Database Administrator (DBA) Engineer
Location: Riyadh, Saudi Arabia
Industry Preference: Banking & Financial Services
Experience: 5-9 Years
Employment Type: Full-time
About the Role:
We are seeking a highly skilled and proactive Database Administrator (DBA) Engineer to join our dynamic technology team in Riyadh. In this critical role, you will be responsible for ensuring the performance, integrity, security, and availability of our mission-critical banking databases. You will work with a variety of database systems, with a primary focus on Oracle and MS SQL Server in a high-availability environment. The ideal candidate will have deep experience in the financial sector, understanding the stringent requirements for data accuracy, transaction processing, and regulatory compliance.
Key Responsibilities:
- Database Management: Install, configure, upgrade, patch, and maintain database management systems (DBMS) across development, testing, and production environments.
- Performance Tuning: Proactively monitor database performance, identify bottlenecks, and optimize SQL queries, indexing strategies, and instance configurations to ensure optimal transaction throughput for core banking applications.
- High Availability & Disaster Recovery: Implement, manage, and regularly test robust HA/DR solutions (e.g., Oracle Data Guard, Always On Availability Groups, clustering) to guarantee business continuity and meet strict RPO/RTO objectives.
- Security & Compliance: Enforce stringent database security measures, including access control, encryption (at-rest and in-transit), auditing, and vulnerability management in line with banking regulations (e.g., SAMA, PCI-DSS).
- Backup & Recovery: Design, implement, and validate reliable backup and recovery procedures. Perform regular recovery drills to ensure data can be restored accurately and within agreed timelines.
- Automation & Scripting: Develop and maintain scripts (using SQL, PL/SQL, PowerShell, Python, etc.) to automate routine DBA tasks, deployments, and monitoring checks.
- Capacity Planning: Monitor database growth and trends to forecast future capacity needs and plan for scalable infrastructure.
- Collaboration: Work closely with application development, infrastructure, and security teams to support new projects, troubleshoot complex issues, and implement best practices for database design and access.
Qualifications & Skills:
- Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Information Technology, or a related field.
- 5-9 years of proven experience as a DBA, with at least 3 years in the banking or financial services industry.
- Mandatory Technical Expertise:
- Expert-level knowledge of Oracle Database (19c/21c) and/or Microsoft SQL Server (2019/2022).
- Strong experience with performance tuning, wait event analysis, and AWR/Statspack reports (Oracle) or Query Store/Execution Plans (SQL Server).
- Hands-on experience with HA/DR technologies: Oracle RAC, Data Guard; SQL Server Always On, Failover Clustering.
- Proficiency in database backup/recovery tools (RMAN, native SQL Server backup).
- Solid scripting skills for automation.
- Highly Desirable:
- Experience with cloud database services (AWS RDS/Aurora, Azure SQL Database) and hybrid environments.
- Knowledge of database auditing tools and data masking/anonymization techniques.
- Familiarity with Fintech platforms, core banking systems, or payment processing databases.
- Soft Skills: Excellent problem-solving skills, ability to work under pressure, strong communication skills, and a meticulous attention to detail.
