Senior Database Administrator
HybridJohannesburg, Gauteng, South Africa
Job Summary
Own database performance, reliability, and scalability for mission-critical systems powering real-time transaction processing across Oracle, PostgreSQL, and MySQL. Drive end-to-end performance tuning, design highly available architectures, and implement backup, recovery, and disaster recovery strategies with strict RTO/RPO targets. Enforce strong access controls, encryption, and auditing aligned with PCI compliance, while executing zero-downtime upgrades and migrations. Proactively monitor production issues, troubleshoot root causes, and partner with engineering teams to influence schema design and query patterns. Maintain clear documentation for architecture and operational procedures. Operate in a 24/7 environment with an on-call rotation, reporting to the Head of Cards Engineering in Johannesburg or Port Louis.
Required Qualifications
- 7–10+ years managing production-grade relational databases in high-availability environments
- Deep expertise in Oracle (SQL, PL/SQL, RAC)
- Strong working knowledge of PostgreSQL and MySQL
- Proven track record of performance tuning under real production load
- Experience supporting high-throughput, low-latency transactional systems
- Strong command of backup/recovery, replication, and HA strategies across platforms
- Familiarity with Oracle ODA, Data Guard, and modern monitoring/observability tools
- Solid understanding of PCI or comparable regulatory environments
- Ability to diagnose complex issues quickly and drive them to resolution
- Clear, direct communicator who can work effectively with engineering teams
- This position is based in either Johannesburg, South Africa, or Port Louis, Mauritius
- Expect occasional after-hours work tied to releases, maintenance windows, and incident response
Desired Qualifications
- Experience supporting high-throughput, low-latency transactional systems (payments/financial systems strongly preferred)
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