Database Operations Manager

Database Operations Manager

Job Summary

Reporting to the Director of Database Administration, the Database Operations Manager will lead and manage a team of 6 Database Operations Engineers across three shifts (24/7 operations) based in India. This role is responsible for ensuring the continuous availability, performance, and reliability of GHX's highly resilient corporate and cloud database infrastructure supporting GHX DaaS/SaaS solutions. The Database Operations Manager will oversee operational excellence, incident management, capacity planning, and team development while collaborating with Database Platform Engineering, Development, and Release Management teams to maintain operational standards and drive continuous improvement.

Roles and Responsibilities:

Team Leadership & Management

• Manage and mentor a team of 6 Database Operations Engineers distributed across three shifts (2 engineers per shift) to ensure 24/7 database operations coverage
• Conduct performance evaluations, career development planning, and skills assessments for team members
• Foster a culture of operational excellence, accountability, and continuous improvement
• Coordinate shift schedules, on-call rotations, and workload distribution to maintain service levels
• Provide technical leadership and escalation support for complex database incidents
• Recruit, onboard, and train new team members as the team scales

Operational Excellence

• Establish and maintain operational standards, runbooks, and procedures for database operations
• Monitor team performance against SLAs, KPIs, and operational metrics (availability, response time, MTTR)
• Lead incident response coordination for critical database outages and performance issues
• Drive root cause analysis (RCA) and post-incident reviews to prevent recurrence
• Implement and optimize alerting, monitoring, and observability strategies across all database platforms
• Ensure compliance with operational and security policies throughout the service delivery lifecycle
• Coordinate with Database Platform Engineering on database upgrades, patching, and best practices

Database Operations Oversight

• Oversee administration and management of GHX databases across multiple platforms:

- Backup and recovery operations

- Capacity and performance monitoring

- Security and data access management

- Installations, upgrades, and patching

- Failover and disaster recovery management

• Collaborate with development and release teams to provide operational feedback and support production deployments
• Manage hybrid and cloud database infrastructure across AWS and on-premises environments
• Drive automation initiatives to reduce manual operational tasks and improve efficiency

Cross-Functional Collaboration

• Partner with Database Platform Engineering, DevOps, and SRE teams on infrastructure planning and architecture decisions
• Coordinate with Development and Release Management teams on deployment planning and operational readiness
• Provide operational insights to senior leadership through regular reporting and metrics dashboards
• Participate in capacity planning, budget management, and resource allocation decisions
• Serve as the primary point of contact for escalations and stakeholder communication during incidents

Required Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree from an accredited college in Computer Science or related discipline, or equivalent experience
• 8-12 years of experience in Database Administration with at least 3-5 years in a leadership or management role
• Proven experience managing distributed teams across multiple shifts or time zones
• In-depth knowledge of multiple database platforms (MongoDB, MySQL, PostgreSQL, ElasticSearch, Redis, Oracle, SQL Server)
• Strong understanding of hybrid and public cloud concepts, particularly AWS
• Demonstrated ability to manage databases in high transaction/high availability environments
• Experience with horizontal scaling, high availability, and disaster recovery technologies (e.g., MongoDB Replica Sets, Oracle RAC & Dataguard, SQL Server 'Always On')
• Hands-on experience with Linux/Unix and Windows operating systems in physical and virtual environments
• Strong incident management and operational leadership experience in 24/7 production environments
• Experience with monitoring and observability tools (e.g., Datadog, New Relic, PagerDuty, Grafana, Prometheus)

Preferred Skills

• Experience with database automation, Infrastructure as Code (Terraform, Ansible), and CI/CD pipelines
• Familiarity with ITIL, SRE principles, or other operational frameworks
• Proven track record of driving operational improvements and reducing MTTR/MTTD
• Strong critical thinking, analytical, and problem-solving skills
• Excellent interpersonal and communication skills with demonstrated ability to lead and influence cross-functional teams
• Outstanding written and oral communication skills with a commitment to high-quality documentation
• Experience managing geographically distributed teams in different time zones
• Ability to balance tactical operational needs with strategic planning and team development
• Cultural awareness and experience working in global, diverse teams

Leadership Competencies

• Servant leadership mindset with a focus on team enablement and growth
• Strong decision-making skills under pressure during incidents
• Ability to manage competing priorities and drive operational efficiency
• Data-driven approach to problem-solving and continuous improvement
• Excellent stakeholder management and escalation handling skills
• Commitment to fostering psychological safety and inclusive team culture

We are looking for someone who is proficient in role requirements, but who also brings a unique perspective and diversity of thought to our team. GHX encourages candidates from underrepresented groups to apply and is dedicated to providing equal opportunities for qualified applicants.