Manager, Database Administration

The Manager, Database Administration will lead a team responsible for designing, implementing, and maintaining database systems that support critical data operations across the organization. This role will be instrumental in setting strategic direction for database architecture, ensuring high availability and performance, and enabling data-driven decision-making. The successful candidate will drive initiatives around automation, security, and cloud integration while adhering to industry standards and regulatory compliance, such as SOC, HiTrust, PCI, HIPAA and GDPR.

Key Responsibilities

Leadership and Team Development

• Lead, mentor, and develop a high-performing team of database administrators and engineers, fostering a culture of continuous improvement and accountability.
• Set clear team OKRs and goals aligned with organizational objectives, conducting regular performance reviews and providing ongoing feedback.
• Partner with HR on recruiting and retaining top talent, ensuring team capacity meets future workload and project demands.

Database Strategy and Architecture

• Architect and oversee robust, scalable, and secure database environments, leveraging best practices for high availability, disaster recovery, and data integrity.
• Collaborate with DevOps and cloud teams to develop and implement cloud migration strategies, hybrid architectures, and automation solutions (e.g., Cloud Formation, SALT, python scripts, shell scripts).
• Drive the adoption of emerging database technologies and frameworks, keeping the organization competitive and prepared for future demands.

Performance and Optimization

• Deep knowledge of database internals from installation, to patching and upgrade, and customer parameter tuning
• Proactively monitor database systems to identify performance bottlenecks and implement tuning strategies, including indexing, query optimization, and storage management.
• Analyze workload patterns and advise on capacity planning and forecasting to ensure databases are resilient and responsive to growth.
• Oversee automation initiatives in backup, recovery, and failover procedures to reduce manual intervention and improve reliability.

Operational Management and Support

• Ensure 24/7 database uptime and availability, establishing and refining incident management protocols to minimize downtime and improve response time.
• Develop and enforce SLAs and operational KPIs, producing regular reports on database health, performance, and capacity.
• Coordinate with infrastructure and security teams to execute patching, upgrades, and compliance audits, maintaining system security and integrity.

Compliance and Security

• Lead efforts to implement and maintain data privacy and compliance requirements, including HiTrust, FedRAMP, HIPAA, GDPR, PCI and SOC, as applicable.
• Design and enforce access controls, encryption standards, and data masking policies to safeguard sensitive data.
• Conduct regular security assessments, vulnerability scans, and penetration tests, applying mitigations for identified risks.

Collaboration and Cross-Functional Leadership

• Work closely with executives, development, quality assurance, systems engineering, and data engineering teams to align database architecture with application requirements, ensuring smooth data flow and integration.
• Engage with product and business stakeholders to understand upcoming needs, ensuring database systems support evolving business requirements.
• Represent the database team in technical discussions, architecture reviews, and strategy sessions, advocating for optimal database solutions.

Skills and Knowledge

Technical Proficiency

• Expert-level knowledge in database systems, including Oracle, SQL Server, MySQL, PostgreSQL, and NoSQL databases like MongoDB, ElasticSearch, and Redis.
• Familiarity with modern database tools and platforms (e.g., AWS RDS, Azure SQL, or Google Cloud SQL, MongoDB Atlas, ElasticCloud) and hybrid or multi-cloud database environments.
• Proficiency in SQL, database design, and performance tuning, with strong skills in scripting languages (e.g., Python, Bash) for automation.

Analytical and Problem-Solving Abilities

• Skilled in troubleshooting and root-cause analysis, with the ability to resolve complex database issues quickly.
• Experience with monitoring tools (e.g., New Relic, Cloudwatch, Prometheus, Grafana) and APM solutions to track and optimize database performance.

Communication and Interpersonal Skills

• Exceptional verbal and written communication skills, able to articulate technical concepts to both technical and non-technical audiences.
• Strong collaborative skills, with a track record of working effectively with cross-functional teams, managing conflicts, and negotiating priorities.

Qualifications and Experience

• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Information Systems, or a related field (or equivalent professional experience).
• 10+ years of experience in database administration with at least 3 years in a leadership or management role.
• Working with managed services partners, offshore resources, remote and distributed teams.
• Hands-on experience with Agile methodologies (scrum, springs, kanban), DevOps practices, and ticketing systems (ServiceNow, Jira) with an understanding of CI/CD pipelines.
• Knowledge of ITIL/ITSM practices, with experience in creating and managing runbooks, playbooks, and operational documentation.
• Hands on keyboard experience with multiple database engines such as MySQL (onprem, self-hosted and RDS) , MongoDB (Atlas, EC2 hosted), ElasticSearch (ElasticCloud, EC2 hosted), PostgreSQL (onprem, self-hosted and RDS), Redis, Oracle, MSSQL
• Certifications in database platforms (e.g., Oracle Certified Professional, Microsoft SQL Server) or cloud platforms (AWS, Azure, Google Cloud) preferred.

Preferred Qualifications

• Familiarity with data engineering concepts, including ETL, data warehousing, and data lakes, supporting analytics and reporting requirements.
• Experience managing database environments in a microservices or containerized ecosystem (e.g., Kubernetes, Docker).
• Experience implementing air-gapped backups.
• Exposure to Big Data technologies (e.g., Snowflake, Redshift) and experience integrating structured and unstructured data sources.

GHX: It's the way you do business in healthcare
Global Healthcare Exchange (GHX) enables better patient care and billions in savings for the healthcare community by maximizing automation, efficiency and accuracy of business processes.

GHX is a healthcare business and data automation company, empowering healthcare organizations to enable better patient care and maximize industry savings using our world class cloud-based supply chain technology exchange platform, solutions, analytics and services. We bring together healthcare providers and manufacturers and distributors in North America and Europe - who rely on smart, secure healthcare-focused technology and comprehensive data to automate their business processes and make more informed decisions.

It is our passion and vision for a more operationally efficient healthcare supply chain, helping organizations reduce - not shift - the cost of doing business, paving the way to delivering patient care more effectively. Together we take more than a billion dollars out of the cost of delivering healthcare every year. GHX is privately owned, operates in the United States, Canada and Europe, and employs more than 1000 people worldwide. Our corporate headquarters is in Colorado, with additional offices in Europe.

Disclaimer
Global Healthcare Exchange, LLC and its North American subsidiaries (collectively, “GHX”) provides equal employment opportunities (EEO) to all employees and applicants for employment without regard to race, color, national origin, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, religion, age, genetic information, disability, veteran status or any other status protected by applicable law. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to any status protected by applicable law. This EEO policy applies to all terms, conditions, and privileges of employment, including hiring, training and development, promotion, transfer, compensation, benefits, educational assistance, termination, layoffs, social and recreational programs, and retirement.

GHX believes that employees should be provided with a working environment which enables each employee to be productive and to work to the best of his or her ability. We do not condone or tolerate an atmosphere of intimidation or harassment based on race, color, national origin, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, religion, age, genetic information, disability, veteran status or any other status protected by applicable law. GHX expects and requires the cooperation of all employees in maintaining a discrimination and harassment-free atmosphere. Improper interference with the ability of GHX’s employees to perform their expected job duties is absolutely not tolerated.