Senior Engineering Manager Database

We are seeking a Senior Manager, Database Engineering to lead the reliability, performance, and scalability of our PostgreSQL and SQL Server platforms across on‑premises and Azure environments. This role supports mission‑critical 24×7 systems and drives an engineering culture centered on automation, observability, and operational excellence. 

Key Responsibilities 

Leadership & Team Management 

• Lead, mentor, and develop a team of up to 8 database engineers and DBAs, leveling up engineering practices and outcomes.  

• Set clear goals, performance expectations, and development plans. 

• Foster a collaborative, high‑performance culture aligned with organizational strategy. 

• Act as an escalation point for complex operational issues and high‑severity incidents. 

• Operate as a player‑coach: ~30–40% hands‑on in design, tuning, incident response, and migrations; ~60–70% leadership and strategy. 

Operational Excellence 

• Ensure availability, performance, and reliability of database operations for mission‑critical workloads. 

• Oversee incident response, root‑cause analysis, and continuous improvement. 

• Maintain HA/DR strategies, RTO/RPO compliance, backups, and recovery processes. 

• Manage operational runbooks, SOPs, SLAs, and governance standards. 

Technical & Platform Ownership 

• Provide architectural direction for SQL Server and PostgreSQL across on‑prem and Azure. 

• Lead upgrades, migrations, capacity planning, and modernization initiatives. 

• Drive performance monitoring, tuning, and proactive engineering. 

• Oversee database security, patching, auditing, and compliance. 

Cloud & Modernization 

• Advance the adoption of Azure SQL, SQL Managed Instance, and Azure PostgreSQL Flexible Server. 

• Partner with cloud and architecture teams to implement IaC, CI/CD, and automated deployments. 

SRE Practices 

• Promote SLOs, SLIs, error budgets, and automation‑first operations. 

• Reduce manual work through automation and self‑healing processes. 

• Implement observability practices using metrics, logs, traces, and alerting. 

Cross-Functional Collaboration 

• Work with application, infrastructure, cloud, and security teams to ensure system reliability and performance. 

• Communicate risk, status, and insights to leadership. 

• Influence architectural decisions and guide solution onboarding. 

What You’ll Bring 

• Strategic mindset with strong operational discipline. 

• Ability to lead in complex, high‑availability environments. 

• Passion for automation, engineering excellence, and continuous improvement. 

• Strong interpersonal and cross‑team collaboration skills. 

Priority will be given to candidates who reside in the Columbus, OH metropolitan area.

We are unable to provide sponsorship now or in the future for this position. 
 

Minimum Qualifications  

Degree or equivalent experience. Typically requires 9+ years of professional  experience and 1+ years of supervisory and/or management experience. 

Education 

• Bachelor’s degree preferred 

Critical & Required Skills 

• 9+ years in database engineering/administration. 

• 2+ years of people management experience. 

• Deep (5-7 years) expertise in SQL Server and PostgreSQL in enterprise environments. 

• Experience supporting 24×7 mission‑critical systems. 

• Hands‑on experience with Azure SQL, SQL Managed Instance, and Azure PostgreSQL Flexible Server. 

• Knowledge of HA/DR, performance tuning, monitoring, and capacity planning. 

• Familiarity with automation tools (Terraform, Ansible, GitHub Actions, Azure DevOps, PowerShell, Python). 

Preferred Skills 

• Experience managing large‑scale database environments. 

• Background in SRE and observability platforms (Azure Monitor, Grafana, Prometheus, App Insights). 

• Experience leading cloud modernization or major database migrations. 

• Strong communication and stakeholder management skills. 

• Experience in regulated environments (SOX, HIPAA, PCI).