IT Database Administrator (DBA)

Based in Harare and working as one of 2 DBA’s in the Infrastructure Team, Reporting to the IT Manager and under the guidance of the DBA Team Leader, the Database Administrator is primarily responsible for overseeing and managing the database estate within ZSS and related group companies.

The DBA plays an important role within the organisation, being responsible for:

• Setting and maintaining standards, frameworks, tools and methodologies for the organisation and customers relational database environments.
• Monitoring and assuring the overall health of all production RDBMS environments.
• Managing, forecasting and planning for RDBMS growth in size and performance.
• Overseeing the planning, organisation and management of all relational data across the organisation.
• Overseeing or executing all RDBMS administration related tasks throughout the full database lifecycle.

Responsibilities

• Database monitoring, administration, upgrades, backup, and disaster recovery planning & testing and development, including stored procedures, views, etc.
• Maintain multiple environments (development, testing, and production), including patching and troubleshooting.
• Manage database active directory integration, user accounts, roles and access restrictions under the guidance and direction of the Infosec team.
• Microsoft PowerBI, SSRS and SSIS development, administration, support, and security management.
• Work with cross functional teams to accommodate the database design and administrative needs.
• Participate in the development of long-term planning for new projects, including the architecture design, planning, installation and commissioning of new RDBMS environments.
• Ensuring that external and internal regulations and policies governing data management and infosec compliance are met including regulations concerning security, audit ability and privacy.
• Review service-related reports (database backups, maintenance, monitoring) daily to ensure issues are identified and resolved within established SLAs.
• Respond to database related alerts and escalations and come up with strategic solutions to recurring problems.
• Develop ongoing assessments of database performance and identify problem areas.
• Evaluate database storage requirements for current systems and future growth, perform space and performance monitoring, analysis, tuning and forecasting.
• Manage RDBMS data assets including facilitating organisation wide system integration, data sharing, archival/migration of data to data lakes or warehouses and data pruning.
• Provide ad hoc reports to clients, operations, and administration.
• Contributes to the safeguarding of information in databases and computer files against accidental or unauthorised damage, modification, or disclosure.

The post holder will be expected to have:

• A minimum of 2 years experience working as a SQL DBA.
• Certifications and formal training in Microsoft SQL Curriculum or PostgreSQL an advantage.
• Deep working knowledge of general SQL queries and commands.
• Experience of recent and current editions of Microsoft SQL Server (2012 – 2019).
• Experience of recent editions of PostgreSQL (9.6 – Current).
• Linux and Windows CLI and scripting (Bash, Powershell, Python).
• Applied experience/knowledge of High Availability MSSQL PostgreSQL architectures, such as hands-on experience with Microsoft AlwaysOn Availability Groups, PgPool II, general database replication and mirroring techniques.
• Practical experience and a deep working knowledge of common DBA tasks including:
  • Database optimisation tasks and techniques;
  • Performance tuning and troubleshooting;
  • Backup, Restore and DR tasks;
  • Maintenance and monitoring.
• Experience in creating data models, ERD’s and technical documentation.
• Experience with SQL Server Integration Services (SSIS) Reporting Services (SSRS) and PGAdmin.
• Experience with NOSQL solutions such as ELK stack or MongoDB an advantage.
• Experience with opensource reporting solutions such as Grafana an advantage.
• A background working in Banking, Financial Services or equivalent ‘Blue Chip’ level enterprises.
• Excellent reporting and written communication skills.
• Ability to work within a multinational team with colleagues from a wide range of professional backgrounds and contribute to the development of team culture and the achievement of common objectives.
• Ability to work without supervision and organise own workload and manage time effectively.