Senior Oracle Database Administrator

Role Overview

We seek a highly skilled Senior Database Administrator with extensive practical experience managing Oracle and Microsoft SQL Server databases. The position is based in Jeddah and demands expertise in database setup, tuning, backup, recovery, high availability configurations, security, and sustained production support.

Primary Responsibilities

• Install, configure, patch, upgrade, and maintain Oracle and MS SQL Server databases in diverse environments including development and production.
• Continuously monitor database health, performance metrics, availability, storage, and capacity demands.
• Optimize database performance through tuning, query and indexing improvements, and troubleshooting.
• Develop and implement backup and recovery plans with regular validation of backups.
• Manage database incidents, problems, and service requests to ensure smooth production operations.
• Configure Oracle high-availability setups such as Data Guard and RAC; manage SQL Server clustering, Always On Availability Groups, replication, and log shipping.
• Oversee database migrations, upgrades, and version changes as required.
• Administer database security aspects including user access, roles, privileges, and authentication.
• Monitor database jobs, alerts, sessions, locks, including deadlock and resource usage issues.
• Create and maintain automation scripts and database maintenance plans.
• Support disaster recovery testing and restoration processes.
• Collaborate with cross-functional teams like application, infrastructure, cloud, and development to troubleshoot database-related challenges.
• Participate in 24/7 on-call production support cycles as necessary.
• Maintain comprehensive documentation including SOPs, operational procedures, and architecture diagrams.
• Ensure databases adhere to organizational standards concerning security, availability, and auditing.

Essential Qualifications and Skills

• Extensive hands-on experience administering Oracle databases (versions 11g through 21c), including installation, patching, configuration, and upgrades.
• Proficiency with Oracle RMAN backups, Data Guard, RAC, performance tuning via AWR, ASH, ADDM, and Oracle Enterprise Manager.
• Strong SQL and PL/SQL troubleshooting expertise.
• Knowledge of tablespaces, schemas, user management, roles, and privileges.
• Understanding of Oracle ASM and managing storage environments.
• Expertise with Microsoft SQL Server 2016 to 2022, including installation, patching, backups, recovery models, performance tuning, and maintenance plans.
• In-depth experience with SQL Server Always On Availability Groups, clustering, replication, log shipping, and job monitoring.
• Skill in diagnosing blocking, deadlocks, and locking issues in SQL Server.
• Familiarity with Linux/Unix and Windows Server systems.
• Understanding of storage systems such as SAN/NAS, server infrastructure, and networking fundamentals.
• Experience using monitoring tools like Oracle Enterprise Manager, SQL Server Management Studio, Grafana, Splunk, or equivalents.
• Knowledge of scripting languages such as Shell, PowerShell, or Python to support automation efforts is advantageous.
• Familiarity with cloud database platforms like Oracle Cloud, AWS RDS, or Azure SQL is beneficial.
• ITIL experience or production support background is preferred.
• Strong analytical thinking, problem-solving, and communication capabilities.