance, with an eye toward pushing our capabilities forward.
• Build software and systems to manage platform infrastructure and applications
• Improve reliability, quality, and time-to-market of our suite of software solutions
• Partner with development teams to improve services through rigorous testing and release procedures
• Ability to document procedures, best practices, and troubleshooting steps for knowledge sharing and team collaboration.
• Strong communication skills to work with development teams, product owners, and other stakeholders to ensure database needs are met.
• Deliver large technical projects
• Act as an escalation for other support teams within TechOps
• Plan, prioritise, and estimate tasks using Jira.
• Experience in mentoring junior DBAs and providing technical leadership on database design, optimization, and migration strategies.

***This position is hybrid (1/days per month) from our office in Newcastle***

Essential Knowledge, Skills and Experience

MySQL:

• Proficiency in MySQL replication (master-slave, master-master) and high availability configurations.
• Experience in query performance optimization, including slow query analysis, indexing strategies, and troubleshooting.
• Strong understanding of schema optimization (e.g., normalization, denormalization, partitioning) to enhance database performance.
• Experience in managing MySQL upgrades and schema migrations in production environments, ensuring minimal downtime and data integrity.
• In-depth knowledge of replication techniques across the various database technologies to ensure high availability, data consistency, and fault tolerance.
• Experience in setting up and maintaining multi-master replication, geo-replication, GTID and disaster recovery strategies.
• Proficient in resolving replication lag, failover issues, and ensuring data integrity across different database platforms.

PostgreSQL / NoSQL databases:

• Expertise in PostgreSQL replication (synchronous, asynchronous), logical replication, and managing replication lag.
• Ability to troubleshoot and resolve slow queries 
• Experience in PostgreSQL schema optimization (indexing, partitioning, query rewrites) to ensure efficient data retrieval.
• Solid understanding of upgrades and migrations, including handling major and minor version upgrades, and managing extension compatibility.

Demonstrated experience in performing database upgrades (both major and minor versions) with minimal downtime, ensuring compatibility across systems, and handling post-upgrade issues.

Expertise in managing database migrations, including:

• In-place migrations (within the same database platform).
• Cross-database migrations (e.g., migrating from MySQL to PostgreSQL or MongoDB to CouchDB).
• Migrating between cloud providers or on-prem to cloud for various database platforms.
• Automating and scripting the migration process where possible.

Experience in versioning and testing migration scripts to ensure smooth transitions with minimal service interruption.

Monitoring & Troubleshooting:

• Strong experience with database monitoring tools (e.g., Prometheus, Grafana, New Relic, Percona Monitoring and Management) for tracking performance metrics and ensuring database health.
• Expertise in diagnosing and resolving performance issues related to replication, slow queries, schema design, and database migrations.
• Knowledge of setting up alerting systems and responding to database issues proactively.

***This position will require (1/days per month) from our office in Newcastle***

Desirable Knowledge, Skills and Experience

 Automation & Scripting:

• Proficiency in scripting languages (e.g., Python, Shell, Bash) to automate routine DBA tasks such as backups, monitoring, upgrades, and migrations.
• Experience with automation tools such as Ansible, Chef, or Puppet to manage database configurations across multiple environments.
• Familiarity with CI/CD pipelines for database schema changes and migrations to ensure controlled and tested deployments.

Apache Druid / Column based databases:

• Familiarity with setting up and managing replication across Druid clusters, including data availability and data sharding strategies.
• Experience with query optimization in Druid, especially for long-running queries in OLAP workloads.
• Understanding of schema design and optimization for Druid’s columnar data format.
• Knowledge of managing Druid upgrades and migrations within distributed environments to ensure zero-downtime or minimal disruption.

MongoDB:

• Expertise in MongoDB replication (ReplicaSets, Sharded Clusters) to ensure data redundancy, fault tolerance, and scalability.
• Experience with slow query troubleshooting using tools like the MongoDB Profiler and Aggregation Framework optimization.
• Proficient in schema design for MongoDB, with a focus on denormalization, indexing strategies, and sharding to improve query performance.
• Hands-on experience with upgrading MongoDB versions and migrating data between MongoDB clusters or from on-premises to cloud environments.

Additional experience:

• Experience with monitoring systems (Zabbix, Prometheus)
• Containerization and Orchestration: Familiarity with deploying and managing databases in containerized environments (e.g., Docker, Kubernetes).
• Experience of JIRA and Confluence
• Openness to learn the required technologies. 
• An interest in development, new technologies and innovation
• Supporting development teams into the refactoring of technical debt

At Partnerize, we recognize it is unrealistic for a candidate to fulfil 100% of the criteria in this job description. We encourage you to apply if you feel you meet the majority requirements above. We know that skills evolve over time, so if you have a keen appetite to learn and evolve alongside us over time, come join our team! 

UK Benefits & Perks

• 25 days holiday in addition to bank holidays
• Enhanced Parental Leave: 6 months full pay for birth parent, 4 weeks non-birth parent at full pay after one year employment
• 5 extra 'Partnerize Parental Days' each year
• Private Medical Insurance through Bupa
• Enhanced pension contributions
• Cycle to Work scheme
• Eye Care Vouchers
• Life Assurance
• Enhanced Wellness Program including access to EAP, Wellness Coaching & Wellness Fridays program
• Regular company events and activities